We need to talk about TikTok's ADHD misinformation problem

Time Stamps:
0:00 Intro
1:41 What ADHD is
7:30 Why misinformation is harmful
16:12 Some TikTok reactions
23:54 Takeaway

[@Vigdisnet]

My brother has ADD, I'll never forget him crying and break down over stress over homework and chores. It had to be perfectly silent for him to focus and it was so hard for him, pre treatment, to do well in school too.

[@Myllkka]

Emotional dysregulation is such a huge part of ADHD, these people seem to think not being able to focus is just some cute thing that happens once a day or whatever... you actually feel a sort of pain in your brain when you try to focus. Dr. Russell Barkely talks about ADHD in a very understandable way, and Dr. Gabor Maté talks about how ADHD symptoms can worsen or be caused by trauma.

[@VenusAD]

I understand this so well, but for me it's that I need noise (certain types of noise, like podcasts or music) to concentrate, otherwise my mind wanders. This is why individualized treatment is so important. What works for one person might not work for the other, even though the symptoms/causes are the same. I hope your brother is doing much better now.

[@ptlovelight2971]

I am the same. If my environment is not conducive to me learning, I find it emotionally difficult to stay focused and can have some meltdowns about it

[@ML-di8lt]

@@Myllkka I feel like so much of the 'emotional dysregulation' is really just a normal reaction to being told (either implicitly or explicitly) what an absolute f-up you are all the time. And yes, focusing can actually *hurt!* I sustained a brain injury that gave me ADHD like symptoms and I remember what a complete shock that was. Suddenly focusing actually hurt.

[@jclyntoledo]

Omgosh yes! I would get so mad and want to scream and throw stuff bc ppl were making noise. The best thing for your brother is to get blise canceling headphones. That will help at least with schoolwork and reading.

[@squidwardjones8186]

As someone who was diagnosed as a child and still struggles with ADHD as an adult, I literally have had people who aren't diagnosed tell me that they have ADHD too because they can't focus sometimes and then turn around two seconds later and ask me wtf is wrong with me for exhibiting a very typical ADHD symptom lmao. This shit is driving me nuts. Edit: so this post seemed to resonate with a lot of people. Hope ya'll are doing okay. Don't let the bastards getcha down.✊

[@boinkadoinkk]

yes!!! I even had a 'friend' who was diagnosed with ADHD but her main diagnosis is CPTSD, I honestly believe she was misdiagnosed ADHD because she would literally bully me for my ADHD symptoms.... there is literally no way she is neurodivergent because my god she really looked down on me and my other neurodivergent friends for having such a hard time managing everyday things that she had no problem with 90% of the time. It was infuriating living with her, she made me feel SO useless and inferior bc of my symptoms.

[@ashleycora138]

YES. I notice people claim neurodivergent then shit on people for their actual neurodivergence. How ironic.

[@hermionetwo2739]

@@boinkadoinkk some people experience adhd but it isn’t as bad due to their needs being met as a kid. My ex boyfriend, he had adhd, and has struggles, but does not relate to my symtoms due to him getting help as a kid. He was able to get medicated while I didn’t. And he was raised a lot better than I was. It was very hard for him to accommodate to my adhd becuase he himself was able to find a way to get over those struggles. I don’t think we should be doubting peoples diagnosis just becuase they don’t understand you, but I don’t agree with what your friend did either. ADHD is on a spectrum a lot of the time and some need more help than others. It is often common of parents with adhd to say “you don’t have adhd cuz I do that” and often shame the child cuz they themselves also struggle. Often times people put others down cuz it is something that someone else told them often

[@boinkadoinkk]

@@hermionetwo2739 my friend had cptsd due to an emotionally absent, neglectful, abusive mother. She had no other family. She was also only diagnosed with ADHD at 21, which was less than a year before we became friends. I definitely get what you're saying and I agree, but she absolutely did not have *any* of her needs met as a kid. If anything that should mean her ADHD symptoms are extremely pronounced.

[@hermionetwo2739]

@@boinkadoinkk yes I am the same way. I did not get diagnosed till 18 and experienced a lot of abuse as well. Remember you don’t remember what she was like as a kid, cuz I have always had this even during positive moments of my childhood

[@hashtagmate]

It took me until I was 23 until I got officially diagnosed because I'm a woman and I always had good grades 🙂🙂 I was just silently struggling and nobody took it seriously 🙂🙂🙂

[@alanamontero4743]

I didn't have good grades and still nobody took it seriously except for one psych student when I was 16. (Ironically, one of the best psychologists I've ever met, though not yet qualified at the time. Excellent listening skills and created space so well and just had the best presence.) I think the girl/woman thing and not being hyperactive causes many to not be taken seriously and good grades would only make it worse.

[@mmc8539]

I was diagnosed last year when I was 28 after struggling through nursing school and most of my master’s degree. I think I can relate to your frustration. I was good at masking, and had really good grades, although looking back, I don’t understand how someone didn’t notice.

[@olympiaelda1121]

you gotta ‘love’ the passive-aggressive smileys

[@thehealingfairee]

Literally same

[@tikimillie]

I was like 6, but also had like, super boyish adhd? I guess i was a tomboy as a kid aswell. However they didn’t pay enough attention to my autism because of how prevelant my ADHD was.

[@essaly7969]

I hope one day people will understand two things: - you can relate to someone with a specific mental condition without having said mental condition - not all of your negative traits need a medical explanation Society puts a lot of demands on everyone, and if someone has anything going on in the background (trauma but also physical disabilities etc), it's pretty likely that they can feel overwhelmed or behind everybody else. Relating with some 'ADHD traits' is completely normal, because we're all human sharing experiences. At the same time, we have to be open to the idea that it's pretty easy to fall between the cracks of diagnosis when you have ADHD. I'm a textbook example of combined ADHD (I check all the traits without exception) yet I was still diagnosed as an adult, mostly because in my country it's not well-known and it requires seeing both a psychiatrist and a neurologist. That's a great way to avoid misdiagnosis, but it's also pretty ridiculous to expect families to go out of their way to seek a diagnosis they aren't even aware of by seeing multiple specialized doctors several times.

[@joanna0988]

Great points! Here in Canada you can now get an ADHD diagnosis in 15mins of speaking to a psychiatrist 😐 I know 6 women with the diagnosis and on high doses of Vyvanse 🤔

[@astroblast2325]

@@joanna0988 we have ONE adhd specialist in my area of the province and my "test" was a clicking game and a survey. Considering the years in therapy, talking w different psychologists and doctors for other possible diagnoses, it felt almost absurd? I don't know. It certainly wasn't affirming.

[@joanna0988]

@@astroblast2325 Omg where are you located? I'm in Vancouver, BC. And yes that's not a reassuring assessment?? I'm confused why they're allowing this unless their goal is just to pump more meds into people.

[@astroblast2325]

@@joanna0988 NS! We're fucked accross the board healthcare-wise, here, though

[@suplannie]

@@joanna0988 This is apparently not the case in Ontario, I saw 2 family doctors, 3 psychiatrists over the span of 10 years, and was only officially diagnosed by my current psychiatrist, who specializes in it. The others all agreed I probably have it, but said they didn't know enough to say for sure. Edit: Should also say, you can pay for an assessment yourself out of pocket, but that costs thousands of dollars. If you can't afford that, you'll be waiting a very long time like I did.

[@cult2occult897]

There's an ADHD feeling I call "painful boredom" when I am so understimulated and bored that I actually would rather be dead than sit through the boredom.

[@nataliesiddle8507]

Have you seen that ‘worlds quietest room’ place? Apparently the noise cancelling panels in it mean you can literally hear your own pulse and neurotypical people can’t spend more than a few minutes in it. I am genuinely curious what it could do to someone with ADHD but I am mildly worried it would kill them on the spot

[@picachugirl2036]

You know i like how you named that horrible feeling

[@kyratompsett4409]

Have had full on breakdowns at work because there was literally nothing to do except maybe push a broom for six hours. Management asked me what I needed to quit asking to leave early and I was like STUFF. GIVE ME SOMETHING TO DO AND I MIGHT STAY LATE! Nothing like standing in the middle of a warehouse, fantasizing about digging out your brain with a crochet hook because everything is bad and you're bored.

[@insertcreativenamehere7970]

@@kyratompsett4409 I used to work at a theme park and rainy days at a small station by myself was absolute torture. There was NOTHING to do, the park was dead. Minutes felt like hours.

[@sanecatlady]

I haven't been diagnosed with ADHD but I definitely relate to this. I think I associate boredom with depression, so it's unbearable to me

[@strangeduckling]

Please do a video like this for autism/ASD! I see so many tiktoks and videos about "this is what autism is," and it absolutely jumbles up my brain and makes it hard to distinguish "this is autism" vs "this is autism FOR ME" vs "this is something similar" vs "this is something completely different" vs "this is just normal human experience."

[@isabellamorris7902]

Yes please. I'm working on figuring out if I'm some flavour of neurodivergent and would like some help sorting the useful signs from the useless ones

[@EveryDayALittleDeath]

There's a youtuber named Yo Samdy Sam who has a video breaking down the diagnostic criteria for autism. She's not a psychologist and she doesn't really discuss misinformation as tiktok wasn't that big when she made the video, so I do think it would be helpful if Ana still made a video similar to this one, but Sam's video is a good place to start if you're wondering if you might be autistic.

[@JustMeAri]

Yessssss, we need a video about autism

[@addyshorhnr3544]

@@isabellamorris7902 There are many channels that do this. If you think it’s adhd how to adhd is my favorite and has videos comparing it autism. Warning though autism and adhd are very similar at times. Mostly because adhd is one of the most common comorbidity. There is many studies trying to see why this occurs that are definitely worth the read.

[@that_arty_person6957]

and especially with sensory issues and people assuming having them means you are autistic too or you have to be autistic to have them. Its so stressful to watch people boil down debilitating things to something like noticing sounds other people don't.

[@silversmith333]

I sought out my diagnosis because my lack of executive function was literally ruining my life and my gpa. I wish it was just fidgeting

[@restlessdream8745]

Executive dysfunction is one of the hardest things to deal with. :/

[@jclyntoledo]

Omgosh yes! I feel like ppl don't really talk about it enough or they casually mention it.

[@blueghost4769]

God i haven't been diagnosed with adhd only autism, but executive dysfunction is ruining my life too. I often spend half of my day not being able to do anything while feeling progressively worse about it. I wish i could get help with this but people don't believe me.

[@NoahGooder]

Executive function issues as far as i can tell from my own well ADHD are basicly like some kind of society killer. instead of being able to well sleep walk through what should be natural habits and rituals such as getting out of bed,choosing your new outfit, or brushing ones teeth you are basicly forced to manually take control and force the action because your own body doesnt take the initiative.

