Everything Wrong With Fake Disorder Tiktok

[@xandermin]

if governments just offered more comprehensive & universal mental healthcare, i think that'd make a huge difference. i do believe many of the "fakers" are struggling, but you don't need a mental disorder to have mental health problems. in some countries they've started employing mental health professionals at schools alongside school nurses, & the results have been very positive! hopefully that'll become more wide-spread.

[@yehyeh7856]

Facts, this comment is lit

[@dykula5017]

Thissss

[@rebeccasmith2851]

Uh I don't think governments are the blame for their ridiculous actions. 😗They know they need help yet they decide to fake a disorder for attention. It's just not acceptable.

[@milabenmimon6747]

I mean, in the UK we do, its not 100% the best, but the NHS tries it's best and everyone is entitled to the same health care. Honestly, we're lucky. I cannot understand how the USA thinks their health care system is Humane. Third world counties have a better health care system than the USA!

[@ryanleecastillo4070]

@d b ok wait ive had 3 different insurances the past 3 years and have had to pay $50/hr for therapy with my covered therapist i dont think thats an obamacare exclusive

[@olliej.2776]

When I got diagnosed with ADHD very recently, most of my family's reaction was pretty much "ugh, everyone has ADHD these days". They don't take it seriously at all. People who fake ADHD are part of that perception.

[@meganmullis5386]

There's also been a history of medical practitioners overdiagnosing and overprescribing medication. Not to say that ADHD medication is not helpful when it's taken in the correct dosage and when needed, getting on meds just about saved my life, but there are a lot of people who don't have ADHD that have been diagnosed and prescribed Adderall or Ritalin, especially n the early 2000's. I also have a friend who does have ADHD and went to his doctor for a diagnosis instead of a psychiatrist and he was put on 75mg of extended-release off the bat. For context, my ADHD is pretty severe as is my younger brother's and we're both on 30mg of extended-release. I think it is definitely valid to say that there has been a lot of ADHD being treated like a trait and there are people who think they have it when they don't because of a lack of understanding of what it is as well as many people simply faking it for whatever reason, but there is also a history of ADHD being grossly overdiagnosed which I think has contributed to the simplification of it.

[@olliej.2776]

@@meganmullis5386 I choose not to take medication for my ADHD. A lot of people think it's the only solution to any of their problems. It might work for some people, but for others, it's not always the best option, especially if it's not too severe. I don't like how doctors immediately jump to medication. Sometimes ADHD can be managed without. I feel like it's not really my place to say whose diagnosis is legitimate. It's not a competition to see whose disorder is the most severe. I just don't like when people pretend they have been diagnosed, or turn it into a quirky personality trait.

[@meganmullis5386]

@@olliej.2776 It's great if you can manage symptoms without medication and I'd personally do the same if it were an option for me. My meds mostly help with my executive dysfunction and impulsivity as they're both pretty bad and come in the way of day-to-day functioning if I'm off my meds, but obviously different people have different needs and different goals so if your symptoms don't come in the way of your life to an unmanageable extent, the best option is always to not be on meds if you don't need them. I'm in full support of trying everything before a prescription, and I agree completely, they get pushed way too much as a primary option when the risks and black box warnings are not worth it if you don't really need it. Also, at the end of the day, I don't like the thought that someone would fake a disorder that has been disabling to myself and many others, but at the same time, it goes against everything I believe to call someone out for faking, even if I'm fairly sure they are, because it's vastly more damaging to isolate and downplay someone who's genuinely struggling than to ignore someone who's pretending to. Sorry, this was a really long comment mostly just saying I agree with you.

[@olliej.2776]

@@meganmullis5386 couldn't have said it better :)

[@yukifwend5227]

I agree people that fake ADHD make people that actually have it look like they are faking it because they don't understand how ADHD actually works.

[@keylimetea]

Zoophilia isn’t a sexuality that’s like saying pedophilia is a sexuality. It’s illegal and gross.

[@Saturnthroughstars]

I think they were making a joke based on Shane's ...history. At least I hope that's what the joke was.

[@xaviancat4950]

I agree that it isn't sexuality, it's more of a fetish, or something we currently don't have a word for. Anyway, illegal, yes, gross... matters which person you ask. Also, sorry, I'm just gonna put the rest of this here just for people to be aware (Not you specifically): Zoophilia is in a slightly different state than Pedophilia, and Zoophilia and Pedophilia are different words and have different meanings than Zoophile and Pedophile. Philia: Denoting fondness, especially an abnormal love for a specified thing. Phile: Denoting fondness for a specified thing. You might as well think of it like... Philia: The action of. Phile: The thought of. Rhyme to remember: No longer an idea if it's a Philia, suspend the trial if it's a Phile. Zoophilia: A sexual attraction toward a nonhuman animal, which may involve the experience of sexual fantasies about the animal or the pursuit of real sexual contact with it. (Or, if you take Philia, then: A person who has had sex with an animal.) Pedophilia: Sexual feelings directed toward children. (Or, if you take Philia, then: A person who has had sex with those underage.) Zoophile: A person who is sexually attracted to animals. (Or, if you take Phile, then: A person who has thoughts of having sex with an animal.) Pedophile: A person who is sexually attracted to children. (Or, if you take Phile, then: A person who has thoughts of having sex with those underage.) I hope that anyone who reads this can pass on this info, as many Philes are treated as if they have already done a bad act and should be punished, even though they haven't and were just born with, or obtained their condition through some unfortunate means. Now, back into my box I go, goodbye.

[@scentsiclestylings4443]

Just wanna say that, sadly, zoophilia isn't illegal everywhere - even within the U.S (where I assume you're from). So it's gross, but isn't held to the same standard of grossness as pedophilia by a surprisingly large amount of people.

[@xaviancat4950]

@@scentsiclestylings4443 Wait... what?!? It isn't illegal? Doesn't it fall under animal abuse?

[@scentsiclestylings4443]

@@xaviancat4950 It really should be, but isn't always. Even going as far as being able to produce and sell pornography featuring animals. It's fucked up.

[@minniehippie]

As someone who actually has some of the disorders people are faking, I feel like people faking these things ruins it for people that actually deals with them, like no, shites not cute, it's not quirky and when that type of romanticism or glorification happens it further pushes that only certain water-downed traits/tropes of a disorder(s) are acceptable and that doesn't solve any stigmatization or ostracizing of disorders

[@kelsey.shutup_7173]

Couldn’t have said it better myself

[@stevesmith7339]

Intrusive thoughts are subjected to that sooooo much. It's really disheartening to see people portrait generic anxieties or unpleasant thoughts as intrusive when I couldn't pick up a piece of paper because all I could think about was bone deep paper cuts all over my hands, as well as a bunch of other unspeakable ones. I'm sorry you have trust issues and are somewhat obsessive, but those are not intrusive.

[@emubeepboop]

I agree, I also feel though that people focus too much on the fakers more than people with actual disorders, giving them attention and spreading the idea that more people are fake than real. Like many of the videos talking about "fakers" don't seem to have much knowledge on whether they actually all are fakers and just mock them. I have tics and I've seen videos where people make fun of "fakers" but they end up just making fun of tic-like symptoms very similar to my tics so it seems like it is sometimes an excuse to make fun of the disorders/the symptoms of disorders by using fakers as a scapegoat?

[@minniehippie]

@@emubeepboop I do think that can be if not is one part of the faking disorders

[@emubeepboop]

@@minniehippie Sorry, I'm a tad confused, what specifically are you referring to? I mentioned a few things.

[@Vexmus_]

They remind me a lot of the parents who say "everyone's a little adhd" or "she's just ocd don't mind her." Its a gross oversimplification that has existed for years, but the Internet just made it easier and even more common. People who don't suffer with these illnesses don't bother researching. Hell, I'm diagnosed with 3 illnesses, but i had to do all of my research on my own, through other people and their own experiences. My parents basically refuse to accept I have areas I struggle with because the idea that a person with autism is super smart is engraved in their mind, or that a person with adhd can suffer with more than just being scatter brained. The amount of times People have complained about my tone or my reactions is insane, even when I explain its my disability they act like its for attention. This whole idea that mental illness is an excuse, or is for attention, at least in my own experiences, exists way beyond social media, but kids on social media just, made it worse I guess. Gods I hate people like this

[@dont_harsh_my_mellow]

I have ADHD, depression, OCD, and anxiety. All of which of course are, like you've experienced too, either downplayed, and/or are being used by these fakers for clout. I find I am having a harder time being taken seriously now because of how many fakers there are thus people treat me like I am faking. Even though I have been in therapy since I was 16 (I'm 26 now). I think that this is disturbing and I believe they must have some mental issues to be faking all of these things, just I don't believe it's the disorders they pretend they have (ADHD, tourettes, OCD, severe anxiety, DID, etc.).

[@keylimetea]

You forgot “ I feel like Everyone’s a little autistic right?” No because then it wouldn’t be a disorder

[@TheAkumuKing]

Oof i have a friend who says “everyones a little adhd.” I thankfully have educated her before she graduated

[@borah8383]

same as a teenager people including my parents would complain about things I had no control over and when I tried explaining it's due to my litteral disability adults would tell me I'm using it as an excuse like mister this is not an excuse it's the mf REASON those are different things

[@TheDigworks]

most of my relatives say "everyone's a little bit on the spectrum", as a reaction when they see me struggling with something instead of aiding me. its bloody infuriating.

[@elizabethsmith5520]

The ADHD one really got me. It's not quirky, it's not fun. It's destroying to feel like you're 'lazy' and 'can't concentrate' when deep down you know it's not your fault. It can bring down grades and relationship, I hate how people think it's quirky.

[@ember9361]

wym not being able to properly function or even feed yourself consistently is not quirky? I love having grown up called lazy for strugglinng with simple tasks, super quirky and funsies

[@smsmsmsmsmsm]

ADHD ruined and negatively influenced every facet of my life, and as soon as I got diagnosed and got actual help for ADHD specific things, my life so drastically improved and I realised how fucked ADHD is. Sitting down, wanting to do something, but then just not being able to initiate tasks, leaving you with a sense of guilt and uselessness and thinking that I was dumb and lazy… I hate that people think it’s a personality trait/a quirky thing. It’s literally a deficiency! Why do people without it want to pretend they have it when it affects us badly? It’s mad

[@smsmsmsmsmsm]

@Inu Socials literally :/

[@ciciamanda.]

yeah for sure. its really not a breeze when you are having pushing yourself to the point off collaps to succeed in the things you just because your own brain is working against you with the power off a thousand fucking suns. Its really hard when the main reason for failure is.. yourself. and you cant help it.

[@smsmsmsmsmsm]

@@ciciamanda. you summed this up so well omg

[@Meiliina]

I'm both disturbed by those who claim to have disorders for attention, and those youtubers making cringe content out of them. To me, the best way to address the problem is through this type of content that dissects the problems and issues, so thank you for that. Having dissociative disorder is not cute, quirky, or free ticket for attention, it's most of the time nothing, just the world passing by while I can't interact with it, so I don't have to face my trauma, and losing moments like that is sad.

