Barbara Sandland
The term rejection sensitive dysphoria has gained popularity recently, providing a language to discuss a phenomenon and find solace in shared experiences. Despite this, there is a lack of consensus in definition and application across medical, academic, and informal environments. This study addresses this research gap, centralising lived experiences of a small group of neurodivergent adults, alongside the shared neurodivergent standpoint of the researcher. Exploring what rejection sensitive dysphoria means to the individual and how it is experienced. By employing this novel approach, this research proposes a new conceptualisation of Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria as a phenomenon impacted by biological and environmental factors. This critical insight challenges the current essentialist positionality and associated terminology, which could positively impact policy and practice. While this research is limited in scale and therefore not statistically generalisable, the significant findings offer an important foundation for future research. Highlighting that such research, should prioritise the neurodivergent experience, within a balanced biological and environmental framework. Recognising that people, and environments, like schools, cause, trigger and sustain the experiences labelled as rejection sensitive dysphoria is a vital first step towards better support for adults now and creating more inclusive environments to improve the lives of future generations. Lay Abstract Over recent years the term Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria has grown in popularity, especially among the neurodivergent community. Despite this, we know very little about what Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria means to the people that are using it. We also know that the term is used differently by different people, which can cause confusion and limit our understanding further. Within this research, a neurodivergent researcher worked alongside seven other neurodivergent adults to discuss what Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria meant to them and how they experienced it in their day-to-day lives. Through the sharing of these experiences the researcher was able to identify that environmental factors, such as other people, were central to how Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria developed and was experienced. This is an important finding, as it challenges current literature that may discuss it as an unavoidable part of being neurodivergent or with language that can suggest neurodivergent emotional responses are in some way faulty, therefore unfairly placing the blame for these experiences solely on the neurodivergent individual. This research includes the experiences of a small group of neurodivergent adults, so it is recognised that more research is needed. It is important however, that such research embraces the balanced biological and environmental viewpoint proposed based on the findings shared here. As recognising that other people, and environments, like schools, cause, trigger and sustain the experiences we label as Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria is a vital first step towards better support for adults now, and towards creating more inclusive environments that will improve the lives of future generations.