[@selladore4911]

i feel s o ashamed of my executive dysfunction and i don't know how to break out of the cycle

[@cellokat03]

I think the important distinction to be made is that many of these symptoms might result from ADHD, but those symptoms on their own don’t mean you have ADHD

[@maevereynolds6344]

You put words to my thoughts!! Well put!!

[@darkstarr984]

Yup. I only got diagnosed because there’s a giant pile of things I’ve found wild workarounds for actually are most of the symptoms of ADHD. I think a small amount of it is actually from PTSD… and it looks *a lot* like OCD and ASD but after talking with professionals and getting tests those were ruled out.

[@dragonlady1943]

This is the comment I was looking for! Like yes, the core symptoms are necessary for diagnosis, but how do things evolve and affect each person as time goes on?

[@BrieBoar]

And a lot of ADHD symptoms are things that people who don't have it might experience. The difference is that people with ADHD experience them more often and with greater intensity.

[@cellokat03]

@@BrieBoar Also very true!

[@catrionathepoet130]

Tiktok did help me get my diagnosis as ADHD as an adult, however, I had such glaringly obvious symptoms as a child. I have always been inattentive, lost things frequently, made careless mistakes, struggled with time management, with major exec functioning issues and inability to keep a room clean and been fired from jobs. As a child it was flagged that I was possibly Autistic but nothing happened with that. While there is a lot of misinformation, I am grateful for tiktok for showing me I'm not alone and empowering me to seek a diagnosis.

[@boinkadoinkk]

literally the same thing happened to me!! (not thetiktok part - I found out I had it before I got tiktok). I also had my mother thinking I was autistic, but all the 'signs' she saw were really just inattentive ADHD symptoms/behaviors. I would get into trouble at school for being forgetful, for always being late, for never finishing my work or not listening in class. Had a lot of trouble making and keeping friends. Always forgetting appointments/meetings/plans with people and losing important things. I was/am always 'in my own head' and didn't/don't always know what was going on around me lol. Horrifically bad at managing my own time and very bad with money.There were so many signs that she and my teachers picked up on but I was growing up in china in the early 2000s and there was zero medical awareness around ADHD. Even if the people around me knew about inattentive ADHD (they didn't), there was nowhere for me to go for diagnosis or treatment. Kids just didn't get diagnosed with stuff like ADHD or asperger's in Asia, even now it's pretty rare.

[@violetsky__7649]

I’m worried about being fired from my job right now not gonna lie.

[@yaniquewest455]

Literally same with me

[@kdelka81]

Same!

[@beardpandaa]

That's the same for me. It was glaringly obvious as a child for me I think too. Time management sucked. Struggled with keeping my room clean. My dad got so mad at me for not being able to vacuum the living room because I got frustrated with the vacuum not working super well and started pulling it apart trying to make it work better. He would say, "if you can't even vacuum the living room, how are you going to succeed in life and go to college or get a job?" Not being treated like my inattention was a medical issue and like I was just a weird burden was really what led to me not being diagnosed until I was 27.

[@suplannie]

I feel so conflicted about the concept of self diagnosis. It took me almost a decade as an adult before I was diagnosed. My family doctor said "Well, you have most if the symptoms, but I'm not a specialist so I can't say for sure." I ask to see a specialist, they say they don't know any that treat adults. Then I finally got to see a psychiatrist for OCD, but they said they wanted me to see another psychiatrist at the same hospital who specialized in ADHD, and wouldn't even let me on the waitlist until I was completely discharged from the anxiety clinic first. I was finally diagnosed when I moved to a new city and started seeing a psychiatrist who treated both. Not only that, but I'm lucky enough to be in a country with universal healthcare, I can't imagine how difficult it would be with the financial hurdles too. Like in some cases, I think the barriers to getting diagnosed are bad enough that self diagnosis might be all someone has, possibly for years until they can get treatment. But there are definitely all the risks you mentioned in this video too.

[@Discrete1998]

I literally have a diagnosis by an ADHD specialized psychiatrist, and I was still told that it wasn’t good enough to get prescribed the proper medication (stimulants). So instead they put me on different SSRIs without telling me possible side effects of going on/off them, and I had severe negative effects with no help to my symptoms.

[@mcchilde2903]

Self diagnosis is perfectly valid. I'd rather someone is self diagnose than live with the pressure of not living up to neurotypical standards. I think it's ableist to invalidate self diagnosis, as she did.

[@SquirrelRave20]

The irony of bashing self-diagnosis for ADHD while describing all the symptoms that make it hard for an adult with ADHD to manage all the steps to diagnosis is frustrating.

[@onemillionpercent]

literally, i don’t condone the culture of needing to diagnose every issue one faces. but when it has interfered with your entire life and it’s difficult to have ever noticed it because of… so much… that’s when there could be some basis. i don’t understand why someone would *want* to have ADHD.

[@foliofolio]

the only real reasons you need diagnosis is to get a. sick leave b. commoditations c. treatment = therapy and or meds) not listed in any specific order. self diagnose cannot give you none of those, so why would you need to diagnose yourself ?

[@laurenheard5187]

Thank you for mentioning how saying "daydreaming" is dissociation is dangerous. I daydream frequently just because I am a creative and introverted person, but during a very abusive relationship I started having depersonalization and derealization episodes. They're a completely different and terrifying feeling. For me, daydreaming is pleasant but disassociation is NOT at all pleasant.

[@sailormeo]

Oh gosh I empathize with this so hard. The depersonalization and derealization episodes are absolutely terrifying when I’m driving. It’s been happening less since I was diagnosed with ADHD and started stimulants, but the episodes will come out of nowhere and I get so confused because I don’t know why

[@celin8034]

I had a car accident because of daydreaming

[@commentbot9510]

When you have disassociation or depersonalization, are you completely unable to recognize yourself and your surroundings as familiar? I would have these moments where I would feel disconnected from myself and my surroundings but I wouldn’t say I was completely disconnected from them and I was still aware that it was me and it was real. I just want to know if I experienced something different or not.

[@jclyntoledo]

Dissociation I would classify as zoning out. The problem is that's also what ppl call daydreaming, which honestly might be a form if dissociation but I agree that if someone has a problem with daydreaming too much it's often not the same thing. Maladaptive daydreaming is a thing.

[@valeriapebble]

I think I have some sort of dissociative issue as well, and it is terrifying 😢 it is almost always when I am walking and usually at work. I work in a hair salon, and I always dissociate in our breakroom if i have had a high stress day. I'll usually be walking across the room, then my vision goes black, I feel like I'm not real, I stand in place, and feel like I've essentially died and been revived. People around me usually ask "are you alright?" And tell me afterwards that I just go silent and stare off into space. After about 5 seconds of being "under," I suddenly remember where I am, what I was doing, and what happened. I usually try to ground myself in reality,by touching a wall, fidgeting with my clothes, etc. I tried telling a doctor about this as a child, and they didn't believe me, even though I was sure I was having absence seizures. 😢

[@alanamontero4743]

While I don't think TikTok is necessarily a good source, I'm really concerned about a rigid overfocus on DSM criteria and on overdiagnosis/misdiagnosis because I have seen that mindset - which has been around since the 90s - harm so many people. Including me. I came across ADHD in my psychology class in school and I raised it with the psychologist and psychiatrist I'd been referred to but it was dismissed, I wasn't listened to, I was belittled. A student psych raised Asperger's as a possibility but that was likewise dismissed because of the same mentality. (Turns out I'm autistic too.) I ended up dropping out of school after struggling for years, was not able to get an education, was not able to get a full-time job, and had all sorts of other issues. I developed chronic health problems. I struggled with friendships for years. I have never had a long term relationship and I'm nearly 40. I ended up with severe burnout I was recruited into an evangelical cult in my 20s. I got diagnosed in my 30s and also got out of the cult. It's better now but I've ended up with a lot of trauma, a lot of shame, no hope of normal employment, ongoing burnout, and grief over a lost life. This "TikTok misinformation" scaremongering is now all over the media in multiple countries and, as well as contributing to stigma and educational and workplace discrimination, it's being used to deny people disability support and being used by politicians to oppose people on lower incomes having greater access to medication which is otherwise unaffordable. And it's not white middle class people who are being mostly affected. I'm also aware that there's a good chance that this will lead to abuse from certain family members. Two other people have already been abused by family and others. I have - and many other people have - been mocked online and told we're lazy, weak, it's not real, etc. I know most psychologists mean well but I think you really have to look at the bigger picture and also understand that not everyone is coming from the same social/life position. TikTok misinformation is bad but I think the reaction against it is doing far more harm and most of the harm is to those who actually are ADHDers or autistic - and especially women, poc, LGBTQ+ people, poor and working class people, and those with other disabilities. Also, frankly, I'd rather some misled people come to therapists asking questions than more people going what I and others have gone through. There is no evidence of overdiagnosis in adults (quite the opposite), only perhaps overdiagnosis in young boys in some countries. Additionally, the DSM criteria, which has for its entire history been primarily based on boys, needs serious work and in the meantime people in the psych industry need to stop assuming that external presentation will fit within a narrow stereotype. (On a side note, one of the reasons why I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD was because "I wasn't distracted by external stimuli" - but I was in an incredibly bland and boring office with no windows and my thoughts and daydreams were more interesting. People with ADHD also get distracted by internal things.) The DSM criteria is also overly focused on what affects other people, like the primary problem is how we are inconvenient or annoying to others.

[@raye9564]

This!!!

[@SquirrelRave20]

Yep I came in here to shit -talk the DSM as well. The DSM is FAR from infallible in a lot of ways (shall we get into the gay issue?), but it's especially frustrating for ADhD. I'm solidly Gen X. When I was a child we were in DSM-2 which called it hyperactivity so I didn't fit the diagnostic. By the river inattentive was added at all I was in high school. And even then they still didn't think girls could have it . Now the DSM is better, bit it's still not fully matching up with the research. To Ana: if you really want to know about what ADHD is you need to start paying attention to people like Russell Barkley who have been doing the research for decades. And what he says is that the emotional dysregulation should be part of the criteria and has plenty of supporting evidence. TikTok didn't introduce me to rejection sensitivity being an ADHD thing, a specialist with decades of research under his belt did. I had been told shortly after the current DSM that I probably had ADHD but my psychiatrist wasn't a specialist and wasn't sure enough of the criteria. Just last year I wandered into ADHD TikTok somehow and there was enough there that I finally started to think about trying to get diagnosed. Because I didn't think I was hyper enough to have it. TikTok may be giving personal experiences of ADHD, and even some misinformation. But without it I wouldn't have ever realized that I'm not just a lazy idiot who can't finish things. I may never undo the psychic damage not being diagnosed caused me. But even if I never got a single bit of treatment, just knowing there's a reason I'm like this, there's a reason everything seems so much harder? That's priceless. And I have a real issue with taking that away from someone because maybe they only met five of the criteria in the damn DSM.