[@sampirson9224]

Yeah the cringe videos are only fanning the flame I think.. they are creating video's for each other, the fakers will defend themselves because they are sometimes genuinely convinced they have DID (even though they don't) and then the cringe video creators will have more content to share. It's a sick loop of harmful content and the only way to stop it is to stop giving both of them any attention entirely

[@alextric2812]

I watch the cringe videos because they’re just fascinating to see. Of course if people go online and fake something, people are going to be interested in trying to figure out why. The thing I dislike about them is that a lot of these are children who shouldn’t even have access to tiktok. Where are their parents? Should they really be posted on KZbin when we know they’ll grow out of it and be embarrassed?

[@PearlCradle]

As a system with DID we can confirm it was probably the most bizzare experience to tell someone about our disorder and their reply being: "YOU HAVE DID?! THAT'S SO COOL!" It is, in fact, not cool.

[@ember9361]

@@alextric2812 if they get to grow out. bullying leads to suicide in many cases.

[@alextric2812]

@@ember9361 bullying doesn’t lead to suicide in many cases. Most people on planet earth are bullied at some time in their life. It’s part of growing up. Does it suck? Yes, of course. But the majority of people bullied do not kill themselves.

[@Peach__soju__]

Side note - sometimes therapists use “not otherwise specified” if a person has severe symptoms but haven’t had them long enough to meet criteria for a disorder. It was added so people could get help covered by their insurance before meeting full criteria.

[@daniel-darling]

I am diagnosed with osdd because i lack the memory gaps you have in did.

[@mightymeatymech]

@@daniel-darling I am diagnosed with BPD but my therapist has said after two years, she might not agree with that diagnosis. Diagnoses change, the important part is getting onto a treatment plan that works for you! :)

[@covens]

not that i disagree with you, but how do people get diagnosed with "NOS" in countries where insurance isn't an issue like the UK? (if they can even get a diagnosis over here through the nhs ay dios mio)

[@Peach__soju__]

@@covens Yes! “Not otherwise specified” is used here too. It also helps with insurance if someone doesn’t meet full criteria for a disorder. Thanks for bringing that up! ❤️

[@Boltothemage]

@@covens OSDD/DDNOS still exist beyond waiting for a formal diagnosis. They just describe a dissociative disorder that isn't DID, DPDR, or dissociative amnesia. There's 4 specific subtypes of OSDD that don't really fit the diagnosis of one of those other 3 disorders but can still have a significant impact on one's life.

[@kseniav586]

"Why can't there be a roleplay disorder???" Because you can't make shit up sis :D

[@katkay9923]

Like, as someone w ocd and bpd, mental illness isn’t fun. I would do anything to not have either of these bc I feel like I can’t even be a person. It’s like I’m walled off from society bc my brain doesn’t work as it should due to genetic factors I have no control over. It’s not fun. Idk why ppl want them so bad. And any attention I get is negative.

[@keylimetea]

Bc why does it have to be a fucking disorder? Disorders are horrible to have these kids are so naïve and sheltered it hurts me

[@raditzhoneyham]

@@katkay9923 yep same here it's such an uphill battle and people are just making it so much harder

[@tayloradams3993]

At BEST you could say they have maladaptive daydreaming or that their addiction to RP is some symptom of a larger disorder, but Roleplay disorders as their own category... no.

[@chimeramanticore]

i think a lot of people who have convinced themselves they have did/osdd like this person most likely suffer from maladaptive daydreaming- it's almost exactly what the person describing a "roleplaying" disorder said

[@larissabrglum3856]

I believe that DID is real, but it's much rarer and less fantastical than pop culture would have you believe. These TikTokers should just... get into LARPing or something.

[@aydenl172]

I have looked into DID and OSDD quite a bit and have a few friends who have alters. About 1% of the population has diagnosed DID/OSDD. This also means there's a segment of the population who cannot afford or access the resources to get clinically diagnosed.

[@ellapinkleton1829]

@@aydenl172 these 'alters' can also just be moods ya know

[@rd9065]

Well DID is the rarest form of a dissociative disorder, it's much more common for people to develop OSDD, which has a couple of subtypes, and the mechanisms for those subtypes help those systems hide themselves from others easier so not only is it harder to recognize but it's more "safe" to have these mechanism. For example, one subtype involves not having amnesia or having very little amnesia, so that they have a consistent "running memory" of events. Another subtype involves alters who are essentially variations of the same person at different stages of life, especially from different periods of life when they had severe trauma. These are all pretty much the same as DID with a few key differences, they all involve the parts of a child's personality never forming into one solid identity creating separate identity states, but the nature of the identity states and dissociation may differ.

[@rd9065]

@@ellapinkleton1829 No, I know you don't know enough about DID to say this.

[@InternalDialogNik]

@@ellapinkleton1829 no reason to think or say this.

[@BexlarsIRL]

11:36 Just say you like roleplaying. WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO BE A DISORDER WITH THESE KIDS?!

[@xxonspotlight]

I assume that, for lack of a better word, it 'quirkifies' tjings and kids think they can ride off that as their personality. So they can be cool and exude 'main character' aura. Because they want attention. Maybe.

[@-insecure]

They want it to be a disorder so that they feel special. That's literally it. They want to feel unique, and like they have something other's don't/the have something abnormal and rare.

[@BexlarsIRL]

@@-insecure As someone who has professionally diagnosed, pretty severe ADHD, these kids would be than welcome to take it off my hands if only it worked that way. There's nothing cute or quirky or special about hyperfocusing on something so hard that you forget to eat for an entire day. These kids don't realise that being born neurotypical makes them so goddamn lucky, if I could get rid of my disorder without taking stimulant meds every day then I would.

[@-insecure]

@@BexlarsIRL I completely agree and I'm right there with ya, these kids' perception of disorders are so warped, it's both sad and angering with how much they want to have them.

[@helplessheroine2641]

Kids need to just join roleplaying groups again😭😭

[@charcoal8]

As someone who actually has a tic disorder well before tiktok made it fashionable, all I ever wanted was to be seen as normal. Now people will think I'm a fraud seeking attention even though I do my best to suppress them. To me it's just embarrassing like farting in public... Who the heck wants that?

[@lillianconstantine6287]

I'm in similar situation, and I'm so scared of seeming like an attention seeking liar I keep my diagnosis to myself. When really all I would like to do is be my honest, authentic self, and not feel ashamed of it

[@smiley9615]

Honestly i feel bad for them including you guys who had to deal with it, fake ass shitty people on tiktok like them should revoked their social media privileges.

[@emubeepboop]

I feel this, but I developed my tic disorder during 2020 (at least that's when the symptoms became very clear, I had some infrequent things before but I just assumed they were reflexes or something). So it feels like people will think I'm faking because there are fakers on the internet, and then the problem gets worse because all the fake compilations and videos about fakers giving them they attention they want with barely any videos about people with the actual disorder so it just worsens the "attention seeking" stereotype by focusing so much on the fake rather than the real. Like idk ig it just bugs me that people will only talk about fakers and not the real thing and then claim to be educating people when they are just talking about fakers.

[@Lobotomite-real]

Hehe fard

[@canonicallykayfabe]

Their faked tics make me feel physically ill. Its fucking asinine, to see them act out these tics they clearly dont really have. They're so fucking obvious too as they're laughing and fully proud of their tics, expressing them fully in front of people. I'm not saying people should be ashamed of them but people who dont fake them for attention generally just see them as something they can get by with. I lived in an area where mental health is highly stigmatised and for me my tics got me constantly bullied throughout high school and even though I'm in a better place now, I'm constantly embarrassed by them, and seeing people laugh about it is just so awful.

[@Algenie]

These people convinced me that I had DID when I was having a pshychotic episode due to actual, previously diagnosed Schizophrenia. It deeply embarrasses me now to,think that I was vulnerable and lonely enough to buy this bullshit. That said, my medication was adjusted and I've been feeling better.

[@ciciamanda.]

im glad youre feeling better dude, and theres no need to be ashamed about it. you didnt do it for clout, you were just a person legitiately struggeling who was swept up by the current state of social media. And you learned from it, and you seem like an alright person, so dont worry about it mate

[@Finnloaf]

@@ciciamanda. damn this is such a nice comment, I had almost the same situation where social media had convinced me I had DID and I believed them because I have been dealing with trauma and dissociation. I've been feeling so ashamed ever since this happened, I start panicking whenever the topic of DID comes up but your comment actually helped me come to terms with it a bit and be able to start forgiving myself. Hope it's not too weird to reply to this bcs I know it was directed at another person but thanks so much for this

[@ciciamanda.]

@@Finnloaf aw its alright mate! im glad i was able to help

[@ciciamanda.]

@@Finnloaf your comment reminded me of an experience i had, and im not sure it'll help you so if it doesnt just feel free to ignore my comment, but i'll tell you anyway in the off chance that it does make you feel better somehow. When i was 17 I had been failing school for a while after having had top grades all my life, i had gotten out of quite a deep depression so i just thought it was that. But after reading up on adhd i figured it might be more. We went to get me evaluated, and in the meantime me and mom both read up as much as we could on the diagnosis, and we talked to each other about it a lot. And the more i read about it the more i could relate to it, and on one hand it was really nice to be able to relate to something, but on the other hand it was really scary. Because i knew that i might not have adhd, and i knew that it was bad for me to convince myself that i did. I knew that it would really really suck to be convinced that the experience i read about was the same as mine if it turned out that that was not the case. So i know the pain of wanting to relate, i know the pain of wanting answers but knowing that you have to keep your distance, i know how hard it is to try and not be convinced by social media. In the end i was diagnosed with adhd and asd about a month before i turned 18. But the months leading up to the diagnosis were really hard. So i see how easy it is to be convinced that you have a diagnosis, even if you might not have it, because you are struggling and all you want is answers. But I can tell you with confidence that it is worth it to keep a distance until you actually have the diagnosis in your hand Keeping a distance hurts, but building a reality in your head that gets pulled away from you because you were wrong hurts more. Its hard to not "self diagnose" but in the end it is worth it im so sorry that this was such a long ramble. Have a great day my dude

[@Finnloaf]

@@ciciamanda. Wow I relate so much to your story, I was also struggling with basic tasks like schoolwork way more than I should and I started suspecting I might have adhd after reading up on it and talking to friends who have it. I was so worried I was just convincing myself I had it, and I went back and forth on "yes I definitely do I have all the signs" and "I'm just convincing myself of it while I'm actually just lazy and looking for an excuse". This on until I could finally get assessed two years later. I had my assessment last month and was diagnosed with asd, which I think is correct, but I'm going back soon for a second opinion on adhd (since my psychiatrist basically said that adhd and asd are impossible to differentiate and that's why she didn't want to diagnose me with both). I am a lot calmer about diagnosis now, as I'm starting to be more forgiving towards myself. I now understand more as to why I held on to labels so much, as I didn't feel like my struggles were valid unless I could be diagnosed with something. I'm super happy I realized this about myself so I can try to change my view on it and be kinder to myself. Thanks so much for sharing your story, it means a lot and it's nice to know I'm not alone in this :)

[@scotchedtapee]

this happened a lot on tumblr back in the day and i know because i fell into it. i genuinely thought i had borderline personality disorder (and a bunch of other stuff) when i was 14/15 because i fit into these checklists some random blog said were diagnostic of bpd. the idea of having it was so scary because i’ve had bad experiences with someone who has BPD. young kids taking advice off the internet is such a scary trend and it horrifies me to see it happening again. in the end, i was able to get an ADHD diagnosis once i became an adult, which explains my mood swings, which was one of the main factors leading me to believe i have BPD.

