By Alyssa Patel, Licensed Professional Counselor
Are you or your youth a fan of social media? Particularly Tik-Tok? If so, this article is for you. There has been a recent trend of discussing mental health on social media platforms. As the typical youth spends roughly 7-9 hours a day on a screen, it is likely that they may have been exposed to the #MentalHealth side of Tik-Tok. There are roughly 18 billion views under this section of Tik-Tok alone. Things that one may find in this section are people discussing their own experiences with mental health, coping skills, advertisements for services related to mental health, and more. With so much viewership, it makes one question whether this much exposure on mental health has been more helpful or harmful to youth and the overall Tik-Tok community.
The Positives of Mental Health on Tik-Tok
There have been several benefits to the exposure of mental health content on Tik-Tok. One of the most discussed benefits by practitioners working with mental health has been the reduction of stigma. What this means is that the exposure has increased the social acceptance of having a conversation about mental health. It is also not attributing mental health to a negative trait or to a negative quality of a person. In addition to this benefit, there is more accessibility to youth who may want or need mental health information. Social media has been well known to frequently be the first line of information that youth can get about various topics. For some, Tik-Tok may be the first discussion of mental health that they have ever been exposed to. A final benefit of Tik-Tok’s discussion of mental health topics is that it can be a social support platform those who may be struggling with a similar problem. For those with limited outside support, this online community can be invaluable to the ability to cope with mental health.
The Dangers of Mental Health on Tik-Tok
While there may be several benefits of content about mental health on Tik-Tok, there can also be several, possibly even harmful, downsides. Many of those who watch may not be aware that the information provided can frequently be incorrect or not be the full picture of the mental health topic being shared about. It is important to understand that Tik-Tok is a social platform whose users have the freedom to share whatever information they would like to, even harmful information or misinformation. The person may simply share a minute, non-comprehensive picture of their experience with mental health, be using the platform to advertise their products and services as opposed to informing their audience, or people could be using the platform to encourage those in a poor mental state remain there. There have been posts identified with the intent of triggering those with mental health conditions, posts that assist people in finding ways to self-harm and hide their self-harm from others, and even Tik-Toks that encourage eating disorders and provide strategies to help people lose weight even faster.
Another concern discussed regarding Tik-Tok has been highlighted by social worker Evan Lieberman: “There seems to be a trend of using mental health diagnoses as a social currency”. The implication of this can be that people utilize mental health labels as a means to connect with others, and not as a way to understand or treat a mental health condition. Labeling mental health through Tik-Tok can also be a fundamental attribution error. As many youth are entering in or are in the developmental stage of identity vs role confusion (a concept derived from Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development), they may be likely to attribute their mental health state as their identity. The use of mental health as identity has been seen in much of the language that youth will use in their mental health. For example, many youth will state, “I am ______” (identity) as opposed to statements that may separate the condition from themselves such as, “I currently have ______” (situation). A final concern by the mental health community that warrants its own discussion is regarding the trend of self-diagnosis from watching Tik-Tok.
Tik-Tok and Self-Diagnosis
Self-diagnosis has skyrocketed since the emergence of mental health on Tik-Tok. Dr. Adelayo, a practicing psychiatrist with Banner Behavioral Health Hospital, stated, “We’ve seen an explosion of Tourette-like tics in our unit and every single case has been linked with watching countless TikTok videos about people with Tourette syndrome. These kids don’t have Tourette’s, but they aren’t pretending either. They have a functional movement disorder as a result of stress and possibly underlying anxiety or depression which may or may not have been properly diagnosed”. April Krowel, a licensed clinical neuropsychologist at The Brain Center, also shared, “My practice has seen an uptick in people of all ages requesting appointments because of something they saw on TikTok, specifically”. They are not alone in what they have seen in the mental health network, as it has been common even within outpatient settings to have patients arrive and share a diagnosis with a clinician that has not been confirmed outside of client identified posts on Tik-Tok. The most common self-diagnoses stemming from Tik-Tok include rare or even complex diagnoses such as autism, Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Tourette’s Syndrome, and Dissociative Identity Disorder.
What is the problem with self-diagnosis? Doesn’t it just mean I get treated faster? Or that I just know what I’m dealing with? Self-diagnosis can be extremely harmful to mental health. Diagnosing may appear to be as simple as checking off symptoms but is actually much more complex than this. Oftentimes, diagnoses can have subtle distinctions from one another, have overlapping clusters of symptoms, have different timelines, frequencies, settings that they appear in, and include extensive exploration of a person’s lifetime events. In addition, those who diagnose must be mindful of the potential that symptoms endorsed by clients may have a medical cause as opposed to a mental health cause.
For those who self-diagnose, this may lead to missing a treatable medical condition such as a thyroid disorder, vitamin deficiency, or heart irregularity. Not only this, but more serious prolonged medical problems that are not addressed could lead to long term damage or harm to the person.
Even if it is not a medical condition, an important point by Dr. Michael J. McGrath, a psychiatrist and the medical director of the Ohana Luxury Alcohol Rehab in Hawaii, shares that “many mental health disorders can lead to fatal outcomes if not diagnosed and treated properly. A person should never use information that they see or read about online to determine if they have a mental health disorder or to determine what treatment they need”.
Being Tik-Tok Savvy
With all of this in mind, what are ways that we, and our youth, can navigate Tik-Tok and other social medias without potentially self-diagnosing or taking in misinformation? Consider the following questions below:
1. Is there evidence to support this claim?
2. Does the information being shared match the information shared by credible, reliable, high-quality sources? And no, a general Google search does not count as a high-quality source.
3. Is the creator of this post getting paid? Or is this creator being influenced by a sponsor or other party?
4. Is it time to take a break? Banner Behavioral Health Hospital found that, after assigning a two week break from Tik-Tok and an individualized treatment plan for the youth, they no longer displayed symptoms of Tourette’s Syndrome.
Sources:
Moore, C. (2022, January 11). Psychologists warn against self-diagnosing mental disorders from TikTok videos. New York Post. Retrieved July 15, 2022, from https://nypost.com/2022/01/11/psychologists-warn-against-self-diagnosing-mental-disorders-from-tiktok-videos/
Olsson, R. (2021, November 2). Tiktok self-diagnoses on the rise, why it's harmful. Banner Health. Retrieved July 15, 2022, from https://www.bannerhealth.com/healthcareblog/advise-me/tiktok-self-diagnoses-on-the-rise-why-its-harmful
Pugle, M., Bacon, S., Jagoo, K. K., Bradley, D., Chai, C., Vogt, C., Métraux, J., Lindberg, S., Lastoe, S., & McCoy, J. (2022, February 28). Tiktok Trend Alert: Is self-diagnosing a mental disorder safe? EverydayHealth.com. Retrieved July 15, 2022, from https://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/young-people-are-using-tiktok-to-diagnose-themselves-with-serious-mental-health-disorders/
Williams, M. E. (2022, April 13). Why are teens self-diagnosing on Tiktok? Salon. Retrieved July 15, 2022, from https://www.salon.com/2022/04/09/why-teens-are-self-diagnosing-on-tiktok/
Wood, J. (2021, October 28). Managing Mental Health Misinformation on Social Media. Pennmedicine.org. Retrieved July 15, 2022, from https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-blog/2021/october/managing-mental-health-misinformation-on-social-media