[@kelseysunsolicitedopinion]

Yep! Here (as someone clinically diagnosed as an adolescent) to complain about how she started with acknowledging that it is harder to diagnose/easier to hide in girls and then goes on to say that if you don't fit the DSM criteria, you're just "weaponizing your incompetence." Without going into how fucking sexist and misogynist the entirety of the DSM has been since like... its very conception.

[@randomhuman_05]

@@SquirrelRave20 this^^^ ADHD is a spectrum, and we’re all different, unfortunately, medicine is just starting to realize that. There is so much more nuance to this than a lot of people think. For example “watching the same shows” can often be a sign of hyperfixation, which is common in adhd folks.

[@SaruCharmed]

Thanks for putting my feelings into words so perfectly. Videos like these bother me for this reason, even though they mean well.

[@yeehaw4506]

The "rewatching TV shows a lot" thing cracks me up. I have ADHD and I actually have trouble finishing most shows that I start, cuz I can't sit in front of the TV for longer than an episode without getting distracted or bored.

[@madmagdelena]

Same with me. I can't rewatch shows. It makes me so bored my skin crawls looking for something else to do. It has to be something new each time. There have been times where I'd have one movie I'd obsessively watch a bunch of times but that's very rare.

[@Karategirl5947]

I have soo much struggle with watching tv shows. Like a tv show has to grab my attention within the first 5 mins or I can’t watch it.

[@lauras.9294]

I don't know if I have ADHD, but I have a similar thing. I rewatch most shows and films quite a lot, because the familiarity of knowing something is comforting. But I don't actually really watch them, they just play in the background while I'm drawing/reading/writing/playing games. Because if I only do one thing at a time I can't concentrate on that thing, unless it really uses up a lot of my brain capacity. So I do several things at a time, to concentrate on whatever it is I'm currently doing.

[@chellenicki2805]

The rewatching shows is pretty valid actually. Because people with adhd can’t pay attention well it’s easier to watch something you’ve seen before so if you miss certain parts it still makes sense to you. It’s hard to focus on new shows and I get lost to the point where I have to restart things over and over. If I rewatch things I can more easily follow along. Just because it’s not a problem for you doesn’t mean it isn’t for others.

[@alycatwelch]

@@chellenicki2805 But different people have different viewing preferences whether they have ADHD or not. ADHD might contribute to your particular viewing preferences but viewing preferences are not a symptom in and of themself. It's not a problem to watch what you want - unless it's actually hindering you (in which case it doesn't matter if you're watching the same thing or something new, it's the watching TV when you should be doing something else entirely that's the problem).

[@brinbrawner6101]

I’m clinically diagnosed with ADHD and GAD however my anxiety is through the roof because of adhd symptoms. I’m constantly anxious that I’m forgetting something, finishing tasks at work is incredibly difficult and everyone wants things done in the morning which means I have to get it done the night before because mornings and I do not mix. Constantly being in a state of overwhelm and fear because I know I’m going to fail someone at some point is not an exciting or funny way to live. Even with medication and therapy I still struggle. Adhd isn’t a quirky little thing you can “relate” to. It’s debilitating, stressful, and ostracizing.

[@winxclubstellamusa]

Me too! I’m doomed to carry my own inescapable, isolating hell, and there’s no way out of it. It’s not right for them to make light of a disability, I did not choose to be born with this brain. It is so humiliating how they diminish our struggles like this.

[@jackchop1576]

"I'm not like other girls!"

[@winxclubstellamusa]

@@jackchop1576 We are genuinely not like the others and our lives are hell because of it. We can’t even make friends because we fall into the uncanny valley due to how different our mannerisms and body language is from that of a neurotypical. You have zero right to make fun of a disability! Our brain scans and our consistent testimonies prove that we are telling the truth. Be grateful that you were lucky enough to not have to bare our same burdens.

[@violetsky__7649]

Agreed!!! I’m in a rough spot at work because of my own symptoms I struggle with.

[@violetsky__7649]

Pp

[@aakashailajan]

I’m glad I never joined TikTok. Life is much better without the mindless scrolling and instant dopamine resources which are literally just affecting your attention span and your subconscious. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@maggiethedruid9010]

It's been proven that the app goes through everything on your 0hone too. That's why people wanted it ban for being foreign spyware.

[@cda6590]

@@maggiethedruid9010 You know where Tencent got the idea/original algorithms from, right? Facebook/Amazon/Microsoft/Google/The American Way.

[@Jdeadevil]

Or CHINESE PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE if you like clickbait video essays

[@camila4918]

I mean I get it but like y’all act like you’re so much better than everyone who does. Yadda yadda yadda Doof u still probably mindlessly scroll on instagram or Facebook or shorts.

[@chrystianaw8256]

@@camila4918 you're taking this way too personally. Chill

[@DoxicDoad]

I do agree that you shouldn't self diagnose based on 'relatable' adhd things, but the diagnostic criteria is very lacking for most neurodivergent people, mostly because the mental health field is run by and large by neurotypicals, and they do not listen to us, I wasn't diagnosed until I was seventeen because my therapist said I was 'too smart' to have it Edit: I don't think the criteria themselves are bad, but they need to be expanded. They are much more about what neurotypical people see in people with ADHD and it needs to focus more on how we actually think/feel.

[@nickit7655]

THIS

[@chatnoir9038]

The criteria for autism/ADHD has been built based on white people, specifically boys.

[@rainbowkittycat627]

Yes! Exactly

[@memethornislowkeysad8987]

Id say that's not an issue of the DSM, more an issue of individual therapists? She mentions in the video due to masking its hard for some people to get diagnosed, plus some therapists are just super prejudiced :/

[@multifandomnerd1328]

i'd say it like this, selfdiagnosing based on the dsm definitions after thoroughly thinking them through and looking at their effect on your life,, valid

[@VenusAD]

I think what bothers me the most is that people forget that the entire point of a diagnosis is to address the difficulties you have, figure out WHY they happen, and HOW you can mitigate/deal with them and improve your quality of life. ADHD isn't your personality or identity, it's a disorder that those who have it have to figure out how to live with. It's taken me well over a decade to figure out how to manage my life with it. I was in an abusive relationship years back where my partner used the knowledge that I have ADHD often had poor short term memory to straight up gaslight me and convince me my recall ability was even worse than it was. He made me feel like an idiot. There is nothing quirky or cute about feeling like you can't control your own life. Tiktok and other social media platforms that work on view counts and short bursts of entertainment are never going to be a the right place to learn about disorders and how to treat them.

[@Pikachuwhereareyou]

THIS!!!

[@hermionetwo2739]

I wouldn’t say it’s quirky or cute or anything, but it’s hard to seperate ADHD and personality when they do tend to go hand in hand with me. Like how I talk. The way I talk is very much how adhd is. I tend to overexplain (which is also with truama as well) due to not knowing which part to focus on and what minor part might be needed. Due to adhd being a different brain structure so it literally affects your entire brain like autism. As it is a neurodevelopmental disorder. This means effecting how you eat, and function on a very minor basis. While I would want to cure my adhd now, I would not be the same person if I had not experienced it before hand.

[@RisingSunfish]

It’s tricky. I have a separate neurological disorder that I would cure in a heartbeat if it were possible- it’s abundantly easy for me to see that as something I live with, but don’t see as an intrinsic part of me. ADHD is referred to as a neurotype because it’s just that: a _type_ of brain. It’s kind of like an operating system, or a model of car- not inherently better or worse, and can basically do all the same functions, but it isn’t suited for a lot of situations and environments that society has made the norm. Like, if I get a job making deliveries, but my car is a pick-up truck, I might lose time and money stopping for gas more frequently, but I’m better able to haul large objects. If I come to an office job with a Mac but it’s expected that I use Microsoft Powerpoint for presentations, I have to jump through more hoops to conform to that specification, even if I might be able to whip up an even slicker presentation in iMovie. One of the hardest things about having ADHD is gauging how much agency you have in an environment that works against your brain, and I think taking time to reflect on your strengths and sources of joy helps a lot with this. That said, OP, your ex-boyfriend did not abuse you because you have ADHD. He abused you because he was abusive; if it hadn’t been ADHD, he would have found some other vulnerability to exploit. I hope you can heal from how he hurt you and come to realize your brain is far less defective than that of somebody who thinks it’s acceptable to hurt somebody so intimately.

[@MyTimelord11]

My thoughts exactly. I think a lot of this self diagnosing bull shit is just people looking for attentions because pity points are of such high value these days. Seems like everyone is trying to one up the other for pity. And it's totally seen as a personality trait rather than a mental disorder that is so severe that it actually effects your negatively. That's why it's called a disorder or a disability. Not a "quirk". It has to be severe enough to have a real negative impact. And what you said about your abusive relationship is so relatable because I was in a very similar situation myself. I'd bring something up and my ex would be like "that did/didn't happen" and I'd be like "I KNOW it did" and he'd EXPLAIN to ME how I have a hard time remembering things so I dont know what did or didnt happend and that hes right. And yeah I do have an issue with my memory sometimes but like you probably already know sometimes you do just KNOW that you remembered something. You just KNOW it's right. But no matter how many times I told him I was sure he'd be like "well you cant trust that because you dont remember things" I'm SO SO glad I got out of that before it got worse. ADHD is really hard to live with on its own.

[@hermionetwo2739]

@@MyTimelord11 I don’t think there is anything wrong self diagnosing because it’s not like you can abuse it. You can’t get extra time on shit in class without an official diagnosis, so it’s not like your negatively impacting your life by self diagnosing. People who self diagnose do not HAVE MONEY to get diagnosed. Or they do not want a medical diagnosis that could be used as a way to discriminate. Which is of course illegal, but it happens and they can’t afford to sue. Spreading misinformation by accident can happen to someone with a ADHD diagnosis and without it. And if someone is doing it for attention, they still have a mental illness, just not ADHD.

[@wanderinggrazer421]

Even when diagnosed by a professional, they can sometimes be wrong. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid but always felt like the diagnosis didn’t completely fit me. It wasn’t until we’ll into adulthood that I was diagnosed with PTSD which much better fit my symptoms and can apparently look like ADHD sometimes. So definitely get professional help if you’re experiencing symptoms that greatly effect your life because the treatments aren’t always the same.

[@joanna0988]

It's not uncommon to have a diagnosis change with age. My friends son was diagnosed with autism as a small child but at 16 they changed his diagnosis to ADHD and bipolar.

