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Why Does Everybody Hate Me?

Living and Loving with Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria

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Why Does Everybody Hate Me?

By: Alex Partridge
Narrated by: Alex Partridge
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About this listen

 Your boss asked you for a chat, and you just knew you were going to be fired
You didn't sleep all weekend, and you weren't fired

Someone answered your message with a thumbs-up emoji and you just knew they hated you.
So you stopped talking to them, they eventually stopped texting, and now you miss them like crazy

Someone went for a bathroom break mid-film, and you just knew it's because they think your taste in films is terrible
You were so upset you missed the rest of the film, and they left early

Rejection is physically painful for you. Even the most minor criticism stings. And why wouldn't it? By the time you were 12, you'd received 20,000 negative messages about yourself, your brain and your unique ADHD way of living life.

20,000.

Alex Partridge knows how it feels to live with Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), the state of emotional dysregulation experienced by almost everyone with ADHD. Throughout his journey from successful entrepreneur to neurodiversity campaigner and host of the hugely successful ADHD Chatter, Alex has been haunted by the fear of rejection, labelled 'over-sensitive', and fought constantly against the desire to people-please and protect himself from emotional harm.

In Why Does Everybody Hate Me? Alex draws on his own experience of RSD, and shares how it's coloured every aspect of his life, from his days as founder of the global social media content brands UniLad and LadBible, to his adult relationships, his mental health struggles and his terrible imposter syndrome. He'll use the insights he's gained from the world's top experts on ADHD to share with you some simple steps to regaining your boundaries, your confidence and your self-belief.

You are not 'too sensitive' - nor are you broken. You were always enough.©2026 Alex Partridge Attention Deficit Disorders Children's Health Mental Health People with Disabilities Personal Development Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Relationships Self-Esteem Health

Critic reviews

[Alex's book] is thorough, articulate, beautifully written, and validating for people with RSD. It is perfectly crafted for all those whose lives are distorted by perceptions of being hated, but who here can feel seen and accepted. A wonderful and much needed contribution.
In a world with plenty of information, you can trust Alex to really care about helping people with ADHD symptoms such as RSD not feel alone, providing hope that progress, not perfection, is the safest goal.
RSD is very real; Alex knows what he is talking about, and is a crucial voice on neurodivergence. This book is a great tonic for anyone who struggles with rejection.
It takes a true visionary and a genuinely passionate advocate to take on something as painfully misunderstood as Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria, and Alex Partridge is that person. This passionate and profoundly moving book speaks directly to all those who struggle with one of the most challenging elements of ADHD, reassuring them that their lives do not need to be blighted by these awful feelings and offering them a guiding light in the darkness. Brilliant, honest, beautiful, and essential reading for all of us in the ADHD community - and beyond.
So few people understand how painful RSD is to live with, and how it can affect every part of someone's life. Alex really gets it. By bringing RSD out of the shadows in this brilliant book, he takes away the stigma and the shame, replacing them with compassion, understanding and hope.
RSD is a very real threat to the mental health of so many people - it's hard to understand the almost-physical pain that rejection can cause unless you've experienced it yourself, thousands of times. Why Does Everybody Hate Me? is a long-overdue and much-needed book: finally, someone is talking about the huge emotional burden that the neurodiverse community carries, and offering compassion, support and advice that can genuinely make a difference.
Alex is so good at opening up the conversation about the most difficult and distressing parts of life with ADHD - this is such a helpful book for anyone who wonders why they constantly feel so ashamed and broken. Lots of practical advice, lots of kind words to support the reader - this book will make a huge difference to very many people.
Once again Alex has produced a book that is essential reading for people who are living with ADHD. Understanding RSD is vital for the person who has ADHD and the people in the lives of someone who has ADHD. Alex explains with kindness,compassion and wit, how to live with RSD and no, everyone doesn't hate you, it's RSD!
All stars
Most relevant
Loved it. It was describing me to a tee. I wish I’d read it when I was younger. It would have saved a lot of heartache!

Brilliant

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Really easy book to listen to. Alex Partridge knows his stuff. He explains well what RSD can look like for so many. I will now purchase the hard copy and annotate for my myself to refer back to and offer to my clients. Highly recommended!

Brilliant Book

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I've waited ages for this, and 'Introduction' in, it has not failed to deliver. With very little research available for rejection sensitive dysphoria, many can relate to what Alex Partridge says, based on his own research into the subject. Not just a book for people with ADHD, but for Joe Public to access if they want an insight into the struggles and masked backstory of feeling unloved or disliked.

Why does everybody hate me?

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This book gives a really clear picture, through both descriptions and anecdotes from the author's own experiences, of the thought processes that someone with RSD can go through. It demonstrates how painful and debilitating that experience can be, as well as showing why it can lead to reactions that others may not understand.
If you are neurodivergent and experience RSD, reading this will show you that what you are experiencing isn't just you, and will help you feel seen and understood. The book gives great strategies for how to deal with RSD to ensure you can reflect on the thoughts and respond in a calmer and more logical way.
Having just finished reading this, I found it incredibly cathartic. I'm already looking at my interactions with others through a different lense, and hope to put the strategies to use in the future.
This is such a valuable book, brilliantly written, and so very important for others to read.

A brilliant book for anyone who experiences RSD

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Overall I'm very glad I listened to this book, I've never had much support with my RSD and it's gratifying to understand and accept it more. However I feel that the author's experience of it is quite different from mine, and makes a lot of generalisations that RSD feels like X,Y,Z, when in fact ADHD and its sub-symptoms vary a LOT from person to person, especially with the high incidences of comorbid diagnoses.
Part of my (and many ADHDers I've spoken to's) ADHD is feeling imposter syndrome, so when I hear someone describing it very differently from my own experience, I spiral, thinking that maybe my diagnosis is wrong and I'm just a terrible person. So I think it would have been important to really emphasise that this one account is based on one person's experience and his generalisations of the many people he's spoken to, and that issues vary greatly from person to person.
I feel conflicted leaving this review as the author seems like a truly wonderful person who is really making a difference to people who really need and deserve support and understanding, and if he reads this review I'd hate for it to trigger RSD!
But I think it's important to highlight this issue as most people listening to this book will be highly emotionally vulnerable, especially whilst listening, and may feel the same way as I did.

A very useful book but with some big issues.

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