2. Are you really just too sensitive? (Part two)

*This episode is in two parts. This is part two.* **Content note: This episode discusses depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia, low self-esteem and restrictive eating behaviours.** For World Mental Health Day 2026, I’m talking about something I only discovered after being diagnosed with ADHD — and something that made an awful lot of my life suddenly make sense: rejection sensitivity dysphoria, or RSD. RSD isn’t currently a formal diagnosis, and the science around the term is still developing. But the experience it describes — intense emotional responses to perceived rejection, criticism or failure — is something many people with ADHD recognise. I certainly do. In this episode, I explore what rejection sensitivity feels like from the inside: the overthinking, reassurance-seeking and tendency to turn one piece of criticism into a referendum on your entire worth as a human being. I also look at its relationship with perfectionism, and ask whether some of my own perfectionism has really been an attempt to become somehow… less rejectable. This one gets personal. I talk honestly about my experiences of mental health challenges — while being careful not to draw causal links the evidence can’t support. Because when I first learned about RSD, I could have cried with relief. Not because finding a label fixed anything, but because things I had spent years interpreting as character flaws suddenly became things I could begin to understand. And that feels particularly relevant to this year’s World Mental Health Day theme: “Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change.” Maybe the question isn’t whether somebody is too sensitive. Maybe we need to start asking what that sensitivity is trying to protect them from. Clips & sources World Health Organization — World Mental Health Day 2026: “Lived experiences heard: real voices, real change”⁠ https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-mental-health-day/2026⁠ Rowney-Smith, A. et al. (2026) — “The lived experience of rejection sensitivity in ADHD: A qualitative exploration”⁠ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41564005/⁠ Beheshti, A. et al. (2020) — “Emotion dysregulation in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a meta-analysis”⁠ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12888-020-2442-7⁠ Mackinnon, S.P. et al. (2014) — research on perfectionism, validation-seeking and rejection sensitivity ⁠https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/psyc.2014.77.1.67⁠ Kaisari, P. et al. (2017) — “ADHD and disordered eating behaviour: A systematic review”⁠ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28334570/⁠ ADHD Chatter — “How To Overcome Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD)”⁠ Listen on Spotify⁠ | ⁠Listen on Apple Podcasts⁠ | ⁠Listen/watch on Youtube⁠ ADHD UK — Deep Dive into Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria https://adhduk.co.uk/deep-dives/https-adhduk-co-uk-deep-dives-episode-4-deep-dive-into-rejection-sensitivity-dysphoria-with-henry-shelford-and-dr-shyamal-mashru/⁠ Alex Partridge — Why Does Everybody Hate Me? Living and Loving with RSD⁠ https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/alex-partridge/why-does-everybody-hate-me/9781399827843/⁠ 🎵 Hear Me Out — the original theme for Bow Tie Talks — and its accompanying variations were created and produced by Kayleigh Roberts.