[@45pairsofsocks]

exactly this! As a former tumblr teen, all of the issues on Tiktok feel like deja vu. Like, we were having the difficult conversations about how we present mental health content/debates about self diagnosis 10 years ago. People should of course be able to talk about mental health, but some of the ways that this is being manipulated into entertainment is so harmful.

[@kseniav586]

I relate so much to your story! I was diagnosed with BPD but would like to get another opinion. Getting an actual correct diagnosis is hard enough, and all of this tumblr then insta now tiktok mental health rubbish is less than helpful. And what many young people don't know is that therapist are often reluctant to diagnose some of these disorders in teens precisely because it's very easy to make a mistake, a person is still growing.

[@bbygyal2180]

Mehn us teens in Tumblr were in the trenches at the time. It was so hard to even be a neurodivergent teen experiencing tumblr because I really thought i had some disorders or even misinterpreting the disorders that I do have. It was a scary time since I really wanted to fit in the tumblr space and I felt like i didn’t fit in if I didn’t have any of the disorders and illnesses romanticized and glorified in tumblr

[@sampirson9224]

Yes this!! The scary thing is that while Tumblr was relatively unpopular, just for a select few kids that were already kind of on the outskirts, TikTok is overwhelmingly popular. These ideas hold that much more power now than when they were on Tumblr and that is terrifying

[@katkay9923]

I was convinced I was part wolf bc the whole otherkin thing from 2016💀

[@judythegirl3867]

I met a faker in real life recently at a party. I felt a lot of sympathy for them because they are clearly struggling with something, yet at the same time, it was very performative. It was a party with a lot of new people and one of the only things this person wanted to talk about was their DID. I hope these people find help.

[@mayochupenjoyer]

i’m afraid that 2 of my friends might be faking and i don’t know what to do…

[@solarmoth4628]

I don’t feel comfortable with some of these call out videos because some of these ppl are truly struggling and somewhat vulnerable because they are prone to suggestion. I just imagine that having a lot of ppl respond to their content publicly might put them in a bad situation. I think these ppl are deeply lonely and struggling without potentially realizing that they might be harming themselves or lacking access to quality help.

[@joshpyman9678]

I can't believe there's an alpha male in my life that researches, provides sources and includes compassion and balance on subjects where most people would just pile on more emotionally-driven hate. Dreams really do come true 🌠

[@uncleherman]

💙

[@RubyBlueUwU]

It’s worth noting that these kinds of people not only work to further stigmatise mental health problems by appropriating our terms, but also result in us discussing our conditions being met with either disbelief or criticism for ~glamourising~ them (even though you can’t glamorise a disorder you personally have lmao) they make life so much harder bc not only do people react in fear to us, they now also say it’s ~cringe~ and use words like triggered and panic attack as a joke, or just tell us that we’re faking it. Being mentally ill is hell, and these kids are only making it worse.

[@ciciamanda.]

the fact that i cannot use the word "triggered" or "triggering" (as a person with adhd and a touch of the -tism) is really exhaspirating. Because its an important word, with weight behind it. But if i used it for its original purpose now, more often than not, it would just be passed off as be being dramatic or sensetive -not as me having a legitimate disorder

[@RubyBlueUwU]

@@ciciamanda. yes, literally!! I have adhd too and recently got a ptsd diagnosis, and huge amounts of those discussions involve talking about triggers and triggering situations and yet trying to discuss that with my peers is a minefield since so many people just view it as a joke and not a legitimate medical term, it’s so frustrating for all of us 🙃

[@starrlea8291]

I agree. I was diagnosed with BPD, and triggered is an important word. I had to learn what triggered me to learn how to better deal with my reactions. Plus it hightens all the already bad stigma.

[@selfawarerubbish]

So I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole on tumblr and I actually believed I had DID. This wasn’t something I was happy about- the thought of having other people in my head was genuinely terrifying. I even had mental health consuelling for a while because of this before I realised that I probably didn’t have it. I only started suspecting after noticing me talking to myself in my head (which is actually pretty normal) these people are treating basic universal experiences like they’re symptoms of a disorder and that’s pretty concerning.

[@francisbonnefoy7887]

ME TOO but idk how i figured i might have had it

[@meilinrivera1]

Its only an issue when the talking to yourself feels like it came out of nowhere like someone was talking to you. You didn’t have an expectation of what was going to be said or when. Thats the only way I can really explain it. But there are other factors that can make that natural voice in your head feel like an outsider such as extreme drowsiness, head trauma, medications

[@imalexmorningstar]

I thought I had DID for years, in part because of all the validation online, so when I was diagnosed with BPD and cPTSD instead, I had a pretty hard time accepting it, like a big aspect of my identity had been stolen from me. But I've since gotten over that, and tbh BPD and cPTSD makes much more sense for me.

[@quitequeerquesadilla]

"Hey guys, so after the Buzzfeed quiz, I'm diagnosed with something" I SHOULDN'T HAVE LAUGHED SO HARD BUT GODDAMN I DID HOLY SHIT WHY IS THAT SO FUNNY TELL ME SHE'S JOKING 💀💀💀

[@juliatinajero3360]

I really think she is joking but now I'm confused 😭

[@nodice8632]

Shes joking.

[@EmDoesNotExist]

Yeah that one was a joke

[@keylimetea]

Ah yes bc buzzfeed can diagnose you

[@blobfish2]

the fake live with lillhuddy comments was definitely a joke

[@madikendrick6419]

I have BPD and honestly I'd do almost anything to not suffer with this illness, I struggle getting out of bed some days and I can't regulate my emotions and I get called names like attention seeker and liar on a daily basis so these people faking really annoy me it's like they're mocking my illness and trauma and I'm sure others feel the same. It makes us feel invalid

[@kseniav586]

Feel you, I also have BPD and the last thing I would want is to be known as the BPD girl or something. This hurts so much and actually adds to the stigma instead of raising awareness or whetever it is these youtubers claim to do

[@sampirson9224]

Exactly! I remember how devastated I was when I got my diagnosis, I would never wish to have this or be happy that I align with the symptoms of it.. Also, "being obsessive" is a characteristic, not immediately a symptom of BPD ffs...

[@cherryy222]

Honestly i agree

[@abbyhein7273]

Hey me too, unfortunately. I hope you find help, 1 year in recovery does a lot

[@abbyhein7273]

Also this whole idea of "being obsessive with a partner" without the reasoning why aka explaining how a huge problem in BPD is the fear of real or unreal abandonment

[@larksmith629]

I think another aspect of this is people who do have disordered anxiety or depression not being taken seriously for those conditions, but being told everyone has anxiety or everyone gets depressed, and so thinking "Oh I must have something worse because I'm struggling every day". Mental health support is just really not where it needs to be. Edit: saw that you addressed this!

[@aricat6182]

This is getting to be one of the most informative channels on KZbin. Love your Internet Investigations series. As a teacher, I've noticed a SHARP increase in the amount of attention-seeking behaviors from my students over the last three years. A lot of them are trying pretty much anything they can think of to stand out and "feel special". Social media is extremely dangerous for kids. They see this idiocy and think it's a cool way to get attention. They almost act brainwashed when they repeat the latest TikTok phrases, dances, and memes ad nauseum. Or when they act on the trends like "devious licks". I'm not even 30 yet, but I've seen such a decline in their mental health over the last few years. Faking a mental disorder is in and of itself a mental disorder. Every teenager does cringy stuff at some point, but this is a whole new level and it's very disturbing.

[@Forestfreud]

How long have you been teaching?

[@aricat6182]

@@Forestfreud This is the end of my 6th year. School closures from covid really accelerated this social media thing too. The amount of crap these kids say to each other...it's appalling. They got away with talking crap online for months and not having to worry about seeing the other kid the next day. I'm talking like sending a text to another kid saying they're going to r*** that kid's mom and s****ize the dad. All because of a simple disagreement. I've seen these kinds of posts and worse. Kids threatening to shoot up schools...we've had two lockdowns so far this year over false threats. These kids think nothing of it. We have to regularly turn over social media posts to the police department. Because yes, this is actually a crime, and the kids don't seem to get it until a police officer is knocking on their door.

[@sampirson9224]

That has to be tough to deal with as a teacher! Is there anything you can do to help them? I'm sure it can feel incredibly disheartening...

[@canonicallykayfabe]

Funny that cuz every mentally ill/neurodivergent kid I've ever met is doing EVERYTHING they can to fit in

[@solarmoth4628]

I genuinely don’t think schools are equipped to handle students mental health especially after a pandemic where their primary socialization was online for 2 years and many of them had to see their family members get sick or die. Teenagers mental health was actually on a decline before I think the last 2 years a global crisis has just brought it to a point where it can’t be ignored. If someone is seeking attention it’s because a need isn’t being met and at this point i’m not sure schools can handle the increased emotional needs of students with a burnt out workforce.

[@z0mbi3gir1]

8:14 is DEFINITELY satire, they're not actually live, and with all the "comments" from famous tiktokers (lilhuddy, etc), i'm pretty sure it's a joke.

[@tarayuh222]

Yeah

[@jillian9050]

A really bad joke

[@nats9456]

it’s 100% meant to be an ironic video, idk how they didn’t pick up on that

[@golfwang100]

yeah idk how anyone could mistake that for a serious tiktok

[@mikuenjoyerXD]

I was getting so irritated when they took it 100% seriously

[@whatever9097]

As a disabled person I find this so disgusting. I don’t have any of the “quirky” or “cute” disorders so I’ve never seen anyone fake my disorders but it doesn’t make me any less disgusted.

[@Coppergasm]

On the roleplay identity disorder thing, when i was a teen i was extremely depressed, I was roleplaying on world of warcraft as escapism, so I dont think its a disorder in itself, just a coping mechanism

[@gloriously._.mental8350]

It might've been maladaptive daydreaming, I did that as a coping mechanism when I was younger

[@Coppergasm]

@@gloriously._.mental8350 actually, a friend I would rp with told me he had maladaptive daydreaming, im pretty sure I donr have it

[@gloriously._.mental8350]

@@Coppergasm ohh okay, ngl I'm not too sure about the difference between them, I've never heard of roleplay identity disorder so I figured it was similar

[@Coppergasm]

@@gloriously._.mental8350 rp identity disorders isn't real, I just made it up. It's very sweet you wanted to check up on me though

[@gloriously._.mental8350]

@@Coppergasm oohhh I'm sorry, I was confused lmao but I gotchu bro, I hope you take it easy and have a good day or night:)

[@Ghostcyborg71]

It's kinda ironic cause these people are clearly ill, just not the way they say they are

[@MostlyCloudy]

It's hilarious to me. The mass delusion social media is causing is funny to watch.