[@HollyJordan15]

I agree with this! It’s very complex because often with autism and or ADHD has a comorbidity of CPTSD. Equally trauma can have the same symptoms as autism and/or ADHD. It all needs a thorough assessment to tease it out.

[@stinky59]

i have kind of a similar situation. i was diagnosed with “adhd and depression” with the depression actually just being excessive daytime sleepiness. i do have adhd and have had the diagnosis since i was a kid, but in my case the “depression” was actually narcolepsy as i have recently found out after years and years of constantly telling the doctors how tired i was all the time. it can often be misdiagnosed as “depression” and it’s one of those disorders that’s really hard to catch until you’re an adult and it starts interfering with your life- no one cares when a kid falls asleep in class but when you’re 21 and falling asleep on the floor in college then all of the sudden it’s time to see the neurologist because that’s a sleep disorder? i wish they would test for sleep disorders at a younger age because i wasted the formative years of my life being sleepy and miserable when my doctor should’ve taken it more seriously when i had been saying over and over how tired i was :( thankfully the treatment for both adhd and narcolepsy is stimulants so i just have to take higher doses than your typical adhd person and also modafinil which is still technically a stimulant but that one doesn’t help with the adhd it’s a lot milder and it just helps me not fall asleep during the day anymore.

[@tarynriver]

But also often bipolar and adhd are misdiagnosed for eachother

[@themiserychick9219]

❤️

[@Ambedo1123]

My brother was thought to have had ADHD in elementary school, and pretty much the only reason he isn't diagnosed is because my mom fought the school counselor on it, saying "he's just bored". No, he was twice-exceptional. Many of these things mentioned in the videos are caused by ADHD in some cases, and it's noteworthy to say that while some of them are generally shared human experiences, it's much more extreme with ADHD. For example, watching the same shows over and over again. With my brother, it was watching Star Wars on repeat, then watching all the special features on repeat, over and over and over and over and over, and then one more time for good measure. I appreciate the route you went with this video, acknowledging people's experiences but also acknowledging that what they're attributing to ADHD could also be caused by other things. But I do have to say (since I share a lot of the symptoms my brother has plus others, and had a tested EQ of 70 at age 13), one of the *reasons* people go without getting diagnosed with ADHD as adults if it was missed in childhood is because of executive dysfunction. They aren't capable of planning and managing the sensory steps that are required to get a diagnosis (making appointments, going to the doctor, requesting time off, etc) and following through with them. I do wish you had made mention of some of the reasons people go elsewhere (like tiktok) for validation of their experiences.

[@cutiefox6455]

Thank you for the comment. Interesting and true notice that executive dysfunction can lead to not being diagnosed because a person just can’t get there 🎃

[@onemillionpercent]

thank you. this exactly

[@louhortonsculpture]

Yes!! Getting a diagnosis for anything is difficult with poor executive function. As I realize I’m out of a medication and have no idea what I’m going to do to get it on time….

[@raspberrytaegi]

I feel like she's not interested in validating and understanding people who are really trying to get diagnosed but can't, she is only interested in portraying people who self-diagnose as well as people who use TikTok as "toxic" aka evil

[@LyraDavis]

@@raspberrytaegi as soon as she referenced ADD as separate I got the feeling she isn’t as experienced or as knowledgable as she would have us believe. This is why people often have to go through multiple psychiatrists before they find a good one who actually knows what they’re talking about.

[@Elspm]

I appreciate this video, and understand you want to prevent misunderstanding of ADHD and thus reach for the DSM. But equally I went undiagnosed for a long time because I ascribed so many of my symptoms to the comorbid depression, anxiety, and trauma symptoms. Many researchers in the field of ADHD diagnosis have a fair number of critiques of the DSM. Notably, emotional regulation problems have a strong research basis for inclusion. A lot of us get our diagnosis (based on the DSM-V) and then in our ongoing care will describe something to our psychiatrist, who then will say things akin to "oh yeah, that's pretty universal in my ADHD patients". I think this is a driver for at least some of these tik toks. Examples from my clinical care include: extremely disregulated emotions, poor sleep regulation, sensory issues, and cyclical changes in symptoms with my hormonal cycle.

[@commentbot9510]

Emotional dysregulation should definitely be included. I thought I had BPD for a moment because I couldn’t explain the rapid mood swings I would get sometimes. I was going from feeling depressed, hopeless, and worthless to happy and fine like nothing happened. Or overreacting to small things, getting more angry than I should. I also had other symptoms but I didn’t switch between loving or hating people and I didn’t see things in black and white so that was the red flag to me that it wasn’t bpd.

[@honestlynotsponsored]

I have severe inattentive ADHD, and it is a daily struggle to function. My symptoms have cost me friendships, jobs, and physical health. I've lost so much money from losing things, fees from forgotten payments, and missed opportunities related to deadlines. It is a disorder that can cause a lot of chaos, and that in turn effects the rest of my mental health. The rise of self diagnoses based on misinformation has made it harder for me to get accomodation, because it's almost advertised as this quirky thing that a ton of people have. I've literally had a boss say to me "everyone has ADHD. You have no excuse." And that's not a perspective unique just to her. The cute ADHD TikTok content is frustrating to see because there is almost never a serious dialogue about how devestating the disorder can be.

[@mrhappy7654]

💯

[@juliabazanska]

My mother suspected I had ADHD as a child, but as this was the 90s she was laughed out of the school’s medical office because „girls don’t have it”. I learned on my own to cope and live with my „different” brain. It wasn’t until I saw posts on social media last year that I remembered that one visit some 25 years ago. Since then I’ve been officially diagnosed with inattentive subtype (mental hyperactive) and the only thing that’s changed is that now I know I’m not „wierd” and can work on my pretty bad self-esteem issues.

[@jadetea6112]

"Before age ___ " always gets me in ANY of these DSM definitions - not everyone has the chance to be seen by a therapist as a child. I don't remember much. My folks also downplayed a lot of my experiences in general, so how do I know which is real and which isnt? Docs have narrowed GAD as a definitive, but my current therapist is having me tested.

[@demonschnauzer1555]

I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD (moderate inattentive), honestly the rewatching tv shows one is hilarious to me because I almost never rewatch shows until time has passed and I’ve forgotten them. It really frustrates me when people say certain personality traits are a symptom of a mental illness or disorder. Or when people act like neurodivergent people and neurotypical people are like aliens to each other. We’re all actually very similar, some of us are just more towards the “extremes” of behaviors. In my experience, it’s harder to get over a mental illness/disorder, or to deal with the associated problems, when you have that disorder as a core part of your identity. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t acknowledge your difference, or that you should try to conform, but when I first got diagnosed I started seeing EVERYTHING as an ADHD symptom. I’m doing much better now viewing my problems as individual traits that I can work on FIRST, and adhd symptoms SECOND, if I consider them that at all. Just what works for me.

[@kxi.xd___]

i agree with the shows one, like, i rarely rewatch things bc its boring, i already know what'll happen

[@ritac9769]

Yeah my immediate thought was that people with ADHD are way less likely to rewatch shows because we crave novelty and would get bored extremely quickly. The only time I rewatch or reread things is after years have passed and I don't remember much. Even then it's still not as enjoyable because I quickly remember a lot of plot points because the imagery will trigger it. In terms of the people I've met, I've noticed rewatching to be an activity many neurotypical people enjoy more than anyone else, and it's something I've always struggled to understand the appeal of for years. On the other end of things, obsessively rewatching shows seems more like an ASD behavior if anything.

[@addyshorhnr3544]

The only times I “rewatch” things is if it’s my current hyper focus and I run out (literally the worst thing ever since it also becomes boring) or if it’s just background noise. My brain is geared towards auditory stimulus. I am one of the silence is grating types. So how I find helps my brain the best is pairing a non novel stimulus with a novel or intense focus one. It’s usually non novel auditory stimulus with a focused based game but I also have multiple stim games for my non novel auditory stimulus. There has been talk about me possibly being autistic instead of adhd, but that was by a psychology resident in a eating disorder clinic who probably based it off of the fact I most likely have mild social anxiety and eversion to novelty I can fail at because I have an intense fear of failure, my sensory issues which is just papers and shirt texture sometimes, or my obsession with soft blankets.

[@peachiiieevee]

for me, the tv show thing is kinda the opposite. ive been diagnosed as long as i can remember, and i do tend to rewatch one specific show over and over and over rather than start something new. i have rewatched a certian anime countless times over the past 6-7 years, to the point where i can leave the room for an hour, come back and still know what's going on. it's kinda similar with games, where i pour countless hours into one specific game (fe fates im looking at you) bc i simply don't want anything else. i think it's a hyperfixation thing which i struggle with bad, so its interesting to learn other people are the opposite

[@lovelightstarboy]

Sometimes your disorder IS a core part of your identity. I have NPD and BPD, and they very much nearly make up who I am and why I act the way I do. I often DO feel like others are alien to me because of how much they don’t understand me and the way I think. A lot of neurodivergent people are very different than neurotypicals, myself included. I’m judged by NT’s because of being different. I have ADHD and I’m autistic as well, so that just makes it worse. I’m never going to get rid of my personality disorders completely, nor my ADHD or the fact that I’m Autistic. And I don’t want to get rid of them. But wouldn’t that make them part of my identity? My brain is who I am, and my brain has these disorders. I cant change it, only learn to manage it.

[@zaharabliss106]

I'm so glad you're addressing this! I swear people view ADHD as the cute and quirky mental health disorder. As a person who was diagnosed with it as a child, I have complicated feelings towards it. It's 1000 percent apart of me but it also makes my life harder and I could've done my childhood without insomnia.

[@danh6720]

It feels like many people describe something as a symptom of ADHD when it may be a secondary effect possibly caused by ADHD behavior. An example being the “low self esteem/feeling like you’re not enough”. It is perfectly logical that the behaviors that are symptomatic of ADHD may cause repeated failures or negative outcomes that leave a person feeling like they often don’t measure up. Especially since lower intelligence isn’t a symptom ADHD/ADD and it’s often easy for a person with the disorder to see instances where they failed or performed poorly at a task that they know they have the capability to do well with. So it may be downstream of ADHD, but it’s downstream of a lot of other things too.

[@darkstarr984]

Yes. My low self esteem and anxiety didn’t develop until adulthood because I never had social problems with my lack of ability to change and start tasks until I was an adult, because my parents are *really* understanding and supportive about those specific issues, and being homeschooled meant I could only compare my work to peers following getting the statistics from testing, where I was about average at math and exceptional in everything else. My family, all having only ever been exceptional in math besides one of my brothers who was exceptional at everything including math… finds this incomprehensible, but I just happen to be the one who has to view numbers as just another language or I have a massive meltdown over the stupidity of claiming there’s something more real about… a language that happens to be used to describe physical and spatial relationships between things, than languages that call whatever a cat is hundreds of names that all happen to be the same thing.

