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/rogers_tumor 16d ago

it's a serious problem.

there's a huge difference in occasionally misplacing your belongings and chronically losing your keys multiple times per week.

memes don't capture the severity that needs to be considered when weighing disordered behavior against the average human experience.

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u/42Porter 16d ago

Im with you on that one. I have pretty bad amnesia due to a disorder and misplacing things is not a trivial issue to me.

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u/Kimantha_Allerdings 16d ago

Yeah. The way I describe it is you've just broken your hip. You've got to get round on crutches and walking really hurts. You get to work, where you work on the 20th floor. The lift is broken so you've got to use the steps. You're standing at the bottom of the steps, mentally preparing yourself to go up and someone with no injuries or physical disabilities says "yeah, everyone hates taking the stairs".

Like, maybe they do, but taking the stairs isn't the same degree of challenge for everybody and implying that it is is harmful for those who have an actual disability because it minimises that challenge and feeds into the narrative that disabled people don't need help and accommodations and are in fact making a big deal out of nothing.

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u/Darth-Chimp 16d ago

It's even more fun when the need to avoid 'the search' turns into an obsessive compulsion to organise, label and give everything a place in which it must be put away.

What's that? I'm running late for a thing I have to be at? No problem, I'll leave as soon as I fix this thing that isn't the way it's supposed to be.

It's understandable that many people see these as exaggerations of normal everyday things because they only experience them in normal, unobtrusive ways.

In the middle you have people that experience this problematically but manage to hang in there with just enough self care and or external support.

Everything after that is a fight for survival of the self and desperate belief that persistance will slowly reveal better ways to cope.

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u/rogers_tumor 16d ago

an obsessive compulsion to organise, label and give everything a place in which it must be put away.

nooo don't expose my coping mechanisms like this!

how dare