[@noone3305]

munchausen’s syndrome

[@GusTheMcNugget]

I fell down such an extensive rabbit hole that I was convinced I had OSDD by so many people online and then when I presented my findings to an actual psychiatric professional, he said I showed signs of Manic Depressive Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, and just very strong Maladaptive Daydreaming. The problem with trying to self diagnose through information from other people your age that aren't knowledgeable on the subject is that disorders can have overlapping symptoms and if you try to convince yourself you have a disorder based off of a symptom that overlaps with several other disorders, you're going to get confused. People need to do their full research before stating they have a disorder.

[@ollieno971]

Exactly!!!

[@scratcheddisc9129]

I am someone who used to believe I had DID. I did have a very traumatic childhood, as well as hearing voices in my head and seeing things others cant (I am currently talking to my therapist about these experiences), which is a huge part of why I believed I had it. It started when I was pretending to be different characters who I found comfort in, which is something I did to cope because I genuinely found comfort in doing so. That's when someone noticed and messaged me telling me I might have DID and convinced me that I did. And for around 4 months, I believed I had DID. I did everything to convince my (now ex) friends that I had it. Two months ago, I finally came to the realization that...I didn't have DID. And what I did was nasty and so so so disrespectful to people with this condition. I lost friends and hurt people. Faking and self-diagnosing disorders is extremely harmful and spreads misinformation. And I've had my fair share of seeing people fake these disorders that I was personally diagnosed with. I was diagnosed with ADHD (specifically combined type) when I was 5 and it has made a lot of my life harder. And I see these people spread so much information on ADHD that it's infuriating. I'm sorry if this is incredibly wordy or hard to read, I do not know how to put my emotions and thoughts into words and its hard for me to explain things but I hope I did okay.

[@Feverm00n]

Thanks for talking about your experience, it’s super important for people like you to tell their stories I think. People in the OSDDID online community like to say that everyone is valid and they tend not to acknowledge that people can and do misinterpret their own experiences sometimes. Especially with something as seriously complex as DID. And I do think people (especially minors) misdiagnosing themselves with it could potentially cause damage. I’m glad you’ve got a therapist you’re working with and I REALLY appreciate your willingness to talk about your experience relating to this. It’s so important that the people who encourage self-diagnosis across the board recognize the possible harms.

[@maxjonope]

Thank you for covering this topic, it's been on my mind a lot since I frequently get those "put a finger down but I won't tell you what this is about" videos on my fyp frequently, and after ten minutes I've been diagnosed with 20 different mental illnesses. But jokes aside, this is one of the reasons I wish therapy etc was more accessible. I live in a country where that is the case, but I still had a hard time convincing my parents to let me see a therapist when I was a teen. In my opinion, self-diagnosis isn't inherently bad but it requires a lot of research and time which isn't provided by one single TikTok, even when it """only""" comes to depression, anxiety etc (not saying that these should be taken more lightly/that they aren't an issue but they're very common and easier to diagnose). I'm not sure about self-diagnosing with more complex disorders (like DID, for example), since I don't know much about it. Misinformation about these disorders spreads far more quickly, both through social media and film & tv as well as mainstream media, people misinterpret their own feelings to be symptoms and project symptoms onto themselves. It's a tough situation and I'm not entirely sure about my stance on it

[@EmmmaHhhhh]

What scares me the most about this is that these kids actual faces are associated with these videos. While I am not and will never excuse faking a disorder, it was one thing when kids on tumblr were faking depression or an ED. There’s a level of anonymity on that site that is completely removed from TikTok. Once these kids grow up and move on from faking disorders, these videos have the potential to follow them into their adult lives. There’s a very real safety issue here and it troubles me that no one is addressing it. Of course not all of these people are minors, but there’s a large enough percentage of them that it’s something that worries me.

[@robinmitchells]

Last time I was this early kids were only doing this shit on tumblr lol

[@babywigeon]

RIGHT

[@maxjonope]

TikTok somehow cycles through all the phases Tumblr had, we never learn from our past mistakes

[@brokengirlsrus]

I have BPD and C-PTSD (diagnosed 10 years ago) and stuff like this infuriates me. I've educated myself on my illnesses because they are so misunderstood and misrepresented, especially BPD. In most BPD cases, it was brought on by severe and prolonged childhood trauma. I won't go into detail but I experienced every type of abuse you can name as a child and I wouldn't wish that, or the repercussion of it on anyone. I'm not cool, quirky or DiFfeReNt because of my diagnoses. I'm not proud of having them. On my best days they're tiring and a nuisance and on my worst days they are debilitating, exhausting, and leave me in a puddle of tears and forcing myself to function. They affect me every day of my life. I've spent years in treatment trying to undo the affects of what was done to me growing up. It's incredibly insensitive to just throw around terms and symptoms of disorders when you have no clue what it is like to actually experience them. That bring said, it's still valid of an experience if you have a disorder and it went diagnosed. But using it for content only serves to further stigmatize the actual disorder and its sufferers. Thanks as always Uncle Herman

[@kseniav586]

100% agree. When my therapist suggested I might have BPD I literally said no it can't be because I'm not one of those crazy b*tches. That's how stigmatized this shit is. Most of us don't any help from tictoc with invalidating our suffering, we're very good at it ourselves because that's what trauma does to you.

[@mightymeatymech]

Diagnoses buddies lmao. But yeah I also tend to read up a lot on my own diagnoses just to understand myself better. It's very Embarrassing and hurtful watching people create caricatures of who they think we *should* be, or what movies portray us as to make us 'sympathetic'. Also like you said, using disorders for content is kinda messed up. Like I couldn't imagine making 'lol my ADD makes me so quirky 🤪' content because my GOD I am not quirky, I am Tired and I spend half my day looking for things that were just in my hand and I can never shut up (like now). But there's a huge tonal difference between using your (faked or otherwise) mental illnesses for clicks and sharing your experiences with your mental health (like so many in this comment section!) I just try to ignore the people who are stigmatizing us even further and support anyone who needs it. Also me and my therapist sometimes laugh about these tik toks

[@brigade7678]

You touched on the biggest insult of it all, in my opinion. The HELL, the utter hell, that you go through that leads to these serious disorders is not something you would ever wish on another human, yet we have to watch people trying int on like a fun coat. My c-ptsd has a few layers from 0-4, 12-15, 17-20, where I was put through it all. To say the lightest example possible: kidnapping. Its something that damages your ability to exist every second you don't numb out. Its just a fact that every human gets upset and plenty of people have hard/shitty experiences that hang with them. But I believe they can find these disorders "quirky" ONLY because they have no connection to the true reality of them. for one did switching can be insanely painful, I do not have did but of course with cptsd & bpd I have very heavy episodes with full or partial dissociative amnesia or just derealization/depersonalization where I sit there locked up and unable to talk or lift my arm with all my might, or my body just starts to shut down/lose it while I sit inside. I think if these (mostly kids) people could go through a psychotic episode they would drop this all in a HEARTBEAT to live a boring normal contented life. try holding a job. or school & a job. try having a family to raise or just trying to take care of your body! Let alone the fact that doctors will refuse bpd patients by the stigma that "they don't want to get better". I very much ranted so on a happier note, I am personally 7 years into my therapy journey, have had about a year of life with no night terror episodes, and spend most of my weeks solidly in my body! I go outside regularly and finally truly in my core want to live. I graduated DBT after several years of weekly groups & bi weekly therapy. I'm entering into trauma focused therapy & EMDR treatment, and then later an "interpersonal effectiveness group" to integrate me with people better. The hard fucking work and YEARS of trial/error. I want to see them to make tiktoks about great coping methods they learned in Skills Group! lol not the fun quirks of "fictive alters".

[@nodice8632]

Identifying ourselves by our diagnoses encourages people to continue this crap though. If people didn't fly their personality disorder and illness acronyms like a flag of pride or oppression, we wouldn't have this issue. Giving our opinions without naming diagnoses will help stop this behaviour. They can't try to be part of our special disadvantaged people club if we stop talking like there is one.

[@brigade7678]

@@nodice8632 I fully disagree. I do not believe we should be silent about very real struggles people go through. There is good in community/support around difficulties in life. There is a difference between speaking the truth of a disorder that heavily controls your life, versus joyfully creating content making those disorders seem Nifty. Regulation over total inhibition/prohibition.

[@cheshirerose2001]

I suffer from both depression and anxiety and what pisses me off is that usually people who fake and romanticize disorders is that they are the type who then judge people when they actually suffer from them.

[@princessfetus]

thank you for covering these topics, i will be honest i am not finsihed with the video, but as someone who has autism it is so disgusting to see people wanting or pretending to have autism. I hate my autism, I wish I was born without it. I hate how people make us seem like infants.

[@jessica23claire]

LITERALLY. I’m autistic and all the autistic people I know are adult fucking humans who still function with adult human thoughts, it’s just that sometimes we need a little more help, some more than others. It’s really not that hard to comprehend.

[@yoinksscoob4889]

same tbh, i try to be proud but when i see these lot saying they have autism when they have like 2 symptoms and haven't had any issues in their life it's just annoying, but i also know that i don't know them so i can't really say whether they have it or not

[@Jovviial]

@@yoinksscoob4889 i FEEL this. i really hate fake-claiming and how it impacts the community, but i genuinely really am seeing more and more people claiming to be autistic but they literally talk about it like they have no fucking clue what autism actually is, and y'know, a lot of this stuff is coming from people who are self-diagnosed? i saw this post the other day talking about how like autism isn't a disability and society is actually the disability? people saying that the like root cause of autistic peoples struggles is capitalism?? not you know, a fucking developmental disorder? as if society bent over backwards to cater to the every single need of autistic people and suddenly we have zero struggles and autism is sunshine and bubbles! not only i that like unrealistic, it's just really ignorant? and there's people claiming it's not a disorder and it 's "just a neurotype", like yeah guys it's just a quirky little personality change! like, we don't suffer every waking moment of our existence, but autism CAN be a struggle a lot of the time, it's not like a fucking quirky personality, but a LOT of the people saying this stuff are....self-diagnosed??? it's so hard because i do, to a point, support self-diagnosis because there are barriers, i had to face them as a trans guy, i think everyone struggles with the financial aspect of an official diagnosis, but the goal of self-diagnosing is that you're actively seeking to get an official one. idk if you've seen it going around, but i'm starting to see this um i suppose idea going around the autistic community that apparently it's perfectly appropriate to self diagnose yourself with autism and literally NEVER seek and official diagnosis, NEVER. it just an absurd and dangerous idea, but people are supporting this?? the other day i saw a tweet saying that you "identify" as autistic in the same way you identify as gay. and people deadass were agreeing with her!! i literally wanted to bash my head against the wall. also like lowkey insulting as a gay man to see people comparing being gay to a disorder?? like homosexuality being a disorder is literally a homophobic rhetoric??

