Rejection Sensitivity in Gifted and Twice-Exceptional Children

By Maya Sissoko, M.Ed.

Rejection sensitivity is a heightened tendency to perceive, anticipate, and react intensely to rejection or criticism, including situations that are neutral or ambiguous. It exists on a spectrum. Most people experience some version of it. For gifted and twice-exceptional children, that baseline sensitivity is typically amplified by the same wiring that makes them intellectually intense: a nervous system built to detect and process signals quickly and deeply.

Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, or RSD, is a more specific and more severe term. Psychiatrist William Dodson coined it to describe the extreme, almost physically painful emotional reaction some people, particularly those with ADHD, have to perceived rejection or a sense of falling short of their own or others’ standards. Dodson found that the large majority of adolescents and adults with ADHD he surveyed recognized this experience in themselves, and a third named it the most impairing symptom they had.