The Buffered Creative: Why AI is the Exoskeleton Every RSD Designer Needs

How to stop the "RSD Spiral," dismantle the Wall of Awful, and use AI to sanitize the blunt force of design critique.

Let’s be real for a second.

In the design world, we’re fed this constant “growth mindset” bullshit.

We’re told that “critique is a gift.”

We’re told to have thick skin, to kill our darlings, and to leave our egos at the door like a dirty pair of shoes.

But for those of us living with Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), that advice isn’t just unhelpful.

It’s a flat-out lie.

RSD isn’t “being a bit sensitive.” It’s a neurological glitch (usually bundled with ADHD) that turns a minor suggestion into a perceived existential threat.

When you have RSD, a red line through your layout isn’t just a correction.

It’s a physical blow.

A blunt Slack message from a PM doesn’t just mean “fix the padding.”

In your brain, it translates instantly to: “You’re a fraud. Everyone finally knows it. You’re going to get fired. You should probably just quit before they have the chance to embarrass you.”

It sounds dramatic to the neurotypical crowd. But to us? It’s a visceral, fight-or-flight response.

Your heart rate spikes. Your face flushes. Your brain goes into a total lockdown.

It’s the RSD Spiral, and it’s the #1 killer of creative careers.

But here’s the shift:

We finally have a way to build an emotional exoskeleton.

We have AI.

And if you’re a designer with RSD, AI isn’t here to take your job.

It’s here to save your fucking sanity.

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Phase 1: The Feedback Sanitizer (Data vs. Drama)

The most dangerous moment in a designer’s day?

Opening a fresh notification.

Whether it’s a comment in Figma, an email from a client, or a “Hey, got a sec?” on Slack, the RSD brain immediately assumes the worst.

We spend 90% of our energy analyzing the tone and only 10% on the actual task.

We’re looking for the hidden meaning.

Why didn’t they use an emoji? Why was the sentence so short? Does “Let’s discuss” actually mean “You’re dead to me”?

Enter the AI Buffer. Before you let those raw words hit your nervous system, you run them through a “Sanitizer.”

You copy that cold, shitty email. You paste it into your AI tool of choice. And you tell it:

I have RSD. Below is a feedback transcript that feels like an attack. I need you to act as a neutral filter. Strip away the perceived tone. Ignore the bluntness. Just give me a bulleted list of the technical requirements I need to address. Do not include the ‘fluff’ or the criticism—just the actionable data.

Suddenly, the “attack” is just a to-do list.

You’ve successfully separated the data from the drama.

You aren’t reacting to a person who might be disappointed in you. You’re reacting to variables.

You’ve outsourced the emotional labor of being criticized to a machine that doesn’t have feelings to hurt.

That’s not just a “productivity hack.” That’s self-preservation.

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Look, cleaning up a few shitty emails is just the baseline. It’s the low-hanging fruit.

If you want to actually stop the bleeding… if you want to know how to kill the “freeze” before it kills your deadline, how to walk into a live interrogation without your heart exploding, and how to use the “Truth Table” to finally separate your self-worth from your font choices, you need the rest of the exoskeleton.

Everything below this line is the difference between burning out by 30 and actually enjoying your career. Here’s what’s waiting for the paid crew:

• The “Private Fail” Strategy: How to use AI for exposure therapy so human crits don’t hurt anymore.

• The Ghosting Logic Check: What to do when the silence from a client starts screaming.

• The Red Team Script: How to pre-game a meeting so you never get caught off guard again.

• The Full RSD Power Prompt Library: My personal “In Case of Emergency” list of copy-paste commands to keep you in the game.