About the Author

Jonas Berger is the pen name of a German-language author who writes personal accounts of ADHD and rejection sensitivity. Two books have been published in German so far: Warum ich gehe, wenn ich bleiben will (2026), available in English as Why I Leave When I Want to Stay, and Wenn ein falsches Wort den ganzen Tag zerstört (2026), whose English edition is in preparation.

Why a pen name

Anyone who writes about rejection sensitivity knows good reasons not to put their own name on the cover. The pen name is not an invented persona: what these books describe is lived, not imagined. The legal name appears — as it should — in the legal notice. It changes nothing about what is written in the books.

What I write about

About things I couldn't put into words for a long time. About the moment a wrong tone of voice tears down an entire day. About feeling like too much and never enough at the same time. About ADHD — not as a diagnosis that explains everything, but as a daily companion you eventually learn to know and respect.

I had the diagnosis since primary school. I understood it in my mid-thirties. The books live in the space between those two points.

How I write

Not as a guidebook. I don't promise to fix anyone — I lack both the training and the arrogance. What I can offer is a view from the inside: what this actually feels like, on an ordinary Tuesday. That's why every chapter of the first book ends with a "What I know today" — an insight worked for, not imagined.

"You are not too much. Your alarm is just set too loud."
— from "When One Wrong Word Ruins the Whole Day"

The books

Why I Leave When I Want to Stay — eight relationships, eight goodbyes, and the late realisation of what connects them. Published in German, English, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish and Polish.

When One Wrong Word Ruins the Whole Day — on rejection sensitivity in ADHD: where it comes from, which two escape routes it pushes you towards, and what helped me over time. Currently available in German; the English edition is in preparation.

A full list of titles is available under Books.

One note that matters to me

Both books are personal accounts, not medical advice. Anyone who recognises themselves in them should talk to a professional. I know this from experience — and it took me far too long to do it.