Sex Ed Before Bed Host Bex (she/her) is in the hotseat for the first time ever, interviewed by her sister Izzy (she/her) on another taboo topic: friendship breakups.

Timestamps

0:00 Cold open
3:30 Coming out late, building a queer community
9:42 Pursing love with a friend
12:00 Girlfriend breakup, crew breakup
15:44 The stories we tell ourselves and friendship ideals
18:10 Rejection sensitivity dysphoria (RSD) and cognitive distortions
24:53 Transmuting pain into art
30:00 Accepting what is
33:00 Closing

Topics we discuss:

Coming out and building community
Role that queer families play for newly out folks
Romantic relationships within a friend group
Friend group ruptures in the wake of breakups
Role of compounding factors in coping with loss
The role of rejection sensitivity dysphoria (RSD) in grappling with loss
Accepting the loss and moving forward

Research

The Lesbian's Experience of Friendship by Jeanne Stanley pgs. 43-44
Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria definitions from ADDitude and the Cleveland Clinic
The lived experience of rejection sensitivity in ADHD - A qualitative exploration PLoS One - Published January 2026

Books

The Other Significant Others by Rhaina Cohen
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay Gibson
Who Deserves Your Love: How to Create Boundaries to Start, Strengthen or End Any Relationship by KC Davis

Tools

Thought Record exercise to combat distorted thinking

Theme song: "Rise and Shine" by Audiobinger, sourced from the Free Music Archive. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.