How to Distinguish ADHD's Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) from Bipolar Disorder

Forty percent of individuals with bipolar disorder also have ADHD. The conditions’ symptoms typically overlap, however clinicians can successfully distinguish between them according to patients’ experience of emotions. Patients with ADHD — and, specifically, rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD) — get triggered by a distinct event and then experience an intense but fleeting mood. People with bipolar disorder experience the random onset of a mood that lasts for weeks or months.