Dr. Micaela

And I know it's irrational because most of the time they had a good time.

They even tell me they did love that.

But the guilt is louder than the reassurance.

I wish I could just exist with people and not feel like I have to apologize for who I am after every interaction.

Oh my goodness.

Ouch.

Yes.

And this is something that is...

I mean, super common for people with ADHD, also super common for people with social anxiety, but also like if you,

just uh have like crummy self-esteem um the the morning after or like right that the hours after your social time is an opportunity that your brain takes and not it's not your brain it's it's the

the little villains who are holed up in there and are whispering nasty things into your mind, right?

So whether it's a mental health condition or just low self-esteem, because we don't diagnose low self-esteem and it's a horribly debilitating experience.

So-

regardless of the reason why, we can often have this like rebound effect.

When we're in the moment with people, let's just take ADHD off the table for like a hot second, okay?

So when we're in the moment with people, a lot of times those voices are drowned out because we're able to be engaged and distracted and we're experiencing joy or excitement or any kind of stimulation.

Remembering that our brains are socially wired

And so we get a, there's a dopamine response, right?

There's a social reward experience simply from interacting with other humans.

And then that reward is dosed higher the more I enjoy or connect with the people around me.