r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 16d ago

Neuroscience ADHD misinformation on TikTok is shaping young adults’ perceptions. 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.

https://news.ubc.ca/2025/03/adhd-misinformation-on-tiktok/
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u/Eggsformycat 16d ago

This wouldn't be such a problem if quality mental health care was more accessible and if children/adults/parents had access to quality resources about mental health geared towards lay people.

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u/semibigpenguins 16d ago

Healthcare worker here. Yes and no. Obviously more access will allow people to be properly treated and not self medicate. The no: people will always make up problems. There will always be drug seekers and mental health issues(people thinking they have everything wrong with them).

Also people believing factoids

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u/Eggsformycat 16d ago

People thinking they have everything wrong with them or hypochondriacs or people with health anxiety would benefit from better access to quality mental health care. Drug seekers, again, would also benefit from mental health care coupled with substance abuse treatment.

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u/ZenPyx 15d ago

I wonder what sort of healthcare worker this guy is... there's no such thing as "making up problems" when it comes to healthcare - a lying patient is not a healthy patient, for one reason or another

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u/ralanr 16d ago

And plenty of people won’t believe their symptoms for fear of the idea that they’re just making it up. 

Took me years to even confront I had depression and I still have periods where I go without medication. 

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u/Glonn 16d ago

I wasn't diagnosed until I was 21, went through college and everything with minor issues. Ended up working in radiology and one doctor (internal medicine) I worked with for a year asked me what ADHD meds I was taking out of curiosity.

When he found out the answer was none, I got a psych eval and was diagnosed formally.

When I take the medicine, it almost feels like my brain is "functioning".

Parents didn't believe in ADHD so no diagnosis as a kid

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u/Nelliell 16d ago

I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid and strongly suspected I was also autistic for years. I put off retesting for over a decade until a new provider and my old records being destroyed in a hurricane made it necessary to get back on my medicine. I was so afraid of being treated dismissively, or that I was drug seeking, or that I was just making it up that I walked into the appointment with three pages I typed up with my symptoms and relevant history.

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u/Exotic_Object 16d ago

I think three typed up pages should count toward at least 50% of an autism diagnosis, and I say this with all sincerity and love.

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u/csppr 16d ago

100% this. Not related to ADHD, but I was doing exactly this when I had appendicitis: I waited for several days despite heavily suspecting it was that, because I was afraid of wasting healthcare resources that could be spent on actual problems, and that I was just mentally exaggerating an upset stomach. I don’t think my behaviour is an outlier in any sense.

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u/gmishaolem 16d ago

When I was in elementary school, I ended up with testicular torsion and my mother took me to the doctor. The doctor was fiddling around (to avoid needing an x-ray) and I was screaming, and my own mother was telling me to be quiet and stop overreacting. (She was embarrassed.) She got quiet when the doctor said he was sending me to have surgery.

Doubting you're sick at this point is straight-up trained into us.

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u/randomchic545 16d ago

I have a hunch I might have ADHD and possibly depression... but I worry I'm just subconsciously convincing myself & looking for something to blame my stupidity/laziness/incompetence etc on. I worry about wasting my doctors time and being a whiner if I do ask for help because everyone and their dog claims to have some sort of mental issue these days.

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u/Suyefuji 16d ago

I developed DID when I was 12 after a severely traumatic life event. I knew I had it, it was debilitating, and everyone assumed I was making it up as an excuse to act weird. I'm currently diagnosed with the (now defunct) DDNOS because my psychiatrist was still afraid to diagnose me with DID as a grown-ass adult that met all of the criteria.

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u/Mel_Melu 16d ago edited 16d ago

Hi Social Worker checking in, I would much rather we have more comprehensive behavioral health/MH Services and that providers be educated.

If we're talking people struggling with addiction when you say "drug seekers" that means recognizing and knowing what's highly addictive and not prescribing it. Medication Assisted Treatment is not a bad thing especially when it comes to folks that will otherwise be on the streets ODing every other day.

Let's figure out what will help people stay clean, prescribe it and address the co-occuring mental health (PTSD, Depression, Bipolar, Anxiety, ADHD etc. Etc.)

Edit: so just to add to my comment, when I studied substance abuse and medications in my MSW program I learned that we should avoid a class of families called Benzodiazepines. The most popular drug from that family is Xanax, we know it's highly addictive and commonly abused. When should this class of medications be prescribed? Honestly single dose stuff like, you struggle with air travel pop one of two for your first trip to help ease that anxiety and upon your return. However, for generalized anxiety there's other stuff out there to help that isn't prone to abuse.

There's medicine out there for opiate abuse, for alcoholism to a lesser extent for stimulants like meth. Medication assistance in collaboration with the right therapy will be a game changer for folks.

