ADHD, Reciprocity, Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, & Differences in Intensity

           I think one of the things that makes "Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria" so challenging is that we largely assume that people are experiencing emotions in relatively the same intensity we are.
                 When that is not the case, that also has implications for our hard wired notions of fairness and reciprocity.
                When we think of "Draconian Laws" such as "An Eye for an Eye, and a Tooth for a Tooth"  -- we think -- "How primitive."  But at the time it was a big step up and it was really trying to reflect true reciprocity in punishment, rather than over-the-top punishment.
           Well, if one experiences "Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria" or any number of intense feelings

• [and the gifted claim intensity of feeling is one of the hallmarks of giftedness],
  
• then what is this going to mean for "reciprocity" and "punishment"
  
• [-- and let me assure you there are a lot of "gifted people" on the judicial bench and in the legal profession]?

            But what about those people with ADHD and "Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria" -- experiencing "rejection" like a physical wound.  

What's reciprocity for them?  You can see how this could become dangerous?  
AND also why telling someone to be more sensitive -- is NOT necessarily going to make a lot of sense to someone who perceives he or she is not being treated "fairly" or in a "reciprocal" manner.

                      This necessarily involves educating the person and the community that we do have different emotional intensities.

                                          

                   
           
            
                  

    The people I know with ADHD are some of the kindest, most compassionate people I have ever met in my life -- and they are very sensitive even if they have tattoos up and down their arms.

                      I provided some information to someone I came across, a big burly guy, about "Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria," and it brought him to tears.
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                    For those of us who have lived it -- it is quite real -- and I think it is one more piece in the puzzle as to why some people with ADHD wind up in the Criminal Justice System.  ​