High Rejection Sensitivity makes my attention in general more flinchy. Rather than just explicit rejection, you can think of this as a high sensitivity to negative feelings in general
Good point. Do you or does anyone else have any insight into why these tendencies might be more prevalent with ADHD?
Some ideas:
? More getting into trouble and more failure and underperforming leads to more negative experiences involving condemnation and judgement.
? Reduced inability to self-sooth and in general to manage emotions leads to equivalent incidents being felt more keenly.
“Those who are permanently ill, long term, — if they don’t want to succumb to neuroticism — are forced to discover and embrace their lives outside the mainstream narratives.” -JKPaw
That’s wrong. Rejection sensitivity can occur in ADHD individuals before they’re diagnosed. I have an alternative hypothesis that can explain this.
ADHD is characterised both by lifelong deficit and delayed development of executive function.
The delay is most pronounced during adolescence, when one’s peers are themselves developing their executive function. Executive function is essential for social function.
A socially dysfunctional experience (especially in adolescence) is one in which shame is strong and frequent. The purpose of shame is to force us to learn to avoid it.
What’s easier? Minimise risk of social rejection, or learn how to behave in order to be accepted? (Keeping in mind you have to do this with a brain that’s handicapped in these areas relative to your peers)
If a brain learns to be more sensetive to it, it makes one run faster and further from shame, thus minimising risk of social rejection.
Good point. Do you or does anyone else have any insight into why these tendencies might be more prevalent with ADHD?
Some ideas:
? More getting into trouble and more failure and underperforming leads to more negative experiences involving condemnation and judgement.
? Reduced inability to self-sooth and in general to manage emotions leads to equivalent incidents being felt more keenly.
Both of those seem true. There’s also the thing where the time dysregulation means now often feels like forever.
Have you seen this SSC posts which posits that rejection sensitivity is a result of being diagnosed with anything, and not a symptom of ADHD?
https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/08/14/ssc-survey-results-adhd-and-rejection-sensitivity/
ah, missed that one. Thanks!
A nice one from the comments:
“Those who are permanently ill, long term, — if they don’t want to succumb to neuroticism — are forced to discover and embrace their lives outside the mainstream narratives.” -JKPaw
That’s wrong. Rejection sensitivity can occur in ADHD individuals before they’re diagnosed. I have an alternative hypothesis that can explain this.
ADHD is characterised both by lifelong deficit and delayed development of executive function.
The delay is most pronounced during adolescence, when one’s peers are themselves developing their executive function. Executive function is essential for social function.
A socially dysfunctional experience (especially in adolescence) is one in which shame is strong and frequent. The purpose of shame is to force us to learn to avoid it.
What’s easier? Minimise risk of social rejection, or learn how to behave in order to be accepted? (Keeping in mind you have to do this with a brain that’s handicapped in these areas relative to your peers)
If a brain learns to be more sensetive to it, it makes one run faster and further from shame, thus minimising risk of social rejection.