Rejection sensitivity is one of the primary challenges neurodiverse and highly sensitive creatives face in reaching for their dreams. It can cause us to isolate, not seek out opportunities to share or showcase our work, or even keep us from doing creative work in the first place. If we do put ourselves out there, we risk severe mental health consequences when we experience real or perceived rejection, even of the mild kind (and rejection is inevitable on any creative journey!) How can we pursue our creative dreams in this context?
In this episode I discuss the ins and outs of rejection sensitivity and its more extreme form, rejection sensitive dysphoria. You'll hear what it is, why neurodiverse folks are prone to it, what it looks like in real life (using some examples from my own), and some tools I've developed over the last five years of my own creative journey that have helped me go from not wanting to share my fiction at all to live pitching my now completed novel at a conference next week (wish me luck!)
Several resources I used for this episode:
Emotional Regulation and Rejection Sensitivity (Dr. William Dodson, October 2016)
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria and Its Painful Impact (Dr. Neff, blog)
Past episodes I mention:
E41. The One About Writing: My Writing Journey and Path Toward Publication
E65. In Which I Read One of My Short Stories
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