There's also a million different therapy modalities and "talk therapy" is not a one size fits all, a good therapist is like a good pair of shoes.

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u/LitLitten 16d ago

Definitely agree on the benzodiazepine mention. There’s not much else that can soften the blow of a panic attack, but there are so, so many safer alternatives for generalized anxiety. 

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u/WorstPossibleOpinion 16d ago

Nothing like a healthcare worker to look at a insane broken system and go straight to complaining about drug seekers.

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u/mouthypotato 16d ago

Imagine being a healthcare worker and looking at drug addicts and thinking they "nah, they don't need mental health."

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u/conquer69 16d ago

and not self medicate.

Are ADHDers self medicating? With what? Because their smoking, alcoholism, obesity, gambling, are all coping mechanisms. They aren't a treatment for the disorder.

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u/thestoplereffect 15d ago

One could argue that smoking is self-medicating due to nicotine being a stimulant, but you're not wrong at all.

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u/mtndewaddict 15d ago

ADHDers are more likely to use nicotine or other stimulants because they discover it helps them get through their day. On the one hand they are addictive substances, on the other they are actually relieving symptoms. When we have poor mental health services and you discover a common product helps, are you going to care much about the long term negatives when you can finally get through the day?

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u/Prestigious_Row_8022 16d ago edited 16d ago

Drug seeking is indicative of a mental health issue. Hell, substance abuse is higher in undiagnosed/untreated ADHD populations vs non-ADHD or ADHD with medication management. It is also much higher in schizophrenics, and pretty much any other mental health condition you would think a portion of people would consider self medicating/being high to be a better alternative to.

This is like saying someone who fakes a suicide attempt or cuts themselves is just faking for attention. Buddy, if someone is willing to hurt themselves or fake a disorder to get attention, they have a mental issue that needs addressing, it’s just not the one they’re fronting to you.

The real issue is suggestion. It’s known that med and psych students both tend to overthink and compare themselves to the symptoms they study and are more likely to falsely believe it applies to them. That leads to weird phenomena like a few years ago when every 3rd teenager was self-diagnosing with dissociative identity disorder, which isn’t great. It also prevents people who have one disorder from getting properly diagnosed because of overlapping symptoms with another disorder.

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u/reality_boy 16d ago

I agree. During covid my daughter was struggling and we had a really hard time finding care for her. We tried several online services that our insurance was pushing. The clinicians were over worked and disconnected. I’m not sure if it was the format, or covid, but it was frustrating.

Eventually we found a provider in another town who was helpful, but hard to get access to. It was much better, but only a fraction of what we were hoping for. We got access for about 20 minutes every 3 months, not a lot of support.

We have friends of the family that are always looking for ways to self medicate there problems away. Whether it is ticktock diagnosis, or trying drugs. I understand where they are coming from. Life is hard, and the modern world is only getting more chaotic and overwhelming. But it is easy to get lost in a sea of bad chooses, if you’re making risky chances.

Aside from the obvious move, of making a safer, more protective society. We need to make it easier to find help when you need it. But we also need to work to prioritize good information around us, and try to downplay bad information. This is not just a problem with medical advice, but all information. We let ourselves be bombarded daily with nonsense, without thinking about it. It is a shame.

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u/The_Submentalist 16d ago

True. I like to add that parasocial relationships with mental health influencers also play a role. Those influencers need to put out content for their followers who are mostly eager to eat up anything vaguely related.

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u/NorthRoseGold 16d ago

Talking about drugseekers and adderall always amuses me.

Oh noo, what are they gonna do clean their whole apartment?

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u/NoticedGenie66 16d ago

One of the fun things about getting my psych degree was finding out just how many people are super confident in their mental illness self-diagnosis. The not so fun part was learning that they then self-treated based on either false information (in some cases making it worse) or correct information but applied to their incorrect diagnosis, at best doing nothing.

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u/Peipr 16d ago

Ah you’re that kind of healthcare worker that believes some of your patients are faking it just to get something out of it…. and end up hurting your patients because of it.

I won’t deny, there are patients that certainly will go “fishing” for pain medication or similar, but you are not doing anyone a service by assuming so. Even IF they are “faking” or “making their symptoms worse”, there is still likely to be a cause for why they’re doing that, which should be examined, as it could be anywhere from something that you’re not seeing but is actually there, psychosomatic symptoms due to a mental disregulation that are still causing a lot of distress to the patient, or even an addiction.

On the other hand, if the symptoms of mental disorders are shared more freely, those who actually suffer from them will think “wait all this time I wasn’t just rude/lazy/annoying… and the reason for these experiences may have been out of my control”, which, in my own experience, takes a huge weight off your back.

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u/SsooooOriginal 16d ago

Money, the root problem.

Drug seekers are not flagged and are able to shop around for an enabling prescriber.