[@yoinksscoob4889]

@@Jovviial Yeah ikr I completely agree, it seems like people who mean well taking it too far with the whole 'you don't need to even try to get a professional opinion ever' stuff, and people comparing being autistic to being gay, or any LGBT+ really, is so strange. It's not a sexuality or identity lmao, and I really relate to what you said about people seemingly viewing autism, or any neurodivergency really, as some fun quirky thing, some costume to put on. I've met someone like that who was the stereotypical tiktok kid, and it was like the opposite of what we do with masking, like she acted 'normal'/neurotypical in front of me and my friends, and then in front of teachers she'd be doing this sort of caricature of Tourette's it seemed. Again I'm not a professional but it did seem sus, and it just harms people who genuinely struggle with these things. As an autistic I do find it kind of insulting, we're already infantalized enough as it is, and we aren't always taken seriously (especially 'high-functioning'). To be honest, it does make me kind of angry because I've spent my whole life trying to fit in to these social norms and then these people who are a bit socially awkward or have an obsession but have had no prior symptoms and no professional opinion treat it like it's some fun thing. I got bullied really badly in school for being autistic, only left a year ago (my school was horrible to be fair though, LGBT+ kids were bullied badly too and basically anyone different) and it does make me wonder if they really do have autism or not, because even though I don't know them, some of these people really do seem to just want to be special when most of us who actually are neurodivergent just want to fit in lol

[@Jovviial]

@@yoinksscoob4889 dude i ligit dont even know what masking actually is anymore? i'm almost at the point where i ligit dont even think "masking" is a thing. the way that people present masking to be is almost like an off/on switch? like they just turn off their autism and suddenly become neurotypical! you know can suddenly just communicate perfectly with everyone they come across, they're like super social and fun and bubbly! and they dont even struggle with sensory overload anymore because they just turned it off! and suddenly they can just easily perhaps magically secure a job and perfectly communicate with their coworkers and boss and are the best employee ever! like...it's just so, unrealistic? especially because i totally relate to like struggle fit in as a kid and desperately trying to do anything to not stand out, but in the end i always did stand out, i was always the weird kid that nobody wanted to be around because they didn't understand me. like i didn't get diagnosed until i was 17 and like i remember people saying like "oh it was just because you masking" but like, the more i look back retrospectively, i was so OBVIOUSLY autistic, I did not even remotely mask and even when i got diagnosed and became aware of the idea of masking I found myself like thinking that it just seemed so foreign to me? like i cant "mask" in the way that people tend to describe it as, the closest thing i can do is like just kind of be aware of how fidgetey i am and like try not to stim? but like that's it, it's not an off/on switch for autism. but like, that is exactly how a lot of people who are self-diagnosed treat it as? like they actively WANT to stick out. and i'm not saying that you can't be like proud or apologetically autistic, but it's just the way the sort of like people over-exaggerate stimming on tik tok that makes it look more like cutesy and it looks more like tics rather than stimming? like they literally look like they're having a fucking aneurysm and it's obviously forced? like literally they say that like "stimming is natural and it's not childish!" but they're literally recording themselves in this like cutesy pink room with aesthetic music, and they holding a teddy bear while rocking back and forward and doing the flappy hands and shaking their head and blinking rapidly all at the same time?? like it's this kind of carticture of autism that literally straight up almost looks like the girl in Sia's god awful movie? also like i feel like if i was doing all of those stims at once i feel i'd MORE overwhelmed?? like that's TOO much sensory output you know?

[@johnloverman]

I know two people in my life who have "developed" did in the past two years and it is so hard watching people lose themselves to delusion

[@jessica23claire]

God that “signs of adhd” video was so cringe. As someone who did actually start the process of learning about adhd through Tik Tok, that video was so generic and could apply to anything, not just adhd. That could be very harmful to a lot of young people who can’t access a diagnosis and thus self-diagnose. Even worse if they manage to access adhd meds illegally and put themselves at risk that way. For me, adhd Tik Tok was what helped me start PROPERLY researching my adhd and seeking a diagnosis. I learned from a specialist psychiatrist that I DO have adhd and Tik Tok was just the start of my journey, not the entirety of it.

[@charcoal8]

Exactly, I'm dyslexic and have those "signs", and am certain I don't have ADHD. It's scary to think what could happen with self medicating.

[@cerealinacan2919]

Fr, I have ADD and I agree with you

[@noone3305]

literally that video was just symptoms of being a human being

[@nephlimjedi4741]

For ADHD, you need at the very least 8 symptoms listed in the DSM-5, and most people do have up to 3 or 4 of them naturally but they do not have ADHD. I have 3 cousins who have been formally diagnosed, and it can certainly present in multiple ways.

[@NANA-su5ql]

I think these storys have also destroyed the narratives of many disabilities in a bad way. As an autistic person diagnoised at 9, I've struggled through knowing exactly what's wrong with you and how you weren't able to change it. Abuse is rament and normalized within Special Education services, and you're seperated from everyone. But now the trademark autism experience is "I really like hello kitty! I got diagnoised yesterday, and I was one in the gifted program :((((". Like that's the only acceptable experience that autistic people have now it seems. And it feels so uniquely awful to know that your experience is overshadowed by kids in a program that literally harassed you and called you slurs are now trying to be autistic.

[@holographicwings]

YEAH . its like the same people who bullied me when i was a lot younger are now faking the disorder to be "cute" and its gross

[@ghoulishtoad]

Yeah it sucks i cant imagine being diagnosed at a young age, i just turned 18 and was diagnosed only abt a year ago, and it was because of the internet and being able to research it made me realize OH SHIT THATS WHY I FEEL SO WEIRD ALLLLL THE TIME. i think in that way researching and awareness of disorders is good but people seem to take it too far sometimes. Also it is painful cause hello kitty was ny hyperfixation in elementary i loved the cartoons and toys and had so many shirts and got called a baby for wearinf them, then now these same ppl are like hello kitty says ACAB

[@AntiqueTanuki]

Right? I mean I was one of those gifted kids and autistic, but like the watering down of the autistic experience is very upsetting. Like people who need high support still exist, and I don’t see anyone outside of ableist autism parents talk about their experiences. For those of us who need less support, our experiences are reduced to cutesy caricatures, and it’s sickening. Like as an example, people are all like “omg you can talk to me about your special interest!” and then they except something like hello kitty or trains or whatever as you said, instead of us who have more unconventional special interests! (I use high support and low support, as the “high functioning” and “low functioning” labels are seen as more problematic and honestly rightfully so.)

[@ollieno971]

@@AntiqueTanuki yeah like people that obviously are functioning adults but then put the like autistic person on board stickers on their car when like the point of those is if you have an autistic person in the car and there’s an accident to let emergency service people know that there is someone that might not understand what’s happening that needs help. Like you don’t need that that’s not for you. Or have the lanyards with all their mental disorders on it to wear to the grocery store like you can’t function you don’t need that. And like why would they need to know you have depression??

[@benitalilley9658]

As someone diagnosed with high functioning DiD (yes, as a result of extreme childhood trauma) I have to thank you for making this. I cannot, and I do mean CANNOT watch these videos without internally cringing. It feels like a game, a horrific pantomime of what this condition ACTUALLY is- and the way it affects your life. It's downright scary honestly. Very tiring, very confusing. Whilst I have no doubt that the people making these videos are lonely, have mental health difficulties and want to belong to a community - this is not the way. It takes specialists to diagnose this illness, and the Therapy for it is utterly gruelling. It's not a game. We are not a sideshow for other people entertainment. It's really shameful that serious disorders are being mimicked for entertainment purposes. Thankyou for doing a piece on this. Illness appropriation is a huge problem right now.

[@mayochupenjoyer]

i’d like to say thanks for addressing this huge problem without just pointing and saying “look at the stupid kid.” you addressed how the reason people might be faking DID would be to stop feeling lonely

[@sampirson9224]

I'm so glad that you brought up that these people do actually think they have these disorders. A lot of the videos on this subject assume that these people are completely aware of their "faking" while I do not think that is the case. Especially since it's a lot of young, impressionable people making these video's. I think what they need is to get help to sort out what's actually happening instead of being cruelly shamed. Of course, there are those that are just a-holes about it, and I will have no sympathy for them.

[@BrainRotBooks]

I have CPTSD from childhood and it's really negatively affected my life, career and relationships. I can't believe people are pretending because when I was diagnosed one of the hardest things was realising that my brain was in some ways physically wired differently due to a prolonged period of abuse while it was developing. It's honestly quite hurtful to pretend because people don't take you as seriously when you are experiencing the symptoms of your illness.

[@tmntlover3493]

Ngl, watching people fake disorders makes me feel like I’m faking mine, it’s like, “oh if it’s that easy to fake then I’m faking it too right?”, and it hurts because I can’t romanticize any thing about my illness, I can’t turn it off and I still have to deal with the consequences of my actions, they’re just doing it for fun.

[@lostangel_found]

As someone whose done research on DID for 3 years along with personal experience, it seems the influx of people who now fake the rare disorder change or distort the actual meaning. Each personality is geared towards or fragmented from a certain trauma, their job is to stop the brain from experiencing distress. It's not a fun silly OC's in your head type of thing

[@stratacastor4720]

As someone who struggles with ADHD and executive function issues, It's disheartening to see my issues be made light of and so grossly misrepresented by these kids that don't know how it really works. Its not fun, its not quirky, it's a constant battle against the parts of myself that, time and time again, hold me back from getting to where I want to be, and leave me feeling like I have little control over my life.

[@45pairsofsocks]

I've mostly stopped using Tiktok because liking a few videos with jokes about anxiety that I related to sent me straight to "you might have ADHD" Tiktok. I know two people in real life who have become so convinced that they have various disorders that one essentially gamed the system and found a doctor that would diagnose them with ADHD so that they could get Adderall and another who is in the process of doctor shopping for an autism diagnosis. It's wild. I'll admit that I'm pretty opposed to self-diagnosis (it's a complex issue, some people do not have access to healthcare/resources to get diagnoses) in most cases, mainly because I was on Tumblr the first time this happened and it was so so harmful. I guess every generation is going to go through cycles of this now on social media, but it's upsetting to see a new cohort of young people potentially harming themselves and others in this way.

