To the people in the notes saying “Don’t call it dysphoria, that’s just being insecure”
- “Dysphoria” is just the opposite of “euphoria”. It doesn’t have to mean gender dysphoria. Lots of things can cause different kinds of dysphoria - PMDD is Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder (which is like PMS but much more severe, and causes intense depression and mood swings). Or, in this case, RSD - Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria
- When it’s mentioned at all, it’s almost always in relation to ADHD. (And it tends to be described as “this is exclusive to ADHD” but I don’t think that’s actually true.) It’s also a thing with C-PTSD and BPD. (And probably more. But a lot of this stuff co-occurs with ADHD so like … ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
- I suspect it’s actually more of a trauma thing that’s exacerbated by ADHD. (A lot of the way people respond to ADHD is inherently traumatic. Being told your whole life “Well you could do the thing if you really wanted to” when no, you actually CAN’T, etc, has the same effects as emotional abuse and gaslighting on your self-esteem. And well. Being shunned for your whole childhood for being too loud/too weird/etc tends to … yeah.)
- Just being insecure or even anxious isn’t the same as Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria. RSD - to me, at least - feels like being slapped or getting stabbed in the chest. It’s going from “Everything’s pretty much fine” to, upon a mild correction, being “I’m the worst. I should die. Nothing will ever ever get better.“ And even when I rationally know that’s not true, I’m having physiological responses that I can’t just turn off. (It’s a lot like an emotional flashback in that regard, honestly.) You’re responding to the thing as if it’s a threat.
- It doesn’t help, though, that ADHD brains are will focus exclusively on one thing to the exclusion of all else, at the least convenient time. So we hyperfocus on “that stupid thing I said” and the perceived rejection and and the pain, and it kind of becomes a feedback loop of suck.
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