ADHD rejection sensitivity - never want to stay in a job. Anyone else?

[Rejectionsensitivityd]

I hop from job to job a lot. I quite like my current job, but I constantly want to quit and dream about quitting. I think about leaving all the time. Not to do nothing (I’d go out of my mind!) but to another job - I can’t ever seem to stay anywhere long.

My psychiatrist thinks my rejection sensitivity dysphoria is turned up extremely high (yep!) and I am starting to wonder if that’s why.

Does anyone else have this problem?

For me, working was best when I was entirely self employed. I used to say it’s because I could avoid the politics of working in a company, but now I think it’s so I can avoid the letting anyone down even in small ways.

I can’t attend a meeting on a day I don’t work that I previously didn’t know about, and I can’t think about anything else, I’m so worried about it. I think my boss must secretly hate me and think I’m unreliable because of it.

I come across very “normal” though.

Anyone else been through this? What did you do?

Hi 👋
I feel your pain.
I have job hopped lots in my life, but since becoming a teacher, I’ve stayed around longer because the pain of learning new systems (school systems are always very complicated and take at least 2 years for me to fully get to grips with!) has been more terrifying than my (mainly) imagined rejections.

It is hard though, because with our neurotype, I often feel I’m making choices based on which will cause the least mental torment, which isn’t an optimal thriving way to live.

I have noticed that the longer I stick at a job, the more I come to recognise that the perceived rejections were nearly always unfounded and it’s up to others to raise issues with us if they have them otherwise there’s literally no way for us to tweak what we’re doing.

I find that the longer I stick at a job, the more secure I become that actually everyone’s a little bit different in their own ways, some have even started journeying towards diagnostic pathways themselves for ASD and ADHD and I have become a valuable resource for them or at least a safe space for them to talk things through with. A sort of role model of someone a bit further along the path of self acceptance and, hopefully mastery.

The urge to change jobs is always there but I’m just a bit too old and a bit too tired to be the newbie unless I’m utterly miserable somewhere, which I’m not.

Sadly, redundancies are flying around at work this year and I’m already spiralling assuming it’ll be me whose face doesn’t fit. I’m working hard to counter this painful internal monologue though.

I think a lot of it is about really recognising your innate value to a working team.

I also love not being self employed because someone else is dealing with the money/ tax/pension admin, which I am appalling at!

I think along with RSD also comes boredom. That's led me to change jobs. So choosing something suitably challenging. The job I do has one main skill but can also be varied.

Yes I've had lots of long term jobs but recently only lasted 18 months and this job 5 months and I already had a trial and got offered another job before my boss persuaded me to stay.
I agree it's boredom and not wanting to be rejected.