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Rejection is one of the most difficult emotions to handle. Rejection can be catastrophic for an ADHDer’s emotional health. Feeling dismissed or slighted affects self-esteem, and makes us feel alone and unwanted. I believe rejection and abandonment go hand in hand and, is a toxic formula for emotional chaos, unless it is dealt with compassionately and mindfully. As ADHDers, we allow the power of our emotions to control us and, the power of rejection can turn into an addiction. How? It turns into an addiction because we become fixated on the emotional effect of feeling unwanted, unworthy, and abandoned and become addicted to it. In essence, we hyperfocus on the negative feelings that rejection projects on us and blurs out any possibility of controlling our emotions. If we allow rejection to manifest into obsession, we cannot prevent self-sabotage.
When we become aware of the thoughts and emotions behind the rejection, we can manifest the power to accept rejection and use it to strengthen our sense of self. Feelings are not facts. We can turn that pain into power if we notice the pain, understand why we feel the pain, embrace it, then let it go, we can shift our perspective to feel more self-possessed by paying close attention to our inner critic.