[@Jovviial]

i'll be real, i've grown so cynical towards the online autism/adhd communities because of tik tok. i've thought a lot about why i feel this way and what makes me so angry towards these two communities, and i figured it out. people talk about these two disorders and their experiences with them WAY too positively, and i think this is the main factor as to why more and more people have begun self-diagnosing themselves. i'm autistic, i'm officially diagnosed, i suppose i am "self-disgnosed" with adhd but i don't really like to phrase it that way, i just THINK i have adhd and i'm saving up to get assessed. i don't think I have adhd based off of the..."positives" of it, i think i have it based off of my struggles with procrastination, forgetfulness, object permanence, just overall this feeling that like, my brain is fighting with myself. like i crave consistency and foreplanning and schedules (because of the autism), but i also feel like i'll cry from the restrictiveness of a rigid schedule, I don't want to be too rigid but i also need to know what's happening? if any of that makes sense? the problem "you might have adhd" tik tok is that it takes the "positives" of adhd and tells people they might have adhd just based off of those without acknowledging the negatives of adhd like executive dysfunction or time blindness. i put positives in quotations because they're not exactly like positives but they're not outright negatives either. i saw one tik tok that explained how you might have adhd if you're walking through rooms or a hallway and you stay very close to the corners of walls or furniture that's a sign of like hyper-awareness? i don't think that's technically incorrect right, but that is just one symptom, and many people do that for other reasons. I stay very close to corners when i'm walking around but that's because i lack spacial awareness because of my dyspraxia (officially diagnosed), and it's not JUST that lack of spacial awareness that makes me dyspraxic, just like being hyper aware of your surroundings isn't the ONLY thing that makes someone have adhd. both of those things neurotypical people can have, and being hyper aware of your surrounding could also just be a symptom of anxiety! And this "if you do this you might have" also kind of happens in the autistic community too, and i really hate it because they're are parts of being autistic that aren't inherently negative, that doesn't mean autism is sunshine and rainbows all the time, and it's just dismissing the struggles we DO have with autism. like the community has been saying that you know "autism IS a disability and it;s okay to say that because disabled isn't a dirty word", but for some reason talking about the negatives of autism has suddenly because kinda taboo? like i absolutely support self-diagnosis in the sense of seeking out an answer to the struggles you're experiences and to receive help and accommodations to support yourself. that's what self-diagnosis has always been, that's the purpose of it. you don't get diagnosed based off of the...non-negatives-but-not-exactly-positives of a disorder because you don't need help with those per say. but the ND online community took that concept and ran with it. people now are genuinely diagnosing themselves with disorders based off of the "quirky" parts of it without even considering the negatives. i've seen this idea floating around the ND community that's gaining more traction and support, and that's the idea that it is perfectly valid to self-diagnose yourself with a disorder and NEVER get an official diagnosis because "fuck psychologists, we're the experts of our disorders, counter culture bullshit etc etc". I'm not joking you, i came across an unironic tweet just a few weeks ago that said it was complacently valid to identify as autistic just like you identify as gay. my fucking jaw dropped to the floor and i was like "there's no fucking way people actually agree with this", but they do. there were a sizeable amount of people in the comments agreeing with this girl and that is...fucking scary. and honestly as a gay man i found it really insulting to have homosexuality be compared to a literal disorder, like gay being a disorder is literally a homophobic rhetoric?? sorry for like going on an absolute rant whoops, i'm just really passionate about this subject

[@brigade7678]

@@Jovviial self diagnosis went from something that made a lot of sense to me, like yeah find out about that stuff and look up what it could be and then try to access tips/skills to help you cope with that! ...but they tend to stop at the "look it up" phase. I hardly EVER see any account with self diagnosis talk about the hardships & look for/practice ANY coping methods. I'm talking about TIPP skills or "Dear Man" or fucking "STOP" the most basic cbt skills you can 10000% look up free online. If they're googling in-depth symptoms or behaviors of a disorder then they absolutely can take the next few clicks to look for ways to help hold their head above water til they can get medical help. (I am more talking about bpd/adhd/c-ptsd as I do not have experience with autism directly) Having disorders that hurt your ability to take care of yourself or have true independence. To struggle with jobs or making eye contact with crowds without crying or having episodes in the middle of the grocery store, so you need to have all your fail safes around! -_- Idk its just too close to "toxic positivity" to watch a sea of people "celebrate" a debilitating disorder I've lost most my life to, including 7 years of intensive therapy (3 times a WEEK yall) and they seem to enjoy wearing the disorder like a fun quirky Flair~. I would never wish someone would live through it, but god do I especially wish they didn't /pretend/ to.

[@ghoulishtoad]

@@Raya-ir4tm how can you genuinely think EVERYONE who does it is like that?? I knew i was autistic before my psychatrist figured it out, and im sure plenty others are because for our entire lives, we're treated differently and when youre not diagnosed, you end up just hating yourself snd constantly wondering what is wrong with you. i was diagnosed with sensory issues and debilitating social anxiety and somehow my psych didnt put two and two together as a sign of an overlying problem. when i said i think i might be autistic, especially since im a girl and girls arent diagnosed as much cause of pre existing stigma, she agreed with me and reffered me to an ASD specialist in the same building. I got screened for it and what do ya know, diagnosed ASD. i know i did it so i could get help, and getting that diagnosis has helped me with my graduation efforts. And if someone is saying it online for attention, they undoubtedly have something wrong with them and shouldnt be ostracized, they just need help too. What really needs to happen is massive education about these things so people who do that type of attention seeking behavior can be correctly identified and given more compassion instead of anger. these people who do it clearly need help and their need for attention stems from SOMETHING

[@ghoulishtoad]

@@Raya-ir4tm And people who who self diagnose dont go around saying they are. The people that do that clearlg have some attention seeking issue that stems from something else. Encouraging people to research things and then try to talk to a doctor is what we should be doing. Also people dont take our struggles serious for a multitude of reasons, and id say self dx is literally one of the bottom reasons on the list

[@solarmoth4628]

I will just say that the other side of this is that mental health professionals aren’t infallible, If you truly think that their diagnosis is wrong it might actually take a while to find a doctor who will listen. I’ve heard about way to many ppl who were put on antipsychotics, antidepressants etc that were based on a misdiagnosis that actually made their symptoms worse or created new ones as a result of side effects. Or the doctor was irresponsible with prescribing and gave them serotonin syndrome. I’m all for seeing a doctor but I’m reluctant to call ppl “doctor shopping” when I always encourage ppl to get a second opinion especially when it comes to mental health. Within the mental health field it’s pretty common to change psychologist or therapist because the style the studied in or their personality might not be leading to a productive relationship. It’s even possible for two great doctors to have two different opinions on an autism diagnosis because they evaluated that person at different times and different behaviors were displayed. The medical field is one that is subject to biases like fat phobia, racism, sexism etc because ppl are biased and doctors are ppl. TLDR is just to be careful when commenting on others mental health journeys because you don’t see them 24/7.

[@mothluvsu]

i seriously love and appreciate channels like this that not only call these people out, but ACCURATELY and RESPECTFULLY informing ab mental illness and the reality of it. i’ll be honest here, i have a personality disorder in real time, bpd to be exact, and it’s nothing to want, no matter what disorder. it makes every day a living hell but you don’t realize it’s not that way to others. by providing an accurate description of these disorders, you’re helping bring down stigmas and negative views of ppl who suffer with it. this makes even a simple doctor trip easier when people are informed. sorry this is a lot. just thank you. this is awesome.

[@borah8383]

as someone with severe ADHD when I see people faking it on TikTok it just makes me wonder if they're not even able to do a quick Google search or just watch an interview i swear the misinformation these people spread it's infuriating

[@blueghost4769]

Unfortunately, a lot of them don't do research outside of tiktok

[@RitzMalheur]

8:45 I belly laughed when that white girl SNARLED 💀😭

[@Mlo-tn9yr]

The thing that pisses me off as someone with FND and gets tics people faking makes it so much hard for me to access support as people assume I'm faking. It makes me feel extremely lonely and isolated. Being told my diagnosis is trendy is beyond tearing me apart as I can barely get folk to listen to me, anyone who fakes these conditions should be seriously ashamed of themselves.

[@setton8]

I'm so sorry. I was diagnosed with FND three years ago and when I got that diagnosis I was terrified, I'd never heard of the disorder (the initial doctor had called it 'Conversion Disorder') I've since met with a specialising doctor who confirmed I have FND, and she's the only doctor I've met who had a decent understanding of the condition. It's not spoken about enough where I live for me to access the help I need but when I found out there's people online who pretend to have FND and things similar it infuriates me so much. I have a hard enough time with doctors either addressing it by its old name and connotations or just telling me to go to to therapy and "it'll go away", these fuckers make it even worse.

[@MakaylaPaterson]

Why do people want to have DID?! I’m so embarrassed. it came from extreme trauma, and I at least personally can’t force switches. I remember when split came out I was like “well that’s it I’m never ever telling anyone ever. The first person I told (besides one person who figured it out but I still didn’t admit my diagnosis) was my husband after he proposed because he deserved to know what tf was going on. It’s not fun. It’s horrific. It’s not cute, it’s scary. It takes a long time for fragments to become a system, and a lot of work. We don’t just wake up with systems that all know each other. A system is a way to normalcy. Edit: also wtf we don’t freak out and hiss when we switch??? My husband says he can’t tell until I talk or refuse something I like to eat usually. I’m so confused

[@heri7301]

I think that BPD tictok unintentionally revealed another part of the motivation people have to do this other than getting attention. The first part where she says "behaviors I thought were bad until I realized I had BPD" implying that the behaviors being part of a condition means they're okay to do. I think some people think having a diagnosable "condition" works as an excuse for negative or inappropriate behavior, that they can just say "I can't help it, I have x", when in reality the whole point of diagnosis is so you can understand and better *try to work through* your dysfunctional thoughts/behaviors (especially if they are harmingn other people as well as yourself like being overly possessive with partners, assuming people hate you and getting mad at them for no good reason, etc)

[@eneyavorodecky]

That first person imagined a POC mammy character of another SPECIES. Holy shit

[@katie1588]

their excuse for self diagnosing is that they can't afford to get a diagnoses.. then what do you need a diagnoses for if you can't get treatment for it that's literally the whole point

[@literallycalgabriel]

a large amount of people used to fake autism before they decided DID was more 'quirky' and as an autistic it's really complicated a lot; like i cant bring up potentially helpful information to people in a conversation (eg; my sensory issues, hyperfixations, struggles following instructions and just anything else related to it) because when i do, and when i clarify it is due to autism i get told im trying to glamorize it, or that im attention seeking or they will just flat out tell me i dont have it

[@shinybearevidra]

When I was younger I did a lot of quizzes to find out if there was something wrong with my head and they all said I had depression. Turns out, I got a diagnosis for depression and anxiety. Those tests can be useful to find out if there's a need to be helped, but are usually done so that one can feel "quirky".

[@peachyevren5789]

As someone with depression and generalized anxiety disorder (both diagnosed) I like to joke about my issues sometimes but in the end I still wish I could get rid of them. There are so many things I am unable to do right now because of mental illness and I would give everything to be mentally healthy and to go out there and just be able to do my thing.

[@draconiusultamius]

I have formally diagnosed ADHD. I also have a ton of cool characters in my mind and a little paracosm that I've worked on since I was really young. Can we just... normalize having a personal fantasy world and doing little self directed bits of rp every so often?

[@Feverm00n]

Right? Like, fantasy, role play, alter egos, that stuff is just humans having fun, or using a creative and helpful coping skill. Not to mention that most “normal” people have their own experiences of multiplicity too, like different selves for different situations. Honestly, I have to wonder if some of these young kids take on DID in the hope of being given some freedom to be “weird” (by middle and high school standards lol) without getting bullied. Like, if they put it behind this official sounding label the other kids won’t be as likely to make fun of them for RP or being playful and imaginative past the point where it’s considered socially acceptable by their peers. Also there’s just a depressing amount of pathologizing totally healthy experiences happening on mental illness tik tok, it seems. Sorry for the tangent lol but I agree can we all just collectively remember that humans can have active, creative imaginations?

[@Octane.on.pawz.]

As someone professionally diagnosed with tardive diskinesia a type of tic disorder, I don’t understand why people want to fake Tourette’s or tics. Tics can hurt, they’re embarrassing, and you can’t just turn them of and on. I just don’t understand the point of people faking.

