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Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) What it is, which brain networks are involved, where it appears in neurodivergence — and how to work with it constructively Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) describes an intense, rapid, and often overwhelming emotional reaction to real or perceived rejection, criticism, failure or disappointment —common in neurodivergent brains. What looks like a small social moment can trigger a disproportionate emotional spike, often before conscious t

A deep dive into how it feels, how people cope, and where friction shows up most AuDHD is not subtle from the inside. It is subtle from the outside. What others often see is competence, intelligence, humor, insight. What runs underneath is constant negotiation. Between speed and depth. Between wanting more and needing less. Between engagement and withdrawal. The work of living with AuDHD is not doing life— it is constantly translating life into something survivable. This is a

Five major brain networks share the same space. They have different goals, different temperaments, different thresholds. When things go well, they cooperate. When they don’t, they compete. They interrupt. They overrule. They withdraw. Neurodivergence does not introduce chaos. It changes the balance of power.

You Can Hear Everything — and Still Not Follow A subtitle can carry the explanation. “I Thought I Was Losing My Hearing” When Hearing Tests Are Normal — and the Answer Might Blow Your Mind.... It’s a surprisingly common story. Someone starts struggling in conversations. They ask people to repeat themselves. Group discussions feel exhausting. Restaurants, meetings, or phone calls become overwhelming. Eventually, a thought forms: “Maybe my hearing is getting worse.” So they boo

Have You Ever Forgotten Someone’s Name… While Remembering Everything Else? Picture this: You’re at a party. Person #1: “Hi, I’m Daniel.” You smile. You’re present. You are listening. You’re tracking the vibe, facial expressions, tone, energy. Person #2: “Nice to meet you, I’m—” And your brain goes: [Windows shutdown sound] The name vanishes instantly. Meanwhile you can remember: exactly how the conversation felt, what mattered to them, the subtle tension in the room, who domi

Unmasking isn’t courage. It’s strategy. A regulation-first guide to reducing masking without increasing harm— across family, work, and public life. 🎧 Listen to the audio chapter 📘 Download the extended eBook chapter 📄 Get the practical Safe Unmasking Cheat Sheet

Dopamine Drought: How Midlife Hormonal Shifts Hijack Neurodivergent Brains Estrogen quietly ghosts dopamine and exits stage left. Progesterone stirs the pot. Testosterone quietly fades. Dopamine drops the script. Suddenly, the neurodivergent brain is no longer running a tight operation — it’s directing a circus. Credit to Egor Komarov via Unsplash Welcome to the neurodivergent hormonal meltdown : a phase where executive function falters, sensory thresholds drop, and masking b

As organizations scale, pressure rises. Complexity increases. Pace accelerates. And with it, cognitive friction  becomes harder to ignore. Neurodiversity tends to surface this friction first. Not as a problem to be fixed, but as a signal —a clear indication that existing leadership systems are no longer sufficient for the realities of modern work. Neuroinclusive leadership is no longer optional. It has become a core capability  for performance, retention, and innovation. Cred

Neurodivergence has more than one origin story. It is often described as something people are born with. That is only part of the picture. At its most accurate level, neurodivergent simply describes a brain that operates outside the statistical and cultural norms of “neurotypical” functioning — in attention, perception, regulation, cognition, emotion, or motor control. Different wiring. Different rhythms. Different thresholds.

A blueprint for regulated, neurodivergent-inclusive leadership that upgrades listening, accuracy, pacing, and psychological safety at executive level.

Why Interrupting a Habit Works And Why It Feels Almost Impossible If discipline truly built habits, half of humanity would be enlightened monks by now.And every planner aisle in Target would be empty, we’d all be hydrated, well-rested, and mysteriously good at inbox zero. Changing a habit feels hard for the same reason your phone refuses to update when you finally  have time: the system prefers what it already knows — even if it glitches. Because beneath all the motivational

The real reason neurodivergent people struggle with weight? It’s deeper than food — it starts with the nervous system. Weight differences in neurodivergent people are often misunderstood.Research shows that neurodivergent individuals—including those with ADHD, autism, AuDHD, dyspraxia, dyslexia, sensory processing differences, and high sensitivity—experience higher rates of both obesity and restrictive eating disorders . This is not a matter of discipline, diet, or personal r

You just crushed a 14-hour workday , skipped two meals , ignored your body’s “Please rest” alerts —because you were “in flow.”Now you're on the couch, too wired to sleep , too fried to think . So you scroll. Snack. Drink. Scroll again. Numb out. Sound familiar?

The Missing Link Between GLP-1, Addiction, Insulin & Nervous System Regulation OR Why Ozempic Turns Down the Noise. Over the past weeks, I’ve been breaking down the hidden architecture of regulation — the mechanisms underneath mood, impulse control, cravings, stress tolerance, and emotional steadiness. In the first article, I introduced the nervous system like an engine: the sympathetic system  as the gas, the parasympathetic  as the brake, the vagus nerve  as the clutch, and

What happens inside your body before cortisol rises, dopamine misfires, or the vagus loses tone. In a previous article, I described the body as a regulation system: the autonomic nervous system supplies the gas and the brake, the vagus acts as the clutch, and the neurotransmitters form the internal dashboard for focus, mood, and reactivity. Yet one element often slips out of view — the fuel flow. Glucose may be the gasoline, but insulin is the system that controls how smoothl

Your nervous system is doing its very best, but modern life isn’t exactly helping. Our bodies were built for sabertooth tigers, not Slack notifications. Modern stress arrives in tiny hits — a message here, a deadline there, a fight with your inbox — until your system flips into constant high-alert mode. That’s when the fun starts: shallow breathing, gut tension, irritation for no reason, foggy mornings, sugar cravings, and the classic “why am I awake at 3 AM again?” moment.

When conflict arises, most people try—at least in some way—to understand what happened, repair the moment, or navigate the discomfort. DARVO is the opposite of that. It’s a manipulation pattern  that flips the relational dynamic: the person whose behavior is being addressed blocks accountability, escalates the interaction, and reframes the situation so you  appear to be the problem. The result is confusion, self-doubt, emotional whiplash, and a sense that the entire conversat

Many neurodivergent people know the experience of wanting to start a task, knowing it matters, and still feeling a wall between intention and action. Body Doubling is a gentle way to make that wall smaller. It means working in parallel with one or more people — online or in person — so that focus becomes easier and tasks feel more possible.

The Misaligned Triad of Human Behavior Much of human friction originates in a misaligned triad of regulation: timing, attention, and resonance. These three systems form the neurobiological foundation of coherence — the rhythm through which thought, emotion, and behavior remain synchronized. When one domain accelerates while another lags, communication falters and meaning fragments. A leader may think clearly yet fail to sense the emotional undercurrent; a team may feel deepl

What Does “Neurodivergent” Mean? Neurodivergence reflects the natural variety in how brains sense, process, and organize information. These differences span attention, perception, memory, sensory integration, and emotional regulation — core functions that shape how people think, connect, and lead (Den Houting, 2019). Rather than a deviation from the norm, they form part of the wider human cognitive spectrum. When organizations design with this diversity in mind, performance t