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.

[u/mvea]

https://news.ubc.ca/2025/03/adhd-misinformation-on-tiktok/

[u/Syssareth]

But I feel like there's some major cultural or generational thing that I just don't get, that means so many people actively want a specific diagnosis, for no reason that I can tell.

If they've got a diagnosis, they can blame their personal failures on that diagnosis. Like, "I'm struggling with school/work/relationships because I've got ADHD/autism/whatever," rather than, "I'm struggling because I'm not applying myself."

Basically, life is hard and people don't want to feel like they're just failing to meet the challenge, they want to feel like they're playing on a higher difficulty and that's why they can't "win."

Source: Am guilty of feeling that way myself.

(Edit: Because apparently it wasn't clear, I'm talking about people doing things like watching TikTok videos and going, "Hey, I have trouble concentrating sometimes! That means I've got ADHD!" People who want their completely normal problems to be caused by a condition so that they can point to it whenever they screw up. I am not talking about people who actually have a condition.)

Also:

The options aren't 'neurodiverse' and 'neuroaverage', though, or even 'neuro-what-you've-seen-in-the-media'. Everybody is different, everybody has struggles and weaknesses, everybody's brain and emotions have weird janky bits that get in the way of real life.

I really wish more people understood that. I've seen people talking about neurodivergent/neurotypical people like they were two disparate classes (like welfare recipients and billionaires), and that is most definitely not how that works. If anything, it's more like the LGBT spectrum.

[u/fumbledthebaguette → u/Syssareth]

Every time I see a post lead with “Neurotypicals think/say/do x…” I cringe. I have ADHD and while it is frustrating being consistently misunderstood, there’s this pervasive victim complex in online support forums that is borderline self sabotaging.

[u/jackofslayers → u/fumbledthebaguette]

I think we are well past the border into self-sabotage

[u/WalrusTheWhite → u/jackofslayers]

Yeah I checked out years ago. Online mental health discourse is legitimately bad for your mental health. Like, studies are still data, and some articles are decent, but the general chat is just garbage. The only way to win is not to play.

[u/triforce_of_wisdom → u/Syssareth]

Not every neurodiverse person wants a diagnosis so that they can explain away their failures. I think certainly true for some people, but a lot of people seek diagnosis so that they can have a heading by which to set their health journey. ADHD like ASD, like dyslexia, like all of them, is a health condition just like anything else. My sister was diagnosed autistic as an adult last year and it's provided her with a framework for understanding herself and why she has the behavior patterns she does. It also allows her to build tools and habits that support her better. I mean, if you had a normal physical atypicality like brittle bone syndrome and it meant you had to live a low-impact life so you didn't break your bones all the time wouldn't you want to know?

[u/Special-Garlic1203 → u/triforce_of_wisdom]

I have diagnosed autism,my last 2  counselors gelt if I did pursue autism I'd almost certainly get it. 

I also have this super weird digestive/appetite thing that wouldn't be covered by either. Brought it up to my mom and she knew what I meant, but almost nobody else I've talked to does. I would kill for a diagnosis because I otherwise sound like a genuinely insane person if I bring it up. So it sucks to recognize a pattern in yourself but know unless you have a label, you're gonna be belittled and told to get over yourself. 

[u/Syssareth → u/triforce_of_wisdom]

I am specifically talking about people trying to self-diagnose without any intent to follow up with treatment. The kinds of people who see a list of symptoms and go, "Hey, that's what I've got!"

[u/whitetooth86 → u/Syssareth]

"If they've got a diagnosis, they can blame their personal failures on that diagnosis. Like, "I'm struggling with school/work/relationships because I've got ADHD/autism/whatever," rather than, "I'm struggling because I'm not applying myself."

Basically, life is hard and people don't want to feel like they're just failing to meet the challenge, they want to feel like they're playing on a higher difficulty and that's why they can't "win."

Source: Am guilty of feeling that way myself."

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Care to elaborate?

As it stands, this reads as personal bias and anecdotal experience rather than an evidence-based understanding of ADHD, autism, or neurodivergence. You present a false dichotomy, psychologically project, and over simplify.

It misrepresents the reality of these conditions, conflating legitimate struggles with excuse-making. While it's true that some individuals might externalize blame unproductively, that is not exclusive to neurodivergent people—everyone does it to some degree. The core issue here for you seems to be internalized ableism and misunderstanding of cognitive science, not whether people are being "lazy."

You did exactly what this thread and tiktok video misinformation is about.

[u/WingsofRain → u/whitetooth86]

Yeah that was bothering me too with their wording. I was formally diagnosed with ADHD - inattentive type a little over 10 years ago by my psychiatrist, and the entire point of getting diagnosed is to know what tools you need to better succeed in life. ADHD is still a disability that very much impedes cognitive function to one degree or another (dependent on the person) and it’s not an excuse by any means, but rather a reason as to why it’s much more difficult for people with ADHD to function at the same level as someone deemed neurotypical. ADHD is a legitimate disability, it’s life-altering, and can easily be life-destroying if you don’t have the support and/or resources to learn how to work around it.

