RSD, rejection sensitivity, or social anxiety: How to tell the difference
Social anxiety, rejection sensitivity, and RSD get blurred together. Here is what each one means, how to tell them apart, and where ADHD fits.
emotional regulation
You’re Not Imagining the Judgment. You’re Guessing at the Wrong Jury.
Approval-seeking looks harmless from outside. Inside it drives overcommitment, the reflexive yes, reluctance to ask for accommodations, and hours rehearsing conversations that ended long ago. Sorting signal from static is not a self-esteem exercise but a time-and-energy decision.
Your Nervous System is Right: Feedback Hits Harder When You Have ADHD
ADHD makes criticism feel louder and more personal. Here’s how to tell constructive feedback from an attack — and what to do about the defensive patterns that can derail the conversation.
Building Stronger Connections with Family and Friends When You Have ADHD
For a person with ADHD, the greatest threat to close relationships is rarely conflict — it is unintentional neglect. Connection fades through missed follow-ups, drifting attention, and “out of sight, out of mind” forgetting, not through lack of love. Strengthening family and friend bonds therefore means treating connection as a task your executive function must support, not a feeling you wait to act on. Build external systems for remembering, listening, and repairing, and the warmth you already feel becomes visible
Cognitive distortions and ADHD: how to reframe them
Why your brain hands you harsh, lopsided thoughts as facts — and the practical steps to question them, especially with ADHD.
The ADHD Imposter Theory: They’re Not Judging You
The ADHD Imposter Theory is the belief that you are being silently judged, disappointing people, or fooling everyone — even when no evidence supports it. The feeling is real; the conclusion is not. Your inner narrator is unreliable because ADHD wiring makes self-critical interpretations feel like facts. The thesis of this article is simple and freeing: the gap between what you fear others think and what they actually think is wider, kinder, and more forgiving than your brain will let you believe.
Why Buying What You Want Doesn’t Always Make You Happy
The brain runs anticipation and pleasure on separate systems. Dopamine fuels the wanting — the chase, the click, the countdown to delivery — but it does not produce the satisfaction of having. That comes from a smaller, quieter system that fades fast. The result is a built-in mismatch: the rush before you buy is almost always bigger than the contentment after you own. The fault is not your judgment, your willpower, or the object itself. It is the architecture of reward.
How to Stop “Hating” People Around You When You Have ADHD
People with ADHD rarely set out to dislike humanity. The slide into misanthropy is usually accidental — the cumulative residue of rejection sensitivity, exhausting social masking, forgotten plans, misread intentions, and years of feeling chronically out of step with the people around you. Over time, the nervous system learns a shortcut: people are the problem. This article unpacks why ADHD can tilt you toward contempt for others, why that tilt is worth resisting, and the specific, practical moves that interrupt it without asking you to become a different person.
When “Too Nice” Backfires: People-Pleasing and ADHD
Chronic niceness is not kindness. It is a fear-driven pattern in which you trade your time, energy, and authenticity for approval or the absence of conflict — and what you actually transmit to others is rarely warmth. For adults with ADHD, the same impulse is amplified by rejection sensitivity, time blindness, and optimism bias, turning well-meant offers into broken promises. The thesis is simple: people-pleasing communicates the opposite of what you intend.
Calibrating Time-Outs for Your Pre-Teen
Pre-teens are developmentally wired for autonomy, and a poorly executed time-out feels infantilizing—which escalates conflict rather than de-escalating it. For children with ADHD, emotional dysregulation means the “sit still and think about what you did” model often fails because the brain isn’t yet calm enough to reflect. Getting the calibration right protects your relationship, teaches genuine self-regulation, and prevents the shame spiral that often follows disproportionate consequences. The goal isn’t punishment—it’s restoring enough calm for real learning to happen.
The School Sent a Letter About Your Child’s Biting—Now What?
Receiving a letter from school about your child’s biting can feel like a verdict on your parenting. It isn’t. This article explains why kindergarteners bite, what the behavior communicates, why children with ADHD may be especially prone to it, and the specific steps you can take—starting today—to replace biting with healthier responses. You’ll also learn how to partner productively with your child’s school rather than working at cross-purposes.
How Kids Start Swearing — And How to Respond
You’ll learn at what ages kids usually begin cursing, how swearing fits into development, and how to handle it when it’s attention-seeking, playful, or driven by anger and frustration. The focus is on practical, evidence-informed strategies that work for both young children and teens—and that fit the ADDRC’s mission of supporting self-awareness, emotional regulation, and respectful communication for people with ADHD and their families.