Social media is a place of freedom, but the reckless usage of it could lead to potentially dangerous situations. From the infamous thinspiration accounts on Tumblr to eating tide pod trends, there have been various incidents that put people’s health on the line. While it’s everybody’s personal responsibility to protect themselves against the harms of social media, it is also the responsibility of the creators and the companies behind these platforms to provide a safe environment.
What is happening on TikTok?
TikTok surprisingly offers a great deal of truth about ADHD and provides true representation for people with ADHD. For example, contrary to popular belief that people with ADHD are hyper-active and energetic all the time, TikTok videos show the more quiet, dissociative side of the illness. You can watch the video below for more comparison between the common understanding of ADHD and reality.
@tomboymani Tired of seeing people over exaggerate this. #ADHD #whatadhdisactuallylike #adhdcheck
However, the videos created for ADHD awareness also increased the amount of people who diagnosed themselves to have ADHD and other mental illnesses along the way. In short, TikTok became the WebMD of mental illnesses. While it’s good that the generally neglected situation is becoming more visible, there are also dangers to self-diagnosis to such illnesses.
Some of the videos do not mention how complex ADHD is. They only mention the constant fidgeting, de-focusing of the eyes, and concentration problems, all of which could be due to some other illness in the body, or even due to exhaustion. But with these videos increasing in numbers, people with iron deficiencies could believe they have ADHD. As complex as mental illnesses go, ADHD is one that is really hard to understand and diagnose, so these videos just over-simplify it to the point where anything could be a symptom of ADHD.
The videos shared on TikTok are mostly by regular people, not professionals. While people with ADHD do know what they are going through, some of these users are just after the hype. They create videos related to ADHD just to get more views, which is dangerous to vulnerable viewers. People might self-diagnose themselves and try to get medicine in an illegal way, or get caught up in the diagnosis so much that they might end up really harming their mental health.
Another thing worth mentioning is, some of these ADHD related videos glorify the illness in the same way Tumblr users glorified EDs. They represent the illness as something to look forward to having, something “cool”. Viewers, especially younger people can unintentionally try to create those habits themselves even if they do not have ADHD. Which would again in turn possibly cause other problems in the long term.
What to do if you find yourself getting lost in ADHD videos?
First of all, calm down. Not everyone who has ADHD videos in their For You page has ADHD. TikTok is a platform that boosts videos that get attention. The more a video is watched and saved, the more that video will appear in For You pages.
Knowing what ADHD is is not bad at all. We should all be aware of the illnesses people suffer from, and you could be helpful in making life easier for someone with ADHD.
If you have doubts that you also have ADHD, consult a professional. The 17 year old TikToker in your For You page doesn’t know you, how ADHD would show itself for you, or anything that could be counted as a clue or symptom because she / he is not a professional at all.
But also, don’t just remove TikTok from your phone because you are unhappy with or worried about your For You page. If you don’t want to see more ADHD videos, just press long and click “Not Interested”. You can reorganize your For You page according to your likes, not your dislikes.
What do you think about TikTok videos that mention ADHD. Do you think it’s a delicate subject that shouldn’t be mentioned on social media, or do you think it’s good that people with ADHD are finally getting some recognition? Let us know in the comments down below!