[@batcoun7ry]

These are the same type of people that constantly talk (rants) about equality, condemning edgy comedy and treating people with respect, yet is showing this type of behavior which is extremely damaging to people that suffer from DID.

[@Bb___________]

something that bugs me about all this as someone that has mental illnesses is that a lot of the symptoms are otherwise normal behaviours turned up to the most extreme level. the symptoms are inherently relatable because they are normal to some degree. feeling anxious about someone being late or not responding is normal, but its the degree to which that fear takes over that is indicative of a disorder. while finding a community can be extremely helpful, especially when a formal diagnosis isn't something you have access to, telling people they have a disorder because they exhibit normal human behaviour is damaging to that person and the community they might try to speak for.

[@storms9023]

Roleplay disorder? You can’t just make up a disorder and get annoyed when people call you out in it.

[@cyanfireall7710]

AHHHHHH UNCLE HERMAN U MADE MY DAY

[@cel7691]

Hi just starting the video but I really want to make this comment, hopefully you see it and hopefully it can clear up confusion for anyone else. So you know, it’s disSOCIATIVE, not disASSOCIATIVE, those are two different words, there is no such disorder as disassociative anything. I just wanted to point that out because 99% of the time when I hear people talk about DID or dissociating they say disassociate and I feel it’s important to get the terminology 100% correct when talking about medical conditions, because there is so much nuance. For example people BPD is used to abbreviate borderline personality disorder (most commonly), but sometimes people also use it to abbreviate bipolar personality disorder (there’s even multiple types of bipolar disorder), and that can lead to serious confusion in common discourse. Since mental health disorders and illnesses are so stigmatized I feel like clear communication is one extremely important part on the path towards reducing that stigma Another relevant example of getting the terminology right is I’ve been hearing a lot of people say that Jada Smith has alopecia, as if that is a diagnosis. It’s not. Alopecia is just medical speak for hair loss. There are specific types of alopecia that are diagnoses, such as androgenic alopecia (pattern balding), alopecia areata (balding in patches), twlo gen effluvium (hair shedding usually causes by stress or trauma, temporary). So while Jada does have hair loss, we don’t know why, what caused it, and I think that’s important when talking about the balding specifically. It’s not so much relevant when talking about how we need to treat someone decently as a human being with respect and not make fun of them, but again this type of lack of specificity is what leads down the slippery slope to misinformation, generalizing hair loss when there are many ways you can come to lose your hair. I do appreciate the video spreading awareness about these terrible acts, your videos are some of my favorite on KZbin. I think it would be a good series to analyze various other TikTok fakers, and interview people who have the disorder and let them speak their experiences to show how it actually is like to live with one of these disorders. Of course everyone’s experience is different so if you could interview multiple people that would be great, if you have time.

[@giagagliardi4713]

I Love that u made this as a person who has friends with autism and friend with Tourette’s they struggle so much and these videos piss me off, I also have depersonalization/ dissociation issues and seeing ppl fake it pisses me off

[@lostgirl.1987]

Thank you for this video. I was holding my breath waiting for you to say Disassociative Identity Disorder was treading as a fake disorder. I have CPSTD amongst other things and some of that is due to having a mum with bipolar but she full on has another personality that hates me and its ruined my life because shes so good at hiding it. The 2nd personality came on when she felt everything was against her (she divorced my abusive step dad after years of legal battles and moving around beaten women institutes, then she had a breakdown and was hospitalised, in hospital she forgot all the abuse he put us through. Remarried him before she got out of hospital and took him back and turned on me). Her real personality only comes out every couple years (when her medication stops working) and thats my real mum the mum I grew up with the mum who loves me (my real mum doesnt understand why shes married to my step dad, she even goes to the police to report him, she tells me she loves me and she's sorry for everything........then a couple days later she'll throw out anything ive brought her, say im to blame for her marriage problems and the items are bringing demon into her house.....and thats when everyone thinks she's better (my family are all Jehovah's Witnesses) We haven't spoke in 8 months and its for the best but I miss my mum (she was a single parent and I'm an only child) So having people fake this kind of thing is so sad because they don't understand how complex it really is. It's sick tbh

[@akaErma]

Yeah, the problem that a lot of these role-players are missing is the "disorder" part. I had undiagnosed ADHD for most of my life and it has been a struggle. I developed depression and anxiety comorbidities. I was drowning in self-loathing before I realized there was an actual cause outside of me just being a failure. Having a mental illness or neurological disorder is not a personality trait. It's something I have to actively fight to keep from ruining my life. Hopefully when these children grow up, because most of them do seem to be in their teens, they will be sufficiently mortified.

[@larissabrglum3856]

That was exactly my experience with ADHD.

[@nukaghoula]

These kids need to stick to role playing imaginary characters instead of using disabling medical conditions as fashion accessories

[@rue5287]

I realized my childhood was traumatic thanks to tik tok. But I went to my psychiatrist and told her about it and it was my diagnosis of cptsd. Self-diagnosis is valid but it’s not watching few tiktoks, it’s hours of reading medical papers, asking friends and family what is their perception of me, watching carefully everyday life and thinking „is this really problematic or am i just faking”. But when it’s real it’s a fvckin' struggle. Not Fun, not quirky, not cool, it’s a disorder that affects your whole life.

[@JC-sm4mp]

The person near 11:12 saying they saw other people on tiktok acting similarly so they assumed they had DID, is exactly why the misinformation is so dangerous. They were likely not ill intentioned in the slightest and genuinely felt what they were seeing online was authentic DID, and they identified with it so they attached the title to their self. Truth be told, communities of things like roleplayers, and complayers used to be much more predominant before the "Larping", as I've heard it called, started. They seemed genuinely apologetic, and confused as to why their situation wasn't valid. It's possible they were more a victim to misinformation than anything.

[@blueghost4769]

That's why i'm concerned about people who get all of their info about these disorders from tiktok

[@pumpkincakeee]

I get second hand embarrassment by people faking a disorder like stop someone needs to take your electronics away

[@SteviiLove]

I know when I struggle with my mental illnesses and my Graves disease, the furthest thing from my mind is filming myself. The last thing I want is for people to see me when I'm at my worst if I can avoid it because it's not fun for anyone. I've been the one suffering and the one watching those I love suffer, most recently my brother. It's never quirky or cute; it's heartbreaking.

[@yami1389]

There's no "role-play disorder". There's a role-play obsession tho. As someone who would rather live as a tiny goblin-tabaxi paladin raised by a pair of wild elves I swear it's not much fun either. I just want my bigger than me, golden, self-made greatsword ok. With vines.

[@fauna5328]

Note to everyone: be wary of the fakers that say "I have DID and I wouldn't wish this on anyone 🥺" it's a TELL TALE sign of them trying to validate their own faking. The levels to this are insane and I already see these people in the comments

[@evelinapushkash6827]

Every single one of them is faking it. Because DID is not recognised by a wide medical community, this is just bogus. Very sad and pathetic

[@crypticshadows]

I mean not necessarily as it is a hugely impactful thing to have. Along with the trauma that caused it. I don’t know if you have DID or not, but it certainly impacts me to a significant amount. Especially with school because I can never remember the lessons !!

[@holographicwings]

sometimes its a faker, sometimes it isnt . with disorders like that it really is hell to have , so i'd understand why someone would say that. i'm very interested by DID as a disorder, as its complex and very disturbing. not what the fakers make it out to be at all.

[@charlotteackroyd6954]

Nah they just learn the things people say and parrot them back to the point they become indistinguishable

[@preternatural3231]

idk if it's as tell tale as u make it seem,, i mean its a generic statement and like any mental disorder, i understand not wanting to wish it on anybody else

[@baileymoran8585]

I have dissociative fugue states as a symptom of CPTSD. It makes me uncomfortable seeing people who seem to be excited about their disorder. Like it’s obvious when someone is faking it.

[@Addimations]

People who fake disorders make others think that those who genuinely have a disorder are also faking. It’s not fair

[@arthurh681]

I genuinely thought I had DID when I was younger, but turns out that the frequent dissociation, not feeling like ''myself'', having triggered-by-something personality changes, repeated childhood traumatic events that cause the symptoms, etc. were all actually due to another disorder. In my case, it was unchecked and out-of-control PTSD. I've now since been going to a psychiatrist and getting the proper treatment for it, but I still feel awful about the amount of misinformation I was accidentally spreading back then. It just sucks thinking about the people in my past situation who do genuinely have those symptoms, but aren't able to access someone who can properly treat them and help them, and diagnose what is really wrong with them, so they have to resort to online stuff which is chock-full of misinformation. The actual fakers can go piss off though, it's the genuinely ill kids I'm worried about.

[@bowsnpetals]

i have a osdd 1b and i don’t get y anyone wants a system, they aren’t fun i can’t remember things that my boyfriend cherishes, i don’t remember to eat i have a food diary to make sure i’ve eaten, i cannot sleep and my sleep schedule is messed up because alters don’t wanna sleep if i’m tired, i don’t remember any of my life past 5 weeks ago, and SERIOUS ptsd flashbacks

[@Feverm00n]

Just a note, it’s dissociative, not disassociative. Also while I appreciate the efforts as someone who actually does have DID, you don’t know nearly enough about it from your research to be speaking with such authority. One thing you might wanna consider if you wanna be actually helpful to people like me who are trying to combat misrepresentation & misinformation, is focus on the toxic behaviors of these people/kids rather than using that toxic behavior to call them fakers based on your very limited knowledge/skim of some internet resources. If you wouldn’t speak as an authority on other mental illnesses based on reading through 3 websites, please consider not doing it with DID either. It just empowers other uninformed people to think they’re capable of discerning “fake” from “real” based on arbitrary standards, and y’all tend to spread even MORE misinformation & set standards for “real”ness that make zero sense if you actually understand the disorder. I mean, I encourage you to continue to identify & call out toxic behavior. That’s good to call out. But conflating it with faking (regardless of if they are or not) is you pretending you can tell whether someone is faking a complex trauma related dissociative disorder when you aren’t even familiar enough with it to pronounce the name correctly. Which isn’t really appropriate or logical, and it’s doing more harm than good. Seriously.

[@kitiskitkat]

This. I personally do not have DID but my closest friend is the host of a system so I've done quite a bit of research and have gotten information from a professionally diagnosed first had source who has done a fair share of research as well. The first tiktok shown made me upset, as there are people with alters like that. Different species and races in a system are a thing and are valid. Based on that tiktok along it is hard to say whether or not that person is faking. But, if you haven't done enough research, it would be easy to believe so.

[@MostlyCloudy]

It's a fake disorder lol

[@somecanadiangirl1]

That one person making their black woman alter the caregiver and provider of emotional support....to put it mildly not a good look

[@mingoringo_]

Your point where people who are convinced they have a specific disorder may not see a professional as they don't want to be told they do not have it resonates with me. I spent so long believing that I had a certain disorder, and my life at that point revolved around it. Now I knew I needed to get professional help as I was really struggling, but the anxiety I felt knowing that I could have been wrong all along and there was something completely different going on would have destroyed me. I mean, I was right all along and have since gotten treatment, but holy shit I got scared. Many of these people probably do in fact have real symptoms, yet they could be looking in the wrong direction. It can be kind of scary to start over again with a completely new disorder that you're not familiar with.

