Pacific Mind Health Releases Free Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria Guide for Adults With ADHD

LOS ANGELES, July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacific Mind Health, a behavioral health practice based in Southern California, today released its Managing Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria Guide, a free resource designed to help adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) recognize, understand, and manage one of the condition's least discussed and most disruptive traits.

DOWNLOAD THE MANAGING REJECTION-SENSITIVE DYSPHORIA GUIDE

Rejection-sensitive dysphoria describes an extreme emotional response to real or perceived criticism or rejection. It is most often associated with ADHD but can also appear alongside autism, social anxiety, and trauma histories.

"Patients often arrive believing they are simply too sensitive," said Veronica Calkins, LCSW, supervising clinical psychotherapist at Pacific Mind Health. "Naming rejection-sensitive dysphoria can be the first real relief they have felt in years. This guide is meant to open that door."

Emotional dysregulation is common in ADHD, affecting up to 70% of adults with ADHD, according to the American Journal of Psychiatry.

It presents as heightened or blunted emotional reactivity, limited emotional awareness, intense emotional expression, mood swings, and strong reactions to situations others experience as harmless. Despite that prevalence, emotional dysregulation is not part of the formal diagnostic criteria for ADHD, and many patients go years without a name for what they are experiencing.

Rejection-sensitivity dysphoria can a shape person's life in three ways:

• Withdrawal from relationships, school, and career opportunities
• Masking or hiding their reactions behind a front of toughness
• Physical sensations such as nausea, chest tightness, or a feeling of paralysis

Some people described the anticipation of rejection as more painful than the rejection itself.

The Managing Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria guide is a practical, easy-to-follow guide for people experiencing RSD. It is not intended to be a diagnostic tool or a substitute for evaluation by a licensed clinician.

The guide covers:

• Recognition: Identify common signs, including sudden overwhelm, fight-freeze-flight responses, physical symptoms, conflict avoidance and people-pleasing, self-sabotage, and withdrawal from social situations
• Context: Understand how rejection-sensitivity connects to ADHD and other conditions
• Practical starting points: Grounding strategies and communication approaches you can try right away
• Treatment pathways: An overview of options such as therapy, medication management, and interventional options, and how they are often combined

ADHD services at Pacific Mind Health include a comprehensive evaluation and TOVA computerized attention testing, which are frequently integrated with the practice's psychiatry, psychotherapy, and interventional services. That coordination allows care teams to address attention, emotional regulation, and co-occurring conditions together rather than in isolation.

To learn more, visit pacificmindhealth.com.

Media Contact

Kim Cross
Director of Marketing and Growth
Pacific Mind Health
Phone: 310-571-5041
Email: [email protected]
Website: pacificmindhealth.com

Pacific Mind Health is a provider of outpatient psychiatry and interventional psychiatry services in California. The practice offers personalized, evidence-based care including psychiatry, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), ketamine, and Spravato® (esketamine). Pacific Mind Health provides both in-person and online appointments, with locations in Long Beach, West Los Angeles, Irvine, and throughout California.

SOURCE Pacific Mind Health