[@Teyisagirl00]

ADHD kinda do cause depression and then the random crying because you’re mine is making you think of a memory of how you really see the world and people around you and then you forget why you was even upset since ADHD has different forms and levels of it for everyone For me it’s like a never ending of torture that crap really messes with your head especially if you get something wrong or fail the task at hand even if you’re a parent with ADHD you start to feel all that pressure that also messes with us it can even be complicated to explain to people how it really works because they’re not in your head but we are very strong though mentally depending and we’re also the most logical at times also depending

[@alycatwelch]

And rejection sensitivity is a trauma response. ADHD presents early on. Rejection sensitivity may emerge later as a consequence of receiving more negative feedback than others (even more so when you factor in intersectionality). Since we can be inattentive and/or impulsive, a common criticism is not being more mindful of others so we might overcorrect. People with other disorders can also develop this trauma response from their own experiences. Personally the RSD thing bothers me because it makes it sound like it's all in our heads but people perceived as different frequently ARE rejected more often and do become better at identifying the tells with experience. It feels wrong to pathologize something hammered into us growing up. It's exactly what I'd expect to happen.

[@Bigbrothertyler]

@@Teyisagirl00omg yes, i used to have full breakdowns because I got one question wrong and the rest correct in 5th grade. Or if I have the thought that i made someone uncomfortable and i think about it hard for the rest of the day

[@ytl6406]

I waited till almost 30 years to be diagnosed with ADHD by a psychiatrist. Now I finally understand why I felt so troubled when I was little, why I was not “a good girl”, why I was not listening, etc. When I shared this diagnosis with my mom, she told me she has been through the same experiences when she was little. But she was physically punished by her parents in order to be “controlled”, to be a “good girl”, and “obeying”. So when she noticed my behaviors when I was little, she took over and “managed” my attention deficiency. So I learned how to mask my symptoms and met the expectation of “a good girl / a perfect A student”. Yes I did perform well academically, but who knows how struggling I was and how self-hatred I was because I cannot pay attention like anyone else? Now I completed my PhD by using second-language in a foreign country alone, without seeing my family for over three years, going through suicidal thoughts, self-harm, encountering racists and harassment, learning how to file restricting order in a foreign country, finally I got a job offer to help minority women who suffering gender inequality in a non-profit organization. I am happy where I am, and I appreciated my resilience and my symptoms to shape me where I am today. If I were diagnosed earlier in my childhood, I probably wouldn’t go through the depression and self-hatred process. However, these experiences are also part of me; it shaped who I am today. Life might be easier without these, but I am still grateful about what I have went through. Accept your differences. Embrace your differences.

[@kateginger]

You are a strong and smart person. I have anxiety and I struggle to finish my masters degree. Your story is very inspiring and I wish you a happy life, also thank you for your positive impact on the world.

[@hourz]

PhD with ADHD Thats awesome! I'm on my second semester at 31 and I feel like this is going to be a pain of in my ass for years to come. God knows we have to work twice as hard as everyone else.

[@DoodleWrite]

Also - is it ADHD or is it trauma??? Plus we need to stop pathologicalizing like… every little thing people do. Sometimes it’s just normal to forget why we walked into a room to get something.

[@AllyPenguin]

Agreed.. I will say though, I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and had symptoms all throughout childhood. My first restaurant job at 16, I would go to the back for something, and forget what I was going back for. The problem was I would go back to the front to remember, and as soon as I got to the back again I would forget (repeat 2 or 3 times). It annoyed my coworkers, and myself. It was so frustrating it would make me want to cry. I don't think these tiktoks are illustrating how challenging and frustrating some of these symptoms can actually be. I never thought it was funny. It made my life 1000× harder than it had to be.

[@jclyntoledo]

Yeah I honestly hate that ppl assume that's an ADHD thing like no that's just a ppl thing. But yes the having to do that so much that it delays stuff and takes you off track significantly is something to be concerned of and maybe an executive dysfunction thing.

[@Nakia11798]

That example is perfect because it's actually something that happens to the majority of people.

[@DoodleWrite]

@AneMore Bingo, I have both. PTSD can appear like ADHD symptoms (ie, inattentiveness can be disassociating to escape from a distressing situation, hyperactivity can come from neglect, etc.). It takes me 5 hours to read a 30-page chapter because I’ll float off in my imagination and have to re-read something, but my “rejection dysphoria” comes from harsh and unforgiving parenting (trauma) and needing to constantly be perfect and expecting to be an adult as a growing child.

[@birdiewolf3497]

Eeehh. Yes and no. like no rewatching your fav shows over and over is not a symptom of adhd or any type of mental disorder. But at the same time a lot of these symptoms are something that most people experience, but it isn't causing dysfunction.

[@Touay.]

The problem we have is the near total incompetence of the medical community when it comes to neurodiversity. As a victim of a wrongful diagnosis (told I am not autistic after a 15 minute informal interview .. ffs - by a psychiatrist) I sympathize with people who self-diagnose because it is the only diagnosis available. Now, misinformation on social media ... that is a problem, caused by the competence vacuum the medical community. Hopefully videos like this will help.

[@sarak2157]

i believed that i had adhd because of tiktoks like this. i went to go and get a diagnosis. turns out i had undiagnosed… ocd! really threw me for a loop but it made so much more sense once i thought about it. these symptoms can be caused by so many things.

[@Luci_loves_Bangtan]

My biggest issue with all the ADHD TikToks, particularly the “self-diagnosed” ones, is that it makes me hesitant to mention to new acquaintances, potential employers, etc. that I have ADHD because it usually ends in “well, aren’t we all a little bit ADHD?” And it makes it difficult to properly convey that it legitimately affects my entire existence.

[@ridingred27]

I see this 100%. I'm autistic and ADHD and no one knew what those really were before tiktok, now they know them as "quirky" symptoms like collecting paint swatches from the paint store. It frustrates me

[@Luci_loves_Bangtan]

@@ridingred27 exactly. My younger brother is autistic, and my oldest son is autistic and has ADHD, and having spent most of my life around it (and witnessing how frustrated they both become due to some of their individual “quirks” impacting their lives), a lot of these TikToks just make me cringe. I get that social media makes everyone want to be a special snowflake, but sometimes it feels like people *want* to have some type of disability, neurodivergence, mental disorder, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ashamed of my diagnosis, nor am I ashamed of my brother or my son, but it’s still something I cannot control and it does often affect my personal life, social life, work, etc. It’s not some quirky little trait of a manic pixie dream girl; it’s a disorder that requires a lot of time, effort, medication, and therapy to properly manage in order to live a relatively “normal” life.

[@dreambrush7251]

I think people might benefit more if the tiktokers specify that this is their experience and may not directly be a symptom of ADHD. Example, I am autistic and I also have IBS, IBS apparently is common in autistic people, however, you can have IBS and not be autistic and vice versa. People always need to check the DSM for this stuff before they very least self diagnose or go to their doctor for referral. Also, I'm kinda confused on the weaponizing incompetence thing, how do you know that someone is doing it badly on purpose and they're not genuinely struggling with it? The most I can think of is the Gabbie Hanna situation from last year, eg. she would request a very special kind of food from her staff (while everything else is available to her) and the staff would work hard on the food, give it to her, but she wouldn't eat that, she would just eat something else and leave that special food to rot, to the annoyance of her staff. She actually blamed her ADHD on it when it's not the case. But other than that, it's extremely common for people with ADHD to procrastinate and not being able to do simple tasks due to their executive function, implying that they might avoid responsibility because they want to burden others is more dangerous imo than what's specified in the screenshot (which by the way, that article is not scientific evidence).

[@lauralaforge558]

I know my husband weaponizes incompetence because he acts clueless about laundry in front of me but manages to do laundry for his aging mother.

[@julieblair7472]

People lose sight of the word DISORDER in all this stuff. As in it causes problems. A big part of this trend is someone with a diagnosis attributes EVERY aspect of their personality to the diagnosis, and makes quirky tiktoks about it.

[@dannyllerenatv8635]

I was diagnosed with ADHD combined type in my early 20s. I always had it, but I was able to manage it when I was younger and have always been in honors/gifted classes since I was in grade school. In college, however, it just became extremely severe. It got so bad to the point where I had also developed depression and OCD. It is now very well managed after a lot of treatment.

[@winxclubstellamusa]

Me too! I was the gifted kid up until the final year of high school and then I had to drop out of collage from how bad my lifelong ADHD got. My depression unfortunately still extreme because I have yet to figure a lot of very vital things out, plus the trauma of being neurodivergent in the neurotypical world.

[@burdeegirl]

Same here! I didn't get diagnosed until I was 28 but I have had it as long as I can remember. College really highlighted my issues, along with some things at work.

[@kitsterangel]

I was diagnosed when I was 8 but it was never an issue grade-wise in elementary or high school, same as you, always in "gifted" programs, did IB, no issues. Get to university and I suddenly can't keep up even tho it was less work than IB, but it was hella less structured and I just didn't know how to organize or manage my time. Got an updated diagnosis so I could start meds and I mean I'm still struggling but I can actually sort of study now.

[@darkstarr984]

I didn’t recognize it as a problem, I just thought I had to do all the things recommended for time management, constantly changing up the combination, then wind up rushing everything simultaneously, and wondered how the other people on the dean’s list managed to find enough time to work when they were active in way more clubs than me, while I barely managed to attend one because it happened to have meetings right between my morning classes.

[@powerpuff4ever]

I’ve discovered that the best way to combat this is to push past a lot of the shame that results from ADHD and go into high detail about how the symptoms manifests and hinder me DAILY

[@lenewessel4984]

Thank you for this video. I personally went on a spiral of “do I have ADHD do I have autism” because of tik toks and youtube and my therapist. I was really spiralling because I couldn’t stop thinking about it and watching videos and then I’d have bad anxiety. In the end I snapped myself out of it because I feel most strongly that I have anxiety.

[@TheSpoegefugl]

It's nice to hear this from more sources, finally. I sought out a therapist for other reasons than thinking I had som undiagnosed diagnosis, more for personal issues. At some point my therapist brought up that she has a feeling I might have ADHD. However, in the same breath, she mentioned I might have a depression, because the two share certain symptoms. And just to be clear, I still have no official diagnosis, by others due to the nature of my therapy, so I can't claim for certain that I do or don't have either a depression or adhd, but my therapist did make a comment sounding like adhd is quite likely, albeit a fairly mild one

[@AnaPsychology]

Exactly, even therapists take a long time to figure out if something is ADHD or not! Personally, I like to refer clients to get more comprehensive evaluations if they're seeking a clear-cut diagnosis because this one is such a tricky and important one.

