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/pure_bitter_grace 16d ago

My favorite is "if you sleep in this position, it means you have..."

And the position it showed was, when I did some digging, one of the most common sleeping positions.

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u/Field_Sweeper 16d ago edited 16d ago

It's click bait. The more they relate to, with whatever they post, the more money they get from engagement.

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u/HenryDorsettCase47 16d ago

It’s also idiocy. Some people literally believe everything they see online except for the actual educational stuff because it causes cognitive dissonance with all of the dumb stuff they believe.

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u/imBobertRobert 15d ago

A few comments up someone's talking about a tik tok that's "if you inhale/exhale you might have..." like, if people can't tell that's a joke then there's a serious lack of critical thinking skills.

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u/SirPiffingsthwaite 16d ago

A lot of it is "engagement bait" too. Some tailor their content with completely made up stuff to appeal to the less cerebral, but also to enrage a fair chunk of people into commenting corrections.

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u/Ooji 16d ago

Eldermillennial is the biggest example of engagement bait, so many people make "correction" videos or reference him directly, which just drives his own engagement and gets him paid, so even negative criticism of his content is a positive feedback loop. It's a losing battle because the best method to stop it is to ignore it completely, but at the same time impressionable minds would see the lack of opposition to his ramblings as evidence that there's nothing to rebuke.

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u/SeekerOfSerenity 16d ago

I wonder how much of it is marketing for services that can connect you with doctors that can diagnose ADHD or for people offering "alternative" treatments (or even pharmaceutical manufacturers). 

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u/Field_Sweeper 15d ago

Most of it's even worse. Fake pseudoscience bs. You know. Just about anything that also has to say "these statements haven't been evaluated by the FDA". Because it's all nonsense. Supplements that supposedly work as good as medication but isn't medicine is a scam every single way you look at it.

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u/LazyLucretia 16d ago

It's internet in 2025, everything is bait.

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u/JackYaos 15d ago

Also it's idiotic on purpose, people correcting it in the comments is engagement

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u/Field_Sweeper 15d ago

Yup, same reason those game ads have people playing it terribly. Almost a dare to others to "do it right"

It's based on a little known thing called Engagement optimization. EOMM or Any other form of it, a patent by EA of all companies (gaming company if you aren't familiar).

They know from studies that you will have better and longer engagement (and therefore in most cases more likely to spend money etc) if the experience is less fulfilling and more frustrating. It's based on game theory, but it's driven many other facets of pretty much anything a consumer engages in that a company profits off of.

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u/DavidAdamsAuthor 16d ago

Do you find yourself falling unconscious in your bed for approximately eight hours a day? Do you experience strong cravings for various foods if you haven't eaten for a day or so? Do you often find yourself drinking regularly throughout the day? If so, you might have...

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u/timesuck6775 16d ago

a desire to live?

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u/DavidAdamsAuthor 16d ago

Can't relate

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u/Izwe 16d ago

awww dude, internet hug

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u/Nvenom8 16d ago

Yeah, right!

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u/adamdoesmusic 16d ago

I do not in fact find myself falling asleep for anywhere near that. I constantly forget to eat, sometimes for a whole day or more. Same with drinking water. I’ve been formally diagnosed with a few things and medically suspected to be a few others tho.

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u/QuttiDeBachi 16d ago

…a fat blunt you smoked, then slept, then drank cuz you ran outta dope.

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u/Emergency-Banana4497 16d ago

Omg, what, what do I have!?

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u/Exaskryz 16d ago edited 16d ago

Do you have a dead end job sitting in a cubicle for 8 hours a day and hate it? You might have ADHD

Do you rather have fun than do work or chores? You might have ADHD

Do you spend a lot of time on TikTok instead of reading a book? You might have ADHD

Be sure to take medication to ignore your dopamine hits rather than getting a more interesting, engaging job; finding books or material that are entertaining in and of themselves; managing a better life balance of entertainment can give you the tolerance to work through chores that, yes, need to be done. When you are fulfilled in most aspects of your life, the rest comes together nicely. When you are in a rut of relenting control and not actually wanting to do something, all doing is difficult.

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u/Alty__McAltaccount 16d ago

What was the position?

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u/AreGophers 16d ago

Trex arms is what I keep seeing.

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u/Bay1Bri 16d ago

I saw a video that said sleeping with your wrist by your chin and your hand bent at the wrist towards your neck, you have autism. Which is ludicrous.

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u/AnRealDinosaur 16d ago

I do that and I do not have autism. What I have is carpal tunnel :(

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u/Bay1Bri 15d ago

What I have is carpal tunnel

Is that cause or effect?

