An analysis of the 100 most-viewed TikTok videos related to ADHD revealed that fewer than half the claims about symptoms actually align with clinical guidelines for diagnosing ADHD.
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The symptoms I live with daily as a result of ADHD are not the same as those used to diagnose ADHD, and I recognised that in 2022 when seeing videos of people’s lived experiences of ADHD made me realise they were talking about my lived experience.
I then when on to do a screening questionnaire which I spoke to my doctor about, who then agreed to refer me to a specialist psychiatrist for diagnosis.
The article basically boils down to the obvious ‘don’t take what you see on social media at face value, do some research’ and isn’t a revelation about ADHD content, more that they took a subset of content on a social media platform and found that non-experts in the field were as susceptible to inaccurate information on ADHD as likely most non-experts in any subject would be when encountering content on that subject on social media.
I think what’s “dangerous” with some of this stuff is they sometimes take normal things like “are you having any trouble with X? Do you feel this way about Y? Yeah, that’s ADHD/autism/whatever.”
It reminds me of pills getting advertised on television… It’s not the best because even if people do seek professional guidance, people come in with a bias, and they’re almost coached in some cases from the media they’re exposed to.
I worry about doing it to myself on random stuff with just WebMD “oh yeah, let’s see … knee pain is a symptom … hmm my knees do hurt sometimes don’t they?”