[@deecee7042]

@@AnaPsychology what does a comprehensive evaluation look like?

[@joanna0988]

Here in BC, Canada you can get an ADHD diagnosis after a 15 minute consultation with a psychiatrist and prescribed meds right away.

[@boinkadoinkk]

@@joanna0988 that's kinda scary...

[@ironiceilidh]

@@joanna0988 I'm in Ontario and it costs 3 grand and 10 hours of assessment (often spread over several appts)... my parents just had my little brother assessed and insurance from both their jobs didn't even cover half of it and they have good jobs and benefits otherwise. I haven't been able to go through with assessment of my own because I do not have their benefits anymore since I have aged out, and I sure as hell can't afford 3 grand up front, especially when they might even tell me I'm fine by the end of it. I can't imaging going through all of that trouble just to be misdiagnosed or written off as being anxious and depressed.

[@admirbarucija2018]

The timing of this video is perfect. My brother the past few months has been constantly insisting he has ADHD because of videos he’s seen on Tik Tok

[@AnaPsychology]

I'm glad the timing worked out for you!! Hope your brother is able to get diagnostic clarification

[@admirbarucija2018]

@@AnaPsychology i hope so!! I’ve been urging him to see a professional

[@hashtagmate]

If he actually looked up the symptoms definitions and actually understood them ok cool I might believe his self diagnosis but on the basis of such videos no no no sir not today (I am officially diagnosed but before that I was self diagnosed.... but I am a med student and actually informed myself really well and understood what the symptoms meant and where they come from- and I'm rambling sorry that's part of my adhd actually lol)

[@bestiesfortherestiesprods]

I'm a woman who has struggled with ADHD all of her life. It took me awhile to get diagnosed because the way I presented myself was normal and I was a good student. However, what they didn't see was how much harder I had to work than the rest of the kids and how much energy it took out of me. It takes me so much longer to get things done than others and I always feel like I'm behind. I was persistent and stubborn and finally got a diagnosis when I was 17 by a great psychiatrist. I'm lucky that I knew myself well enough to know that it's a problem. A lot of girls have their ADHD symptoms dismissed until they are adults. I just don't like it when people act like ADHD is something that you can develop later in life and how everyone thinks they have it because they have a short attention span due to social media. It's not a cute and quirky disorder. It's very frustrating and sometimes debilitating. People see you and treat you like you're stupid or flighty. A lot of teachers make you feel like you're just a ditzy little girl when you have something difficult you're dealing with. I don't know, I just feel like a lot of people don't respect the disorder and thinks it's easily applicable to anyone. They don't do their research or talk to anyone they know who has it. A lot of people with ADHD feel unseen and ignored and I think this trend or whatever is making it worse.

[@electricia]

"It is not that hard to procure stimulants" unless you're actually legitimately diagnosed with ADHD and trying to get them from a pharmacy and have to jump through tons of hoops and insurance doesn't want to cover them and new doctors don't want to prescribe them and generally the entire system makes the thing that helps really difficult to get.

[@babyface3396]

i laughed at that part, too. I had my diagnosis for at least a year before I was actually prescribed any

[@oliver-the-ghost3821]

Thank you for this video, this is great to talk about! I became extremely burnt out, unfocused, and unmotivated my senior year of college, around the same time as this trend if videos was getting bigger. I kept seeing videos saying "If you were called a 'gifted student' in elementary school but are burned out now... how's that undiagnosed ADHD treating you?" Which was terrifyingly relatable. But once I looked up the checklist of symptoms myself I realized that they didn't fit for me, it's just common to get burned out after 17 years of school :P

[@TanjaTHEAwesome]

I was dignosed as a kid because I was hyperactive AF and was exactly the whole list you mentioned. Sadly I was told I would "grow out of it" and that was that. I didn't and it greatly effected my relationships, jobs and life because I didn't know a lot about ADHD. I did get good at masking by overcompensating and pushing myself hard. I would hyperfocus on tasks, set a million reminders, every single thing someone told me I would write down (helped me focus and stay present) and studied harder than my peers. Eventually I would just burn out on trying to focus so hard and shame myself or feel useless and broken when I did. I freelance because I can't sit down in an office and do a nine to five, my brain just won't do it. Working from home lets me setup an envrioment where I won't be distracted. In an office my brain is like looking at every sound, smell, color, ect. and not the task at hand... Anyways the happy ending is that a friend of mine told me more about ADHD and all the things I didn't know about it. I felt less weird and was able to just structure my life around it and kind of find a rythmn and stick to it. It's hard somedays but at least I know I'm awesome and not broken

[@jclyntoledo]

Omgosh yes! That's exactly how I felt at my last office job so much so that I felt like it was literally draining the life out of me. I made the mistake of quitting instead of getting fired so I'm still trying to fix my life from that.

[@zaida6930]

As someone who's diagnosed by a psychologist, it's not always rainbows and sunshine it's so hard living with adhd and people spreading miss information really gets me ,i wish i didn't have adhd and idk why people are so eager and self diagnosing themselves,makes me upset really. thank you soo much for this video love your channel,have a great day peeps

[@krupplet]

I got clinically diagnosed when i was 9 and seeing all this stuff as a grown up, seeing people see these personal experiences and acting as if those are diagnostic traits- it honestly pisses me off. It feels like all of my struggles in life have been turned into the cool new trendy gimmick. Thank you for making this video! I really enjoyed how you thoroughly explained everything and the reasoning why ppl would jump to these labels and conclusions and why doing so is dangerous.

[@Kate2961]

So glad you brought this up! I was diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago and it has been a struggle - not funny or relatable? I have a good friend who takes these videos to heart, self-diagnoses and tries very hard to diagnose others as well with it; what a time we live in! 😂 But I find it almost insulting when she uses her self-diagnosed ADHD for things like her poor time management (showing up to things 20-40 minutes late). It’s just like how you shouldn’t just Google symptoms bc you’ll spiral - TikTok is not a doctor.

[@agida6050]

It’s great to finally get this information from legitimate sources, my instagram feed was filled with adhd content and I just couldn’t understand why the algorithms were pushing that down my throat. I’ve noticed this trend of people trying to put a diagnosis on their bad qualities and quite frankly that is doing more harm than good. thanks Ana❤

[@maddiesharpe7118]

People sometimes get a diagnosis and then blame every single annoyance in their lives on it. It's not fair and often leads to excuse making further on. These are just common quirks that many people experience. I have major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, adhd, ptsd and (what was formerly known as) EDNOS. As someone who deals with these issues, it is important to distinguish quirks from actual mental illness symptoms, so you know if these are things that can actually be improved/ worked on.

[@67funkyfresh]

I wish my statistics prof had explained construct validity to us using that telephone metaphor

[@peaches8864]

Omg yes, thank you for talking about this. I’m a psychologist myself and I never want to yuck anyone’s yum, but so much stuff I see online just isn’t adhd, and I have so many clients coming in based off of the TikTok’s they see and I have to explain often that they’re just describing the human experience and at times a lack of mindfulness

[@meowmeowmeowbarf]

I watch your videos for the informational and timely topics, but I stay for the kitty ❤🐈‍⬛

[@AnaPsychology]

Omg your name and picture 😂

[@angelcantrell5994]

Thé diagnostic criteria is lacking for a lot of neurodivergent people. I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 22 because, to everyone else, my symptoms didn’t affect my life enough. My mom literally thought I was autistic but did nothing because I was doing fine in school. Ticktock helped me realize what I was struggling with so I could seek help.

[@colbykamilah]

I thought I had ADD, but now I don’t think I do. I do think a lot of people have trouble focusing because we are in our heads a lot, or because we are distracted with smart phones and technology

[@restlessdream8745]

Yes, but ADHD is much more than having trouble focusing, I wish more people were aware of it.

[@ellismerrill8501]

Self diagnosis is a nuanced conversation. I was self diagnosed with ADHD for 4 years before my formal diagnosis, largely because of the failure of a clinician to properly assess me. I feel mistrustful of mental health professionals who say "never self diagnosis" because of this past experience. If the psychologist had given me a diagnosis the fish time I got evaluated, I would have accessed support earlier and wouldn't have had to self diagnose. That being said, it is important to rule out other factors and put a LOT of research and thought and self-reflection into any diagnosis, either one you give yourself, or one a mental health professional gives you.

[@celinepope]

I WAS TALKING AVOUT THIS THIS MORNING! UGH. I have been diagnosed with ADHD and my coworkers who clearly don't struggle with any other symptoms keep claiming they have it and diminishing my struggle with it. Every. Single. Day. From the day I started school until a out 7th grade I would have MELTDOWNS. My anxiety levels were unbearable. I was diagnosed and medicated as a child, but didn't know how to cope.

[@winxclubstellamusa]

Exactly!!! It’s diminishes our very real, inescapable, and extremely isolating struggles due to our neurodivergence which is also a disability. It’s extremely unfair how no one understands it properly. It’s a humiliating slap to face.

[@ashleyfowler1487]

Its the worst feeling, when you're sitting down trying to understand how everyone else has it so easy, How you're trying very hard to do the same things and failing. Then getting pulled aside and yelled at for your failings. Its even worse when you try and explain that its harder for you because you have adhd and they hit you with the "I have ADHD too and I don't have these problems."

[@celinepope]

@@ashleyfowler1487 yeah, clearly they don't have it. I mean, I understand not everyone can have the luxury of being diagnosed. But to just say it willy nilly because sometimes you struggle with inattentiveness or what not is NOT the same thing as having it. My everyday functioning is impaired. It's not just inconvenient, it took me years to get to where I am now. And even still it's a struggle.

[@SweetheartMorada]

I think you’re on point about being careful to not pathologize normal human behavior. And while obviously there has to be a line drawn somewhere for diagnostic criteria, I do have mixed feelings about how clinicians sometimes interpret the need to have “impaired functioning” in order to be diagnosed. I had good grades and held down a job, but “normal” functioning was taking so so much of my mental and physical energy (e.g. consistently spending four hours on an assignment that should’ve taken one) that I didn’t have space for anything else in my life, like friends, hobbies, housework etc. It was incredibly stressful constantly teetering on the edge of “keeping it together” and having to hold on for dear life to keep everything from falling apart. Luckily my psychiatrist understood that it *was* negatively impacting my quality of life even though I was able to keep myself alive and employed. But too many clinicians are so misinformed that they won’t diagnose unless your life is already totally destroyed and only in terms of work or school, no matter how maladaptive your way of coping with symptoms might be. It’s a super complicated issue, I think whoever said it’s both incredibly over- AND under- diagnosed was totally on point.