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u/bananosaurusrex 15d ago

Sleeping with bent wrist can cause carpal tunnel syndrome in some people. Sleeping with a wrist splint for a few weeks helps alot of patients, no injections or operation needed.

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u/AnRealDinosaur 14d ago

Ive done both (wrist splint and injection) and they both wonders! I hate that my body wants to sleep like this because the pain wakes me up & I have to hang my arm off the side of the bed to get circulation back. The splints make it so you can't bend your wrist that way which is great, but I still needed the injection because of repetitive motion at work. Thankfully it worked & I have a better job now.

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u/pannenkoek0923 16d ago

I am autistic and I do sleep like that, but I am not autistic because I sleep like that

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u/chauceresque 16d ago

I sleep like that to keep my handkerchief close as I’m a chronic night sneezer

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u/raptorclvb 16d ago

The trex arms to autism pipeline was wild and so many influencers also continue to spread this misinformation by making meme videos of it.

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u/Brad_Brace 16d ago

Oh, it's T-Rex arms! I was reading this comments wondering what trex arms were!

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u/Pksnc 15d ago

Thank you, I was seconds away from shouting across the house to ask my wife if she had ever heard of trex arms.

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u/Bells4Hazel 16d ago

Was a massage therapist- all desk workers deal with t- Rex arms, in general we all do due to regular screen use and being desk workers.

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u/FunGuy8618 16d ago

Isn't that very obviously an attempt to avoid accountability, though? Look at Kanye and Elon.

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u/Alty__McAltaccount 16d ago

Maybe if you are a deck.

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u/DucksEatFreeInSubway 16d ago

This'll fly under the radar but I appreciated the joke.

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u/nobleland_mermaid 16d ago

It's usually half side-lying with one knee pulled up and one/both of your wrists tucked under your chin. I think it's actually called a half-stomach sleep position and they just kinda specify the wrist thing.

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u/KovolKenai 16d ago

Inverse Cowgirl

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u/Dick_of_Doom 16d ago

Read this as "insane cowgirl"

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u/adaranyx 16d ago

The actual sleeping position x potential symptom point that has merit is the "t-rex arms" in conjunction with your shoulders/knees/hips kind of collapsing in without a lot of support (think hugging a body pillow, pillow between the knees, etc) and causing pain. That could be a sign of hypermobility, which is pretty highly comorbid with autism, and worth looking into if it causes you problems and you meet other criteria.

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u/vinthedreamer 16d ago

on their back probably

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u/insomniacpyro 16d ago

Bend over and I'll show you

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u/TheBestPartylizard 16d ago

horizontally

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u/Cow_Launcher 16d ago

I do wonder whether that - and all the other "relatable" videos - are just for engagement/clicks and the financial benefit of the creator... or whether there might be something more sinister going on.

Not invoking any political bogeymen here. It's just that it feels like someone is puppeteering, and we're not resisting it as strongly as we should be.

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u/jimkelly 16d ago

It's definitely just for money. And depending on your philosophical POV there is nothing more evil.

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u/jackofslayers 16d ago

Elaborate on this thought because I don’t even get what you mean

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u/forams__galorams 15d ago

And the position it showed was, when I did some digging, one of the most common sleeping positions.

Lying down? Yea that actually means you have any one of twelve clinical conditions, probably multiple. Seek help immediately.

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u/Frosty-Age-6643 16d ago

We still have so much to learn through sleep position science.

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u/TonalParsnips 16d ago

... okay but the bisexual sitting position thing is real.

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u/Smash_4dams 15d ago

It's old school buzzfeed all over again

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u/VaguelyArtistic 15d ago

My favorite is "if you sleep in this position, it means you have..."

I had to leave all my ADHD subs because so much of it was, "I sleep in this position, do I have ADHD?" or, "Sleep position? That is so us!"

I understand the frustration of knowing something is "wrong" but not having a Dx, and also the exciting part of finally getting an answer. But it's clear that many posts come from the TikTok pipeline.

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u/pure_bitter_grace 15d ago

I also find myself avoiding ADHD spaces because so many straight-up promote doctor-shopping and shortcuts to get meds, as though medication is a magic bullet. Stimulants are a bandage for symptoms, at best, and they have real side effects and risks. If I could earn a living without medication, I'd get off it--I'm now in perimenopause, and we simply *don't have good data" for how stimulant meds may or may not contribute to the other physical stressors of wildly changing hormonal cycles. I have a family history of heart disease, and the fact that I am still on stimulants as I reach an increased age/sex-related risk of heart issues makes my doctor visibly anxious.

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u/zer0xol 15d ago

Typical psudeoscience

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u/itsbedroomtime 16d ago

These mf'ers out here claiming people with ADHD can sleep???