What PR leaders need to understand about rejection sensitivity dysphoria (RSD)

When you’re a PR leader at the sharp end of reputation and risk, the stakes are high – but clarity and consideration can make your team happier and more effective.

Constant changes and high pressure are familiar companions for the whole team.

You can’t remove the external pressure but you can make the job much less stressful through conscious leadership behaviour.

Whether you know it or not, at least some of your team are probably neurodivergent, and they desperately need clarity and consideration from you.

Why? Because rejection sensitivity dysphoria (RSD) is very real.

Estimates suggest that between 2.5 million and 3 million people in the UK have ADHD  – that’s about 3-4% of the adult population. 

But most adults with ADHD are undiagnosed. According to the NHS England website, of around 13.9% of adults screened positive for ADHD, only 1.8% had a professional diagnosis. 

Up to 99% of people with ADHD (and 40-99% of autistic adults) report some form of RSD-like intense emotional response. 

RSD is a widely recognised lived experience associated with ADHD and autism. It isn’t (yet) a formal diagnosis, but it’s increasingly understood by clinicians and neurodiversity researchers.

That’s potentially an awful lot of people consistently hiding, compensating and reshaping their behaviours to meet expectations – and facing daily shame and stress due to limited awareness and understanding among leaders.

RSD is triggered by ambiguity or perceived judgement, not just actual criticism. It’s been described as ‘emotional pain that is so intense that the mind cannot process it as just emotional pain’. 

Rejection sensitivity ‘is a multidimensional experience, encompassing emotional pain, negative cognitions, and unpleasant physical sensations.’ 

It increases ‘the tendency to personalise ambiguous social interactions, interpret them negatively, and be unable to regulate an emotional reaction’.

How can PR leaders support their teams?

As PR leaders, we have a duty to support our teams. 

Leaders sometimes think that informal, chatty, communication keeps things easy-going and relaxed.

But research from Positive Psychology on inclusive workplaces shows that clear, structured, predictable and explicit communication increases psychological safety for neurodivergent employees. 

Psychological safety is strongly linked to reducing stress, minimising interpersonal misunderstandings, and boosting performance and retention – all very important attributes for a high-performing team. 

Suppose a manager drops a message late on a Friday saying: ‘Can we catch up briefly on Monday?’

That ambiguous and seemingly innocent message, with no indication of the reason for the meeting, can leave a neurodivergent employee terrified. 

It’s no exaggeration to say that they may well read it as an indication that they’ve unknowingly done something dreadful, and that they’re going to lose their job. 

A whole weekend of shame and stress can lead to spiralling anxiety, burnout, catastrophising, and even a resignation letter.

Leaders can’t control how employees feel, but they can stop that scenario happening by being clear.

Many performance ‘failures’ aren’t capability issues at all. They may well be neurological stress responses triggered by unclear communication. 

Suppose a team member asks their line manager for clear objectives relating to a specific task – and the manager interprets the request as incompetence. 

Or at a scheduled one-to-one, a manager tells an employee their performance is below expectations and their probation will be extended. They hadn’t indicated any concern before, and the employee thought they were doing well. 

Those sudden and unexpected judgements can trigger distress, anger, deflection, challenge, denial, and burnout.

That can be unsettling for managers, too.

Unsignposted feedback destroys trust, as well as damaging morale.

No-one likes rejection, but those with RSD experience an overwhelming physical and hormonal stress response which is hard to deal with. 

Research suggests that rejection sensitivity ‘could be prevented or alleviated’ if team members received ‘more understanding and empathy from others’ which could ‘mediate the severity of rejection sensitivity’.

How to minimise RSD responses

Here are four practical PR leadership processes you can adopt to minimise RSD responses, and make sure everyone can perform at their best:

• Avoid open-ended phrases or ambiguous, unclear messaging. Clarify the context and purpose.
• Offer explicit goals, deadlines and expectations to boost clarity, reduce emotional overload, and provide a safe platform for anxious minds.
• Give advance notice of feedback or critique, frame it as Situation – Behaviour – Impact, and deliver even negative feedback as positively as possible. Neurodivergent minds are already their own worst critic, and ambiguous feedback can be interpreted as personal rejection, triggering RSD-type emotional responses.
• Verbal, in-the-moment communication can feel overwhelming, so offer written feedback if preferred. Neurodivergent minds may prefer to take in and process information slowly, with the offer of immediate support if wanted.

The experience of RSD has nothing to do with being fragile.

It doesn’t mean someone can’t take constructive feedback. 

Instead, it’s all about how neurodivergent brains process uncertainty, authority, and social evaluation – and there’s a lot that you as a PR leader can do to support your team.

Chartered PR practitioner Leonie Roberts was formerly press officer to the Welsh government’s Ministers for Brexit and Social Justice. She launched her consultancy Northlight Communications to build trust and reputation for purpose-led organisations from the inside out. She has not sought diagnosis but is one of the 13.9% of adults screened positive for AuDHD.

Further reading

Neurodivergence: nurturing the strengths of PR's hidden advantage

Is your unconscious bias rejecting neurodivergent job applicants?

PR with an ADHD brain: Why variety helps me thrive

Four excellent books about ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and dyspraxia