[@ronniebennet9413]

it scares me that people just happily and carelessly diagnose themselves just because they relate to things like ‘constant leg shaking.’ It ruined my life as a kid, even before I knew what IT was because I wasn’t diagnosed until adulthood. I was constantly told I needed to ‘try harder,’ and ‘care more,’ and ‘stop being lazy.’ It was pounded into my head so much that I was simply a bad kid that I believed it. I got held back in school. I kept asking and asking for help and never got it because people always believed I was making excuses. I masked for years and pretended I was fine. My brain was really trying to tell me something was wrong, because for so long I just believed it was only anxiety and depression that was also ruining my adult life, but then last year my mental health was at its worst, to the point that I almost considered being admitted to a hospital. Not only for SI, but because I simply could not function anymore. I saw no other choice but to seek therapy, where I discovered it was actually ADHD all along. So thank you for making this. I appreciate how much you point out that it HAS to cause IMPAIRMENT in your life and it’s not just some ‘cutesy personality trait.’ I don’t think people realize the level of impairment that it can cause some people. It’s not something you WANT to have.

[@eki6662]

Pov: u rewatch the symptoms part multiple times cuz u keep getting distracted

[@MostlyAnimatedSketches]

It's complicated for me because I am technically undiagnosed, but when I was around 9 years old, I did get tested for ADHD (per request of my elementary school... I was doing really poorly) and according to my parents, there was a "50/50 chance" that I did have it, so I got prescribed some medication to test it out. However, my parents felt that we couldn't afford to do that because one of the side effects was a loss of appetite and I was already malnourished. So we just sort of forgot about it. Recently, because of the amount of people talking about ADHD online, I have been thinking about it and I think that I do experience some symptoms and I can definitely remember childhood experiences that seem like ADHD in hindsight (not being able to pay attention sometimes and then doing something wrong, forgetting to do classwork, taking longer than other kids to be aware of what we were doing at the moment, etc.), but I feel like my parents are really judgmental and still believe in the stigma around getting diagnosed, so I can't even get assessed now.

[@goofball7206]

this actually really sucks to know that people are self diagnosing themselves to try to fit in. it's actually really damaging to us who are actually diagnosed w/ it and struggle to everyday life. for me it's about not being able to talk slower or not interrupt anyone else because i'm scared i'll lose my train of thoughts and i get easily overwhelmed over basic things like hanging out with family or work. it's not cute. it's actually difficult. thank you for making this video and pointing out the real symptoms with those with ADHD.

[@lauras.9294]

The problem is that there are many undiagnosed people who are really struggling too who can't get a diagnosis because of several different reasons. I struggle with everyday life as well in many different ways and I show extreme symptoms of both ADHD and autism. I won't self-diagnose, so I'll just say that I'm "probably neurodivergent", but getting a diagnosis is impossible for me at the moment and possibly in the future as well, so while I am struggling with those things immensely, I have no way of actually getting help with those problems or learning how to deal with those...

[@goofball7206]

@@lauras.9294 that's so much different than what those people on tiktok do, they just simply find any type of "symptom" of a diagnosis and make a quirk out of it. that's harmful to those who are diagnosed or undiagnosed because it's not true. if you do find yourself showing signs of autism/adhd but can't get help for it right now, that's fine. but please do not rely on social media especially tiktok and twitter for that. try to find a community that are helpful and have more knowledge in autism/adhd because of actual diagnosis. good luck! i really do hope you get the help you need one day ❤️

[@Applemangh]

In order to truly solve this problem, we (as a society) NEED to invest heavily in mental health resources. The fact that so many people CAN'T get a proper diagnoses mean they basically have no choice but to figure themselves out on their own with the resources available to them. As long as people are careful and thoughtful with how they go about this, it should be harmless, for example: instead of saying "I totally have ADHD", an undiagnosed person might say "I think I might have ADHD" or "I relate to a lot of people who have ADHD". Those little adjustments in how we speak and think about our mental health could make a big difference.

[@lo5t_numb]

I can confirm that its very calming to put a tag or having an explanation for behavior, because i used to be quite sure i was neurodivergent (i was just looking for an explanation for my behavior)

[@mamabear4728]

This is awesome. It's really encouraged me to get diagnosed. I have a brother who is diagnosed ADHD so I know what it looks like and I've always been worried that while I don't struggle like he does I definitely relate to some of his symptoms. They are things I legitimately struggle with and have been forced to find workarounds for in order to function. Things like picking a spot in each room where I store certain important items so I don't lose them, leaving for appointments half and hour before I need to then waiting in the parking lot so I'm not late (which sometimes goes wrong because I'll find something to do and end up being late anyways), packing everything I need for work the next day and leaving extras in my car or locker so I don't have to remember as many things and I won't get overly anxious when I feel Ive forgotten something, operating on a daily routine so I don't feel as overwhelmed by my to do list, eating microwave or toasted meals or wearing heat free hairstyles so I won't burn down the house by forgetting to turn off something when I know I have to go somewhere.. my solutions aren't perfect but they allow me to function as though I'm not struggling. Since I had kids it's become increasingly apparent to me that there are times I can not find a workaround the way I have in the past and I need a diagnosis so I know how to manage my symptoms. Everything you said was so very validating, my family has told me multiple times I can't have ADHD because I don't display the same symptoms my brother does but just because I have found ways to work around difficulties doesn't mean I'm not struggling to function "normally". Watching those "ADHD clips" has always caused me anxiety because while I know they're unreliable I relate to a lot of them so it was so nice to get a factual list of symptoms to watch for. Thanks for making me feel less crazy.

[@lenewessel4984]

One thing that I am happy about is that after pulling myself out of the spiralling, there were still things I related to like disorganization and struggling with time management. So I still found it helpful to try out some of the methods/tools people used in these videos to stay on top of things.

[@VintageSims]

I didn’t realize I had been masking all of these problems for so long. I have struggled with almost every symptom of ADHD and always felt like there was something wrong with me because I couldn’t keep up, pay attention in class, listen to instructions without losing focus, etc. I’m trying to get diagnosed but I’m almost 30 and it’s difficult. I think it was overclouded by my depression, no one looked deeper and just I was lazy from my depression and was labeled a problem child who was wasting my potential. I’m honestly a bit grateful for ADHD tiktok pointing stuff out to me, but people definitely use ADHD and disabilities for clout 🥴

[@gabbytriestomakethings]

If you are having a hard time to get diagnosed, I recommend seeing a specialist who does just adhd. My general practitioner basically refused to discuss because she’s so used to people trying to just get drugs.

[@birdiewolf3497]

@@gabbytriestomakethings It is hard to bring it up without these "professionals" looking at you like a junkie. Like I am just trying to function. I need to be able to do my fucking job. I would like to be able to cook, and do laundry and take showers. And go back to school for my graduate degree. It don't need to be adhd, if it is not adhd. I don't care about stimulants. I avoid drinking coffee because I never wanted to gain some sort of dependency on it. I am not chasing highs , but whatever is going on is disabling and I need help.

[@maryvalentyne2553]

Thank you for this! You did a great job covering so many of the different nuances and contexts within this topic. I wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until I was 26 and I am SO THANKFUL - my entire life I chalked up my symptoms to be solely attached to my anxiety/PTSD and even tho I had meds that were working and making great strides in therapy - I was still struggling SO much in every facet of my life. I have been misdiagnosed too many times with bipolar disorder by male psychiatrists who saw me for 5 mins which caused a lot of issues for me. I never ever considered I could have ADHD because (in my experience/opinion) my generation was constantly told ADD/ADHD was always/only the kid jumping around the classroom who was easily distracted while talking, super hyper etc and those weren’t things I did. It wasn’t until i was in my mid 20s and seeing a female psych nurse practitioner that I started reading up on ADHD in women/girls and what all the symptoms actually are that I realized getting tested wouldn’t hurt either way. And whoa boy! Once I went thru the diagnostics so many things made sense and then once I was diagnosed and started medication it was completely life changing. After my diagnosis my psych and my former therapist both told me, “Oh yeah, I have always thought you showed major signs of ADHD since the beginning.” 😅 I’m glad they had me get to the point of wanting to go in for testing on my own though, I don’t think I would have listened had they brought it up in any strong way. I then was able to look back at my family tree and saw the signs heavily on my maternal side going back generations and actually my journey getting diagnosed inspired both my mom and my older sister to go thru the testing process and both found they too have it. As much as I wish I wasn’t “skipped” and not assessed for ADD/ADHD when I was young because oh my god academics/relationships/jobs could have not been such a painful experience - I most definitely am thankful I was not a preteen/teen growing up with TikTok/Social Media in general in this intense misinformation and pro-self diagnosing era. I totally empathize and sympathize with those that believe they have the symptoms of something but perhaps live in America without insurance or without affordable care with their insurance and are unable to get assessed or get help seeking answers or treatment - but fully self diagnosing is a dangerous road to go down that can lead to self medicating with “illicit” meds for something you might not truly have which can have a whole basket of consequences. I feel like it would be wayyyy less prevalent if we had Medicare for All/Public healthcare in America which would eliminate that financial wall blocking too many from seeking professional help/guidance.

[@nicistephens9551]

"hearing what people say but not processing" is literally inattention...,

[@daisymaygames]

Doesn’t make it a disorder though. Everybody zones out sometimes.

[@anonomus4598]

It was this trend that made me skeptical when I ended up getting my adhd and autism dx as an adult, literally every video and meme on the internet about neurodiversity focuses on normal human experiences. It wasn't until I got put on medication that I could accept it, as the enhanced focus literally improved my vision, reduced the prevalence of other mood difficulties I possess, and decreased my level of distress. While I think it is good that people are becoming more open about neurodiversity and mental illness and honestly I think educated self dx is fine (so long as you're not the one making videos about it tbh), trying to label every aspect of your health as a clinical issue can be really dangerous. The tik toc misinformation trend is actively harmful to people, especially young people.

[@rainbownerladybounce]

I'm curious what you think about careful self diagnosis, as a result of strained or no access to health-care? Example: person who struggles maintaining employment in a country like the US with no free medical care. /gen Just want to disclose I'm not in the US, and I have been professionally diagnosed with ADHD. Although I do highly suspect I also have ASD. Unfortunately the only option for adult assessment is private, and $$$. I am not personally willing to self diagnose with confidence, but I would bet a significant amount of money on it. Maybe then I'd have enough for a diagnosis lol. Sorry for the story, I just wanted to point out my biases :3

[@foliofolio]

the only real reasons you need diagnosis is to get a. sick leave b. commoditations c. treatment = therapy and or meds) not listed in any specific order. self diagnose cannot give you none of those, so why would you need to diagnose yourself ?

