Cut people off and die a little inside each time it happens.

Yes, I do, so badly in fact that I was nearly mute as a child out of fear of offending someone or being judged negatively. Ironically, my quietness serves me well so that I don’t blurt things out, and the less I say and do, the less enemies I have, which means I am generally liked by people. As an adult it’s better than it was but my body compulsively reacts if I get any negative response to anything and I can’t help it. Like my stomach just drops if I get like, a negative comment or if someone seems annoyed. I just have to remember that my body does these things, and it doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. If I acknowledge it and move on instead of ruminating, it usually fades away quick enough.

It gets easier to manage, but the RSD makes rejection feel like a knife through the heart every time for me. Failing makes me feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomach. This shit is incredibly nasty and it’s prevented me from forming relationships to the point that I don’t think I really know how to anymore.

I’ve been working on myself for years now, learning to manage my feelings and my expectations of other people. For a long time my way of “managing” it was just expecting rejection to happen eventually. That could also be my fear of abandonment, though (which I got from being abandoned so often). I still expect punishment and cruelty every time I’m addressed and I don’t expect to be. I don’t really try to talk to people very much. I’m still struggling and recently the loneliness has become more powerful than the fear of rejection, and pushed me to get out there and try to meet people despite the crippling emotional pain it causes me. I’m getting better at dealing with it, moving on, and allowing myself to try again.

Just wish I know how to discern whether or not I could trust people. It feels like rolling dice every time.

I simply choose to be perfect so I never get rejected

Medication, DBT therapy, and being exposed to rejection over and over again. Sucks but true. Rejection gets easier to manage the more you are exposed to it.

Being aware of it means you get to recognize your triggers and learn to separate yourself from them. It’s gonna hurt every time. That’s a sign that you’re not numbing yourself, which is good. But processing the feeling gets easier and therefore quicker over time. You’ll find little mantras that will help. Mine currently is, “I cannot control how people react to me” because my people pleasing got really toxic for a while. It lets me be my authentic self without filtering it through other people so much. I’m sure you’ll find similar things that will help.

I treat being rejected like a physical illness (because that’s what it feels like) and I can usually predict how long it will last. When my best friend dumped me, I was like “Ok. We’re going to be experiencing flu-like symptoms for the next month, and then it will be ok.” Knowing that the feeling will end helps me a lot.

Interestingly, it’s only people close to me and career-related stuff that does this. Romantic rejection doesn’t do it.

I also have the constant urge to edit my comments, although I’ve gotten better about it.

I have untreated adhd, but just started treating my anxiety/depression a few months ago. The rejection anxiety is slowly but surely getting better. Just got rejected after going on two dates with someone, the first two dates I’ve been on in years, and I feel fine! Yay rejection!

Autsitic. It manifests as physical pain and nausea. It’s overwhelming, so I just end up coping by trying to disassociate. Fear of it just happening out of nowhere, unexpectedly, because of some norm I violated makes it a lot worse. Wasn’t aware medication could manage it.

Yes; getting numb

I do. Adderall helps me become not pessimistic and doomer for 8 hours. But after that I’m under my covers in darkness wishing I was a normal person.

I usually cope through one or the other, or both:

1. I just keep working while on meds. Keep completing tasks. And I mean paid work with a direct deposit, not just any task on my schedule that needs to be done. I’m decent at and enjoy what I do, so I try to keep it up.
2. Look at my past self as a separate entity and try to comfort him. He’s been through enough and needs a friend or guardian to help him through it and advise him on better approaches for the future. I can either be that friend, or I can be one of the many assholes in his life who’s berated and abused him.

Yeah rejection sensitivity gets me and it fucking sucks. I never consciously came up with a strategy against it, but I think I kinda developed one organically: 1) know it for what it is and give it space, like /u/odmroz said, 2) think about the rejection logically to see how real it even is, and how bad, and if I deserved it, and 3) remind myself that people’s perception of you changes over time to match how you currently come across, so it’s not the end of the world if you come across poorly on some occasion.

Bromantane. The best medication, an anxiolytic stimulant that does not have acute effects. Literal Soviet super soldier serum, available online as a nasal spray.

I’m untreated at the moment, it hits me hard but I’ve somehow managed to get really good at compartmentalizing it and separating the physical feeling from the mental spiral. I still feel it just as much as I always have and I’m not able to change that, but I can give my brain a little kick to make it stop the whole “this person hates you now and you were stupid for doing this” thought train, look at the situation objectively, and realize just how far from reality those thoughts are.

I do this for anxiety too, I can’t make myself less anxious but I can look at a situation that makes me anxious, realize that there’s no actual reason for it, and then go and do the thing. My heart still pounds and my hands still shake but I can have a good time anyway.

I wouldn’t call this just ignoring it, but I know I’m gonna feel like ass anyway and if I avoided every situation that makes me feel like ass I wouldn’t do anything at all. It sucks HARD though, I may be able to power through it but it’s fucking exhausting being in fight or flight for 99% of my day all while feeling like a ghost pokemon used curse on me every time someone uses a slightly harsh tone. I can logic it out to get things done but it doesn’t lessen the feeling at all.