The RSD Files

You are not too sensitive. You are not too emotional. You are not a lot.

You are, in all likelihood, undiagnosed.

Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria - RSD - is a feature of the ADHD nervous system that produces intense, often overwhelming emotional responses to perceived rejection, criticism, or failure to meet the expectations of people who matter to you. It is not in the DSM-5. It is not widely taught in clinical training. And it has been quietly running your nervous system since childhood, wearing your confidence thin and costing you more than you know.

Dr Melanie du Preez is a clinical psychologist with 26 years of practice, an ADHD specialist, and one of fewer than five Maudsley-certified BWRT practitioners in South Africa. She was also diagnosed with ADHD at fifty, mid-career, after her children's diagnoses prompted her to look more carefully at her own neurology. She knows this from both sides of the consulting room.

This book is not a cure. RSD does not disappear with understanding - and she will not tell you it does. What it offers is something more useful: a name, a neurological map, a set of practical tools, and the specific relief of finally feeling seen.

Written in the dry, honest voice of someone who has lived this - and spent two decades watching others live it without a name for it - The RSD Files is the book that should have existed years ago.

For women who have spent their lives being told they are too much. For the late-diagnosed, the still-undiagnosed, and everyone who has ever lost a Tuesday to a two-sentence email.

You are not a drama queen. You are neurologically specific. That is a different thing entirely.