[@Feverm00n]

I feel like that’s why it’s so important to focus more on the symptoms rather than the label, because it can be so anxiety inducing, like you said, once you’ve identified with the label, to face the possibility of being wrong about it. As a side note, there’s a really good bit old TED talk about Depression by Andrew Solomon and at one point he talks about how recovery from mental illness differs from other illnesses and it really stuck with me and helps me put less focus on the fear of suddenly finding out my diagnosis was something different (tho I’ve had that before since I’ve been misdiagnosed a few times). He basically says ‘If you have lung cancer, and you tell me that standing on your head for 15 minutes a day makes you feel better, that’s great, but you still have lung cancer. However, if you have depression, and you say that standing on your head for 15 minutes a day makes you feel better, that means it could effectively put your depression into remission.’ It’s a paraphrase, but if it sounds interesting I highly recommend his talk. It’s called Depression: The Secret We Share by Andrew Solomon.

[@dollbowz]

i just got diagnosed with BPD and i'm in the process of getting evaluated for OSDD (two of tiktoks most romanticized disorders lol) and i've been trying to get help/a diagnosis of both of these for years. and now that it's finally happening i feel a sense of relief due to being able to get help but i feel as though i can't even post about my journey online or the excitement i feel by having answers after all these years because i'm terrified someone will accuse me of faking due to people like this. i am *not* excited that i have or potentially have these things, i'm excited to not feel lost anymore. there's a huge difference. also the fake "switches" kill me lmfao i'm not in the business of fakeclaiming people but man. it is incredibly obvious. personally i could never feel comfortable filming a switch and it's hard for me to even articulate what they feel like. it isn't so sudden and black and white (at least not for me)

[@EctoBabble]

DID tiktok makes me so angry, it made me so ashamed to get any help, right after Ratched came out and made my parents think I was a fucking monster. Screw these kids using it for jokes. It's not fun at all, it's fucking awful. I'm constantly fighting addictions to try and control my memories, switching, and 'feeling awake'. That doesn't even include the amnesia and ptsd attacks. I just got out of therapy where I was literally arguing with myself over whether or not something that happened to me as a kid, was my fault or not and my therapist had to try to talk over me to get me to calm down. I have one alter who only co-fronts with me and vice versa, and I am helplessly codependent on him because I require permission and support to do anything otherwise I feel I "don't deserve it" and will start driwning in alcohol and self harm. This is so insulting. God sorry I got super angry.

[@armouredavenger3000]

No don't apologise. It's OK to let out your anger especially since people are using something very serious as a trend. Please hang in there I promise things will get better 🙏 ❤

[@VictorianDemonica]

I have ADD, CPTSD, social anxiety, and am prone to getting panic attacks when I’m overwhelmed or extremely stressed; and I’d give anything in the world to not have any of them. So the fact that you have these tiktokers faking it for clout and views…honestly it’s just sickening. It’s not cute, it’s not uwu quirky, it’s not fun - it’s something that has damaged a lot who I use to be and am struggling with; there’s nothing cute about having anxiety attacks, or having to be careful about your triggers, or being unable to pay attention for long periods of time.

[@crypticshadows]

I would just like to add it’s not called ADD anymore, it’s called ADHD because it is a spectrum. sorry for being annoying! Also, I have ADHD too and I feel you; It’s a horrible illness and its very difficult to deal with..

[@VictorianDemonica]

@@crypticshadows I’m sorry!! I keep forgetting that! >

[@Flame_6711]

People are able to fake disorders while I am over here thinking I am faking every little thing about myself sometimes, it sometimes keeps me up at night-

[@pettyqueen4401]

All of these DID clips is just so gross, you don’t have DID you literally are just “kinning” these characters. like plssss look into the kinning community if you’re like this, it’s not DID.

[@qs-ii1872]

You see a lot of people with ADHD symptoms diagnosing themselves as autistic, you see a lot of people saying they have OCD for being “clean freaks”, people see what they want to see. Rather it’s a sense of belonging, fame, or misunderstanding your personality traits for things other then what you’re labeling them as. I’d like to bring up the high correlation of ASD individuals presenting themselves with other disorders. An individual with multiple niche masks can mistake themselves as having DID, while a person who has “tics” can simply be stemming and not realizing it. I say this becuase I myself am autistic, I often stim, and I have tics. They do have a similar sensation but tiks are something you have to force down. When I was a teenager, I also wholeheartedly believed myself to have DID (then MPD) due to how distinct my personality shifted to just fit in anywhere. It was always a mask, it wasn’t pretend, and it wasn’t fake, its survival all the same. DID isn’t something to glorify, it’s horrible that it exists at all. I can only hope that everyone out lacking any traumatic event realize that what they have isn’t DID. I mean it in the most respectable way possible. If you believe yourself to have any disorder, go get evaluated.

[@bsings7928]

Wonderful video. I would just like to add that OSDD is not necessarily a less severe disorder, it’s just missing one component DID so instead of making new names for all the little variants they just label them OSDD

[@Tayloraurrekoetxea]

Yup. Otherwise specified disorders just mean symptoms didn’t match the criteria for a given disorder but still fit into that area. Nothing to do with severity. You get dx with a disorder when it interferes with your functioning

[@trilliance]

this is horrific. we are fighting so much stigma and hate, and this is making it way way worse, especially when some of us have issues that bring us a lot of hate already (personality disorders). makes. me. sick.

[@petergriffiinbirdistheword]

I was diagnosed with DID twice in my lifetime and I would never admit this to anyone in RL, because it's humiliating, embarrassing and shameful to me. To say these are "trends" or feel cool by them is so lame. I just can't... smh 😮‍💨 I even begged my last doctor to change my diagnosis. It's NOT a badge of honor to have these things follow you. People need to get a clue. Seek help.

[@sarcha6764]

Damn, Uncle Hermy that intro got a glow up. Love it!

[@awkwardpotato2896]

As someone who grew up surrounded by people with dangerously serious mental health issues who never got the help they needed, either by refusing or just not having the resources, it really fucking hurts seeing how many people love to fake these things. My siblings and I were abused so heavily and while we are adults now, we are all still suffering from the damage done to our bodies and to our own mental health. The stigma against mental health has affected my family in so many horrible ways, seeing people turn it into some quirky ass shit, is so infuriating. People think having personality and/or behavioral disorders is cute and uNiQuE, they have no idea what it’s like waking up every morning scared for your life bc you don’t know how someone who actually suffers from this stuff will be like. Will I get my dad who cries anytime he sees me hurt? Or will I get my dad who ran out of meth and needs his daughters to do some “stuff” for his friends? I can’t play any survival games where you’re being chased by something bc I literally lived it for 6 years. Have any of you seen what it’s like being around someone who gets beyond angry when they get overstimulated? I know a handful of you have and you all know just how bad it can end. As. 3 year old I almost lost my life bc my dad was having an episode (he swears the FBI was out to get him and that I was not his real daughter, even on his deathbed in 2020 he told me that I needed to apologize to him). And even now for me growing up with mental illnesses being scared out of my mind that I’ll end up being like my birth parents, I considered just taking my own life to spare my family of the troubles bc I felt my younger siblings needed the help and attention more. I yell at everyone and anything when I’m overstimulated and I’ve made really bad decisions that ended up making everything worse. Having mental illness isn’t some fucking quirky personality trait, it literally ruins your life if you don’t have the right resources. You get to this point where you look at someone and you can’t even see them as a person, just as a danger and that you need to get rid of them before they can get rid of you, it’s fuckinf scary how your brain can warp reality. I had friends throw a surprise party for me, I thought they were planning on killing me, it was the most agonizing 2 weeks feeling like something’s off, that doom feeling, they were asking so many questions about me but why??? Bc they wanted to make sure they gave me the best party ever, not bc they were trying to find out how to dispose of me in the best way possible. I pray one day people see how damaging it is to be faking these things.

[@systemsentry]

As an autistic adult, I personally find it difficult to distinguish users on TikTok who do genuinely wish to spread awareness about their disorder, and those who are merely faking a disorder for clout. It can be very distressing, as I find comfort in this type of content when it is not being faked. I agree that users faking disorders is a big problem on TikTok's platform and it has become difficult to enjoy content related to my disorder when I can no longer discern what is real and what is not.

[@ur_fav_herb]

for the people who are actually faking it… it’s sad for me to watch bc I have a friend who has DID and she tried to commit suicide because of it…

[@DIDBooks-n-Research]

Thank you sir for this. I'm fighting this as well and have real DID. It's getting so out of control.and have tried to write about it and post about it. These people has made up there own criteria! It's so so upsetting!

[@jrock2281]

As a 37 yr old DIAGNOSED w/ depression, anxiety, & bipolar on daily psych meds & also battled severe self harming and a horrible eating disorder from the ages of 12- 23 w/ 2 unaliving attempts ( 1 of which I was very close to succeeding on & had to have surgery for) landing me in 2 psych wards this shit PISSES ME OFF & just makes me hate ppl even more, especially this new generation who seem to be the majority mocking & faking mental illness/disorders for attention & social media views

[@jam-zr5wv]

so relating ot the ADHD stuff, I saw many many many videos describing ADHD that I related to, and so I did research, quizzes online, etc, and I was diagnosed professionally in early January of 2022 I think I don't remember exactly when, and started meds a month or two ago. I am genuinely thankful for tiktok for helping me discover this and increase my quality of life, but the massive negative affects do genuinely worry me, I have a friend who hasn't been diagnosed with anything but says they have ADHD, autism, social anxiety, depression, a dissociative disorder (not like DID a different kind) and I think BPD, which they haven't confirmed, and the traumay they associate it to was never physical and from my outside perspective seems like just normal parenting (not going into detail for privacy). I also sort of fell into the DID hole and definitely the tourette's myself (I don't have either, just some very aggressive stemming and maladaptive daydreams, both from lovely lovely adhd). Also, I saw that I displayed similar symptoms of autism that both my friend and tiktok described (not saying either are wrong exactly), but I absolutely don't think I have autism, aspergers, or anything like that. Just thought i'd relate some personal stories on this.

[@hannah.kate.]

I can tell you as someone who suffers from multiple serious mental health conditions, the last thing I’m going to be doing when I’m in crisis is loading up TikTok and filming my breakdown - it’s horrifically embarrassing to have people watch you go through that, and judge you not knowing the reason it’s going on or thinking you’re a complete nut job. It’s mortifying beyond words, especially afterwards when you’re in a more stable place and you can look back and see what your actions actually look like to the average person. These disorders almost killed me, almost killed my friends, and have actually killed more people than we could ever possibly count. They’re hell to live through, utter hell, and seeing people add to the misconception around these disorders just for attention and clout is damaging in every aspect of life for us. People think we’re faking, or exaggerating, or we’re all toxic and we’re going to kill them in their sleep or all this stuff, and people play into those stereotypes and it’s so infuriating. Thank you for making this video, and I hope everyone who reads this is doing ok and staying safe ❤️

[@TrainerKat1]

Just a note, I don't think there were many clips with people ticking on camera, but it might be good to give a disclaimer or warning about that in the future since it can set off... tics.