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October 14, 2026
One critical comment. You can get a hundred lovely ones, and that’s the one you’re still thinking about hours later. Then you’re frustrated with yourself because why do you care so much?
Dr. Catherine Mutti-Driscoll knows this feeling. She’s the Director of Executive Function Coaching at the Hallowell ADHD & Behavioral Health Center in Seattle and the author of The Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria Workbook. I had the honor of writing the foreword, and I’m so happy to have her back.
We talk about why rejection can hit so hard, how the fear of it can influence choices we don’t even realize we’re making, and the part I especially love: the strengths Catherine sees in this sensitivity. Because when you’ve spent years wondering why you take everything so personally, there is a lot more about yourself you deserve to understand.
If one critical comment can take over your week, this conversation will help you understand why it stays with you long after everyone else has moved on.
“Rejection sensitive dysphoria is an intense sensitivity to real or perceived rejection.”
- Dr. Catherine Mutti-Driscoll
“Sometimes we become so tuned in to rejection that we start seeing it everywhere, in someone’s tone, facial expression, teasing, criticism, or even our own sense of failure."
- Dr. Catherine Mutti-Driscoll
“When RSD hits, it can feel like zero to sixty. Humiliation, embarrassment, and shame can show up instantly.”
- Dr. Catherine Mutti-Driscoll
"When you combine repeated negative feedback with emotional dysregulation, you create a strong foundation for huge reactions to anything that feels like rejection."
- Dr. Catherine Mutti-Driscoll
"Sometimes I let myself have the pity party. I know my brain is going to ruminate for a while, so I give it some space and let it eventually burn itself out"
- Dr. Catherine Mutti-Driscoll
"Recognition responsive euphoria is the positive side of that sensitivity. Being genuinely appreciated can give us an enormous boost"
- Dr. Catherine Mutti-Driscoll
- Catherine shares how her autism diagnosis followed her ADHD diagnosis and gave her a new lens on lifelong social and emotional patterns.
- She explains how ADHD pulls her toward novelty while autism pulls her toward structure, predictability, and deeper special interests.
- Tracy and Catherine discuss masking, gender differences, and why neurodivergent women are so often missed.
[16:23 – 40:33] Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria and Learning to Cope
- Catherine defines RSD as an intense response to real or perceived rejection, criticism, teasing, failure, or disapproval.
- She explains how repeated negative feedback and emotional dysregulation can create powerful shame, anger, rumination, avoidance, and perfectionism.
- Understanding RSD helps people recognize the pattern, build coping skills, and stop treating every painful reaction as proof that something is wrong with them.
[40:33 – 01:03:58] RSD Strengths, Internal Parts, and Finding Your People
- Catherine connects RSD with strengths including empathy, justice sensitivity, determination, work ethic, and commitment to quality.
- She uses Internal Family Systems to explain how overworking, people pleasing, shopping, substance use, and other behaviors can become protective responses to rejection.
- Catherine encourages listeners to seek people and environments that genuinely appreciate them and to stop hiding the interests that help them feel alive.
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- Website: catherinemuttidriscoll.com
- Instagram: @catherinemuttidriscoll
- LinkedIn: catherine-mutti-driscoll-ph-d
- Facebook: @catherinemuttidriscoll
