Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria in Online Autism and ADHD communities: A Netnography-Informed Critical Discourse Analysis
van Asselt, A. (2026). Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria in Online Autism and ADHD communities: A Netnography-Informed Critical Discourse Analysis [Registration]. OSF Registries. https://doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/ftwqs
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Abstract
The term Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD) has been circulating intensively within online autism and ADHD communities in recent years. It was introduced by an American psychiatrist as an innate, extreme emotional and physical sensitivity to rejection, criticism and bullying. Although neurodiversity communities tend to be critical of essentialising and medicalising definitions of problems, RSD has been embraced remarkably widely. To understand this discursive dynamic, I conduct a critical discourse analysis (Blommaert) of the online RSD discourse, informed by symbolic netnography (Kozinets). Based on long-term, iterative immersion on three platforms (blogs, Instagram and TikTok), I analyse how users who identify with autism and/or ADHD discursively re-problematise, re-contextualise and naturalise RSD into a coherent framework of meaning, knowledge, identity and action.
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