[u/whitetooth86 → u/WingsofRain]

Thank you, I even have trouble with the comment above it as well. I actually think they might be the ones who don't understand the terms neurodivergent and neurotypical and the real life implications of diagnoses. Having a real hard time parsing out "At best, it could be people are wildly misinterpreting 'neurodiverse' to mean 'thinks and feels differently to most other people', in which case yes, about half the population would count. The options aren't 'neurodiverse' and 'neuroaverage', though, or even 'neuro-what-you've-seen-in-the-media'. Everybody is different, everybody has struggles and weaknesses, everybody's brain and emotions have weird janky bits that get in the way of real life.

But I feel like there's some major cultural or generational thing that I just don't get, that means so many people actively want a specific diagnosis, for no reason that I can tell. "

[u/Syssareth → u/whitetooth86]

I'm talking about people trying to self-diagnose, like, watching TikTok videos and going, "Hey, I've got that!"

I'm not talking about people genuinely trying to get help.

[u/ifyoulovesatan → u/Syssareth]

Regardless of who you're talking about, you're still basically talking out of your ass and generalizing your experience to a ton of people whom you have no real insight about.

[u/Syssareth → u/ifyoulovesatan]

You're reading way too much into a pithy aside. My "source" was meant to be an admission that I'm guilty of the same thing I was talking about and therefore wasn't speaking from a high horse, not that I live in a vacuum and have never used my eyes.

But fine, if you want the details: I'm speaking not only from my own singular experience, but from reading way too many posts/comments/notes* in various places on the internet over the years. I have been on the internet since before Myspace was a thing; you start noticing patterns after a while, and like especially recognizes like. (And thank heavens I grew out of that phase.)

(*Edit: Not one-offs like on Reddit; I read a lot of stories, and sometimes the authors leave notes with each chapter, so you can get a pretty good sense of who they are over the course of the story.)

There are absolutely people--often teenagers, not always--who collect self-diagnoses like stamps, and it's not a minuscule number (a minuscule percentage, I'm sure, but not in raw numbers). Critical thinking allows you to separate this person who apologizes for being late posting a chapter of a story, and who sometimes speaks about their struggles with ___ and trying to get on an even keel, and that person with a dozen disorders listed on their profile page who only ever mentions them in a defensive context (e.g., "It's not my fault, you can't get mad at me, I've got ___!") Yes, a single occurrence means nothing, but it's a pattern I've seen again and again and again.

[u/ifyoulovesatan → u/Syssareth]

You realize you're in the science subreddit, which has specific a rule against anecdotal evidence in comments, right?

Edit: the rest of your comment is just you justifying why your anecdotal evidence is somehow special / more rigorous than other people's. Which is just really dumb, I dunno what else to call it.

[u/rogers_tumor → u/Syssareth]

If they've got a diagnosis, they can blame their personal failures on that diagnosis.

sigh.

once you have a diagnosis, you have a starting point by which to untangle your shortcomings, how they happened, and how you can do better going forward.

I know I have ADHD. I know I need to do some things differently from other people to be my most healthy, stable, and productive self. I also know that things that work for other people with ADHD, might not work just as well for me!

but without the diagnosis, I was just floundering through life wondering why I couldn't keep up with everyone else without being super burnt out and depressed all the time.

with the diagnosis I can look into adopting effective, evidence-based methods for keeping my life together. even then, some things work for me some things don't, it's trial and error, just like for neurotypical folks.

[u/Syssareth → u/rogers_tumor]

No, I mean that's the logic behind people trying to self-diagnose (edit: without intent to seek treatment for it), not that that's the way it works for people genuinely trying to get help.

[u/mouthypotato → u/Syssareth]

I mean, some people in the spectrum are actually officially disabled. That is the exact definition of what would be like playing in a "higher difficulty" mode than the rest of the humans.

Wdym

[u/Syssareth → u/mouthypotato]

I literally edited my comment eight hours before you replied to it to specify that I was not talking about people on the spectrum:

(Edit: Because apparently it wasn't clear, I'm talking about people doing things like watching TikTok videos and going, "Hey, I have trouble concentrating sometimes! That means I've got ADHD!" People who want their completely normal problems to be caused by a condition so that they can point to it whenever they screw up. I am not talking about people who actually have a condition.)

Once again, I am talking about people who do not have whatever they diagnose themselves with, or at the very least, who do not care to seek treatment/help with dealing with it. I am talking about people who just want something to blame when things go wrong.

[u/mouthypotato → u/Syssareth]

>if they've got a diagnosis, they can blame their personal failures on that diagnosis. 

How is watching a youtube/tiktok video and feeling like you relate to the video a diagnosis, please explain.

[u/Syssareth → u/mouthypotato]

That is my point. It's an if statement, meaning they don't actually have the diagnosis. They are self-diagnosing because they want to be able to blame their problems on whatever they "diagnosed" themselves with.

The entire topic of this thread, as the person I originally replied to said, is people who actively want a diagnosis. That does not mean they go on to actually get one from a reputable doctor. All it means is that they want one. And I explained that--for at least some of them--that's because they want to have something that they can say is the source of their problems.

For hopefully the last time, I am not talking about people who actually have medical diagnoses or conditions. I am specifically talking about people self-diagnosing based off shoddy lists of symptoms. And, again, not all of those either. Specifically the ones who don't then go on to seek help.

[u/mouthypotato → u/Syssareth]

Ok, ok, but you can't deny that
1) you could've worded that much better
2) those who don't seek help could maybe not be seeking help for a myriad of reasons