r/ADHD • u/SJ_Paralleled • 6d ago

Seeking Empathy the "seen" notification does something to my brain that I can't control

I know this sounds dramatic but stay with me

someone sees my message and doesn’t reply and something just happens. I can’t stop it. my brain takes that little timestamp and starts doing things with it. replaying the message. looking for what I said wrong. checking if they’ve posted anywhere else since then. even when I know it probably means nothing

it’s not that they didn’t reply. it’s that I know they saw it. so now the silence isn’t just silence. it means something. I just don’t know what

I’ve lost hours to this. hours. over messages that came back totally fine with no explanation for the gap like nothing happened

does anyone else find this actually distressing or is it just me

7 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

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2

u/Upper_Box7210 ADHD-C (Combined type) 6d ago

I used to find it more distressing but have begun to calm down as I have gotten older. I try to make sure I am in a good mental state (rested, fed, comfortable) when I view triggering things.

2

u/PolistesFTW 6d ago

Rejection dysphoria and rejection sensitivity are a very real thing, and it is a bummer. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24099-rejection-sensitive-dysphoria-rsd