Enabling prescribers are prefferred by insurance companies and PBMs because they sell more of their product.

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u/AlligatorVsBuffalo 16d ago

Drug Seeking IS flagged commonly by healthcare professional, not sure where you are coming from. Maybe if they shop around they can find a prescriber that wouldnt have access to prior medical records? I am not well versed on that but I do know that people labeled with drug seeking or substance abuse will find it much harder to get controlled substances.

Even Gabapentin prescriptions are being monitored now, despite not being a scheduled substance (in most states)

Maybe you can correct me if I am mistaken, but from what I have heard is that getting certain scheduled substances is much more difficult than it was maybe 15 years ago.

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u/SsooooOriginal 16d ago edited 16d ago

It is more commonly used when the patient is poor and/or combative, and maybe actually done properly in more prestigious hospitals with a reputation to protect and uphold.

Go out to the boonies, lower income areas, lower head count areas. Places where the prescriber is drinking buddies with the patients. The precriptions flow because the offices and pharmacies get to reap insurance money.

Just because they were forced to make restrictions to try to cover their butts does not mean the restrictions are effective nor widely enforced.

And due to profits, the incentive is not for the enforcement.

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u/Aternal 16d ago

I'd argue that quality mental health care is more accessible now than it has ever been in the history of mankind. The same platforms hosting ADHD misinformation also host reputable cognitive behavioral information that absolutely can transform lives when applied. People find what they're looking for, whether they're looking for drugs or to have their rationalizations and biases reinforced by others. If someone's truly suffering from ADHD then nothing TikTok or any other platform says matters, untreated ADHD is untreated ADHD. What feeds this type of content are mostly people who aren't suffering from ADHD but want to be which is a behavioral issue, not a clinical one.

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u/Sailor_Propane 16d ago

It's probably highly dependent on location.

I've been on a wait list for over a year for a psychiatrist. Therapists and psychologists haven't accepted new patients since 2021.

I was recommended to go to the local university's psychology/psychiatrist programs, they apparently take people there to train students.

Welp, fully booked as well.

I could see a psychiatrist within a few weeks, maybe 3 months at most, 10 years ago. And therapists and psychologists had open and fast bookings.

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u/Aternal 16d ago

All kinds of biases: location, age, experience, desires, fears, expectations, life history, socioeconomic status, all of it matters. I'm one of those people who've had issues all their life, self-medicated and suffered failure in many ways, and wanted ADHD to be the solution to my problems. I did what I needed to do and said what I needed to say to get the drugs, the drugs gave me a crutch for a while, but then the side-effects started causing more problems than were being solved. I had to come to terms with the harrowing realization that I was the root cause of all of my problems. That's when the real recovery process began. None of the therapies that helped me from that point on cost me a single dime, it was all honesty, willingness, and a sincere desire for peace of mind.

I know I'm not everyone, and I'm not saying you're like me, but I suspect there are more people who are in the kind of boat I'm describing than are willing to admit. Acceptance is by far the hardest medicine to take, but when it kicks in it really does its job.

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u/Sailor_Propane 16d ago edited 16d ago

I was talking about mental health access in general, not just how people feel about ADHD.

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u/Eggsformycat 16d ago

It is more accessible than it has ever been, but it's not accessible enough for everyone to be able to get the care they need, especially from a quality professional.

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u/RustyPickles 16d ago

A significant amount of the new ADHD/autism diagnoses are women because 20 years ago it was mostly boys and men who were studied/diagnosed, and women have worse outcomes dealing with the medical system in general. I am forever grateful for TikTok because it lead me to an ADHD diagnosis, and also led to diagnosing the root of my chronic pain (ND-related comorbidities). Now I’m realizing that my ADHD is likely AuDHD, which in hindsight makes a lot of sense. My little brother was very obviously autistic from a young age so he had more parental attention, and I was better at masking.

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u/ExpertLevelBikeThief 16d ago

No, social media is the problem. I also now believe it's incompatible with democracy.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

[deleted]

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u/ExpertLevelBikeThief 16d ago

Very interesting have you made a TikTok on this yet?

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u/GayFlan 16d ago

Do you think there are few resources geared towards lay people? I would argue there are many. I think the larger issue is people looking to pathologize behaviour (their own or others).

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u/Eggsformycat 16d ago edited 16d ago

Yes, I think there are few. The available resources are confusing, often contradict one another, and people don't know what is credible and what isn't. Part of this is because there is disagreement within the mental health community itself about how to diagnose and/or treat various conditions.

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u/plz_callme_swarley 16d ago

people have access to google, chatGPT, self-diagnosis tools right now.

These people are searching for a reason why they feel different

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u/catholicsluts 16d ago

Those same people probably follow things like astrology pretty heavily