TikTok: Community Support & Rampant Misinformation About ADHD
Social media is a space where many teens and young adults connect and talk about what it is like to live with ADHD. According to Attention Magazine put out by Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD), TikTok videos with the ADHD hashtag have racked up 11.4 billion views. But in such a sea of content, plenty of misinformation is swirling alongside genuinely helpful tips.
Psychiatrist Edward Hallowell, MD, author of the well-known book Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood, cites that misinformation as his reason for joining TikTok as well, where he posts videos and strategies for living with ADHD. “I have been doing all I can to spread my strength-based approach on ADHD for the last four decades, and TikTok provides a new and very creative platform to continue to do that,” he said. He credits the misinformation about ADHD circulating on TikTok as his reason for joining the platform: “Where there was a gap was a medical expert perspective, and so I decided to create some videos providing this.”
Widespread misinformation on TikTok
When researcher Anthony Yeung, MD, and his colleagues reviewed 100 of the most popular ADHD videos on TikTok, they discovered that although the content was highly relatable, a majority of them – approximately 52 percent – contained misinformation.
Experts like Dr. Yeung of the University of British Columbia worry that the bad may indeed outweigh the good, as TikTok users self-diagnose and seek treatment (including stimulant medication) they do not actually need. “Although social media can reduce mental health stigma and improve health literacy, there is also the concern for misinformation and the potential for illness/health anxiety,” he notes.
Experts call this phenomenon cyberchondria, and it is fueled by “unmoderated, user-generated content” the article states. And since TikTok’s algorithm shows you more content like videos you’ve already watched, it can lead to a deluge of dangerous misinformation.
Countering misinformation
Sasha Hamdani, MD, a psychiatrist based in Kansas City, Kansas, has taken to TikTok to combat misinformation and provide fact-based content.
“There was some good information, some bad information, and some absolute garbage,” she recalls when she first looked at the platform. Myths swirling online included “ADHD medication is addictive” and “ADHD is a fancy term for laziness.” In response, she created videos with titles like “ADHD is more than just a focus problem.”
Media Matters, a nonprofit that monitors social media and media outlets, is also concerned about the slew of for-profit telehealth companies advertising on the platform who seem to seek to profit from misleading content leading to teens and young adults to self-diagnose.
“The ads seem to be capitalizing on the TikTok phenomenon of ADHD self-diagnosis, in which some creators simplify the disorder,” Media Matters stated in a report, “leading viewers to decide for themselves whether they have the disorder, sometimes incorrectly. This can push users to inappropriately seek ADHD medication, which can have dangerous side effects if used improperly.”
The upside of TikTok for those with ADHD
Dr. Hamdani believes TikTok can be a great resource for combatting stigma around ADHD when videos are used with caution. She encourages viewers to bring content that resonates with them to their health care providers rather than diagnosing themselves.
“Being a content generator on TikTok is not something I predicted,” she explained, “but I’ve found that the ADHD and mental health community is so vocal, supportive, and empowering. For someone who has struggled with ADHD, creating these videos, interacting with followers, and absorbing other people’s experiences has been so validating.”
Dr. Hallowell says the 200 videos he has created can be just the kind of medical information that causes people to reach out to a licensed medical provider for evaluation. “The response has been amazing,” he says. “What I find most rewarding are the comments; there are thousands from people of all ages saying they feel seen for the first time or that the videos have prompted them to seek a diagnosis.”
Read the full article and learn more about ADHD from CHADD here.
Read Dr. Yeung’s research on ADHD misinformation on TikTok here.
Demuth, Jami. “ADHD on TikTok: Battling Misinformation on Social Media.” Attention Magazine, Aug 2022, https://chadd.org/adhd-news/adhd-news-adults/attention-adhd-on-tiktok/.
Photo by Christina Victoria Craft on Unsplash