Social Media is Spreading Misinformation About Mental Health

[@wondergal4729]

The self-diagnosing, to me, is a lot like how as new therapists, we go through the DSM and think we must have all the diagnoses ourselves when looking at the symptom lists. With my clients, I do my best to practice curiosity about why that diagnosis matters to them.

[@keyrosellc]

💯💯💯 and LOTS of psychoeducation

[@ssj5goku28]

There is a growing trend regarding misinformation or misleading information on these platforms as well as animosity between MH professionals and MH advocates. There was a great article on this a few years ago but I feel the divide has just kept growing.

[@nicih9251]

One of the reason I am pursuing my PsyD is because I was so tired of seeing all of the „coaches“ and „wellness experts“ out there throwing around words like „bipolar“, „multiple personalities“, and „borderline“ and what else…

[@TheNewYear75]

would love to see an episode refuting common misinformation around ADHD, NPD, depression, etc. with evidence-based research.

[@backoff3477]

I’m not sure if you’re a therapist or counselor, but at my workplace, we use testing to help refine diagnoses. Specifically, we administer the Conners test for ADHD, the MMPI-2/3 for personality disorders, and possibly a SIMS for depression. These tests can be quite costly. Typically, clients should have completed at least three visits before we proceed with testing. If we determine that medication may be necessary, we refer clients to a PA, nurse practitioner, or psychiatrist.

[@ThomasMuethingDotCom]

I loved this video so much that I'm actually making my therapist watch portions of this. I think you and I - and probably my therapist as well - dislikes pop psychology masquerading as actual psychology. (I do not regard psychology as a true science generally, with which my therapist and you disagree, but that's beside the point. Psychology is at best a social field that occasionally uses the scientific method to answer questions and explain phenomena. It is people physics). I enjoy seeing and looking at the little charts of the data interpreting your Instagram polls. Have you thought about publicizing those with Google Sheets or something? You have a LOT of really GOOD videos not just about private practise, but about the practice of psychotherapy itself (starting and ending session, patient feedback, etc). Have a great week!

[@psydrone8]

That story with "the company" sounds insane, it could be a big video, but I understand if the risk is too big

[@NilsExp]

Tiktok is ok but there's ALOT of trash, I can't stand FB, just "friends" reposting annoying sht, IG is cool but it's basically a likes and follows game🤢

[@KitCameo]

Hmmm, I think if 100% of the content they found on TikTok for ADHD was misleading information, then they either chose an extremely small sample size, are being very stringent on language, or they are deliberately skewing results with their criteria for which videos they chose. A claim of 100% anything is almost always a clue that there's some bias going on. I would look into what criteria these people used to choose which videos to include in the study, what the sample size was, and how they filtered out results that weren't relevant. Because the thing is, there are people who are professionals in neurodevelopmental disorders who also make TikTok videos about those things, so I find it pretty unbelievable that none of those people would have made videos that didn't include misinformation in them. As for the statistic about only 9% of the TikTok advisors having relevant qualifications, that one's a bit more tricky, because we're talking about giving advise rather than sharing information now, and hopefully most of the people who are actual professionals are still telling their viewers that they can't give them advice through their videos aside from advising them to speak to a therapist themselves, because they aren't supposed to be, right? (that's a genuine question) I'm totally aware that there's a lot, A LOT of misinformation going around on social media, but I also know from way too many personal experiences that there are too many mental health professionals who don't keep themselves up to date with the latest information, and aren't open at all to any new knowledge that's come out since they finished their schooling. That's why I think it's important for people to keep searching out new information where they can from credible sources, so if you (general "you") take one of those meme, "You might be _____ if you have these symptoms..." tests on TikTok, and it makes you wonder how accurate it could be, then you continue to do your own research, and if you have the availability, also speak to a mental health professional. Because lets face it, a lot of therapists will quote vastly outdated information to their clients as to why they couldn't possibly have this or that, without having full training in that subject themselves. Oh, and on this topic, please don't ever say to a client, "It seems like everyone *wants* to be autistic these days." 🤦 Random thoughts while viewing: - OMFG The Secret! **headdesks several times** - When I look up videos about narcissism, an overwhelming amount of the results are of Dr. Ramani Durvasula's videos (this is still youtube and not tiktok though,) and a few Dr. Phil 🙄 - I like those fang earrings. They remind me of the stalker teeth you can find in Subnautica, which I've been playing recently, so that's probably why it was the first thing I thought of - I'm extremely curious about your "Better Health" [sic] video, so I'm going to go look that up now...

[@theunrulyjoyclub]

This was great! Glad you made this, and sorry you had to deal with legal things...