[@anniexoxo1704]

@@foliofolio I'd imagine to be able to better understand yourself, perhaps to know which books to read and which strategies to implement/experiment with

[@foliofolio]

@@anniexoxo1704 but how you can indestand yourself better when you cannot be sure about the "diagnosis"

[@oceanborne]

@@foliofolio sometimes some symptoms from different causes can have the same / similar solutions, ive heard. so as an analogy, a sore throat can have different causes, but eating soup may still provide relief and help with that symptom itself. even if the diagnosis isn't official, it wouldn't hurt to try applying strategies that do fit that disorder if it turns out those strategies do benefit the person. if that makes sense anyways, lemme know if i explained it weird

[@foliofolio]

@@oceanborne i agree, but you still should not self diagnose. do it in your own head, but dont tell other people you have this and that if you dont have a real diagnosis. also you can hurt yourself even more with wrong kind of help, but only one suffering from that would be you, so go ahead try anything you want, but be carefull and listen to yourself and change things if you feel even a litlle bit that you are getting worse. and by "you" i dont mean specifically you.

[@thehomeschoolinglibrarian]

The major with mental illness and learning disabilities is they need to disrupt your life. I am dyslexic, agoraphobia, have mild OCD and anxiety and have been diagnosed with all of these things. I am on medication for my anxiety, ocd and agoraphobia and I have learned strategies to deal with my dyslexia but without medication my life is difficult to live.

[@dpeterson5630]

I really appreciate this video! I'm not on TikTok but I have been on other websites that have (mostly) unintentionally spread SO much misinformation about pretty much every disorder I know of. I hope more people start trying to clarify what they're talking about or recommend actual professional diagnosis!

[@iiraspberrycupcakeii1547]

Haven’t finished the video yet but THANK YOU for speaking out on this. I’m so tired of the misinformation and it breaks my heart seeing people self-diagnose in the comments because I know I went through that. My mom and brother have fairly severe ADHD and I have a lot of problems processing and paying attention to information so I figured I had ADHD and went with that explanation for a long time. I finally got thoroughly tested and got the call from my mom saying I don’t have ADHD. And honestly, it was crushing, and it shouldn’t be, but I felt like I no longer had answers, I felt like I had lost an identity, and I felt like I had lied to people. I had a follow up appointment explaining that I just had severe depression (which I knew long ago) and a very slow processing speed, which wasn’t the most comforting thing. A long long time later I got diagnosed with OCD, PTSD, and chronic illness and everything started to make sense. I feel like it’s so easy to latch onto a diagnosis and forget other possibilities, even many healthcare providers make this mistake. I think we should have compassion for the people who self-misdiagnose because they’re often clinging to hope that there are answers.

[@desotoadventurer6175]

something that irks me about this whole situation is how i feel the desire for community and identity downplays the genuine hardships and struggles ADHD can cause. for me, in my senior year, my ADHD got worse and my med dosage was no longer working for me. my grades went into the gutter and my depression was bad as a result. fortunately i was able to get my meds adjusted and cleaned it up before the end of term but i still feel like my ADHD acting up really screwed me from having an honest chance at getting into the top undergrad programs. i dunno when it’s functional i can appreciate my neurodivergence for how it makes me unique, but at its worst it can cause serious damage and i feel like that side isn’t talked about enough.

[@crowfrog5745]

This has been something thats been bugging me for a while now and I’m so glad you talked about it!! It’s been feeling like ADHD is seen as “trendy” which is so frustrating as someone who has a very hard time dealing with actual ADHD symptoms (been diagnosed since I was 7).

[@hello983]

Thank you. I love your videos and how informative they are. This is definitely one of my favorites of yours!

[@nrmf]

Im so glad you touched on topic because I remember diagnosing myself with adhd because of TikTok and after I deleted it I no longer worried about it. After watching your channel for a while I learned wether I had it or not, it doesn’t define me and I’ve learned to just focus on building good habits for studying, homework and just being focused and present in my life.

[@SageStorm]

A reminder, self diagnosis can be okay, many people dont have the ability toget a diagnosis. It can often take alot of time but as well alot of money. A lot of people research alot and talk to others with the condition they think they have. With mental disorders/disabilities, it can be very tricky to diagnose since it is not physical. I self diagnosed myself with autism, and i researched alot and brought it upto my therapist, from there i was financially able to go through with a diagnosis. Again, not everyone has that priveledge. Not only did it take alot of money, it also took two years of therapy for me to get doagnosed and medication for my adhd and autism. Again, there are the people who think neurodivergent is trendy and will make things up and say things, i completely agree with that, but we do have to realize an official diagnosis is a privilege.

[@cathj5213]

I am so glad you have addressed this issue. Literally half of the people I know have now decided they have ADHD because of Tik Tok. The issue in the UK is that these same people are all trying to access the overstretched health service to get a formal diagnosis of something they’ve never really been worried about before, taking away precious resources from those who really need support. Some of the symptoms they give for ADHD border on the ridiculous, but humans do like to justify less ‘desirable’ behaviours such as being untidy or lack of concentration down to a clinical diagnosis. It worries me and I hope you continue to raise awareness, so that those who do need support are able to access it.

[@MagnusPeccatori]

I have all of the symptoms you've described. I've had breakdowns over doing homework and studying because it was so difficult to focus on anything, it got so bad that I ended up dropping out of college. But I'm still kinda afraid that I might just be self-diagnosing and maybe I'm just gaslighting myself into justifying my failures

[@asmrblizzz]

Hi Ana! Great video and explanation. To me - seeing all these popular videos actually helped to become more aware. I definitely started noticing symptoms. And of course I scheduled a proper appointment with psychiatrist to be evaluated as I don’t want to self diagnose. So yes , those videos can point to a certain things but definitely it’s not a problem solving tool. Also, I liked how you mentioned that everyone jokes about adulting. It would be so great if you could do a video about it. Like what actually adult is? Maturity and etc. And I’m talking about not a parent part within us , but the actual adult. How to know that you are the one 😅 Thank you ❤

[@Julielikesyourmom]

thank you for this. as a person with ADHD, I think these type of videos are helping neurotypical people a lot, because it is still very misunderstood and personally has brought me a lot of shame and has made me feel ostracized, so it makes me very defensive and angry to see people making funny quirky videos about it. I am a psychology student as well and it was very informative. I hope one day I'll help people that feel like I felt before being diagnosed and in the early stages of a very long recovery process. My psychiatrist also had ADHD so it was a very healing experience.

[@properantagonist]

Thank you for speaking up! We really need more accurate information on medical conditions and disorders now in the light of those tiktok trends. I'm bipolar and autistic and while on mania I relate to a lot of ADHD experiences. If I used tiktok instead of going to a professional, I could easily assume I have ADHD. It's also really annoying when people undermine how serious the symptoms have to be and that there have to be multiple of them present to actually qualify as a disorder, because people will jump to invalidate your struggle as soon as they hear that you're tired of something that they can slightly relate to.

[@hallievanoutryve3109]

Your kitty is so cute!! Great video! I have seen so many ‘concerned’ videos on this toipic, and grateful to finally have someone with the proper background to speak on it. I think any videos with the ‘things I didn’t know were due to a mental illness. The videos always leave out the context- the difference between a symptomand the specific way that symptom manifests in their unique situation. And as you demonstrated, these videos ignore the universality of many of the claims, maybe due in part to the young age of most tic tockers; maybe they don’t realize how common these supposed signs are. Tictock’s short format really limits a creators ability to provide clear warnings, disclaimers and resources in a way that is easy to access for casual viewers.

[@jastro.]

THANK YOU. I was having a conversation with somebody (I’m clinically diagnosed btw) about adhd and they were like, “oh yeah my whole entire family has it my brother does I do too” (self diagnosed as you can guess) and man I was explaining something and they said, “Stop pretending please living with it isn’t even hard I have it you’re being a baby” and boy let me tell you how invalidating and just harmful that was to me and is to others. It invalidates my emotional breakdowns, my hours getting stuck on homework, every trouble as it’s not that hard everyone has it. ADHD has become too normalized in this society and for those with it it invalidates their experiences (I know I’m using invalidates a lot sorry lol my minds blanking on synonyms)

[@jastro.]

Also NO ADHD isn’t quirky and a cute character trait it is a DISORDER THAT IS HARD I wish people stopped making it seem like a cute thing that they’d want to identify with like 😑

[@lv4tmnt90]

I have ADHD. I hated medication. I wasn't able to take them regularly because I'd forget. It messed with my mood and emotional state.

[@brandim6187]

My adhd was never flagged as a child because I was quiet a non disruptive but looking back my symptoms were glaringly obvious. Got diagnosed a year ago and again assessed because I wanted a second opinion. I speak to so many adults who confidently claim they have adhd and then I find out they were never assessed. Often they treat it like it’s a quirk/personality trait rather than an impairment. It makes me not want to talk about my diagnosis ever because I don’t want to be associated with those people.

[@ML-di8lt]

I appreciate that you included TBI in your video! I often say that I have "ADHD" because explaining that I have a TBI that happens to act a hell of a lot like ADHD and the same medications that help ADHD help my TBI is a mouthful. So no, I didn't develop ADHD, but there was a sudden point in my life where my issues developed. For instance, I couldn't read following the accident - but not in an illiteracy way, in a 'there are too many scribbles/symbols on this page and I can't make sense of any of it'. I tried some medicine for ADHD (after about 15 years of struggling and making due) and *bam!* I could read!

[@luckygirl4everrrr]

i'm so so glad you made a video about it! this is so informative and something i needed to hear after being one of their viewers.

[@michaelneedssleep]

Thank you. I really appreciate when someone more intelligent and more qualified than I am speaks on a topic that matters to me.

[@richardporter1446]

Neurodivergence isn’t an excuse to behave badly - if anything it’s a reason to work on yourself and positive coping mechanisms. I am glad of my diagnosis [not ADHD (but CPTSD), but I have many, what I refer to as, ADHD-like behaviors to make it easier to ‘explain’]. I could name ‘it’, and the diagnosis gave my therapy team and I a place to start planning recovery and growth. Dealing with the ADHD-like behaviors was/is part of that. Like anything from a crowd-sourced platform (whether it’s TikTok, Facebook, or your favorite social-media) be discerning. Keep up the good work Ana … your voice is important.

[@Geolas88]

Its actually interesting that you would say that because I realized that a lot of my behavior patterns were connected with childhood trauma and since I realized that, It has changed my life tremendously for the better. I thought that I might have ADHD, but I had actually been screened as a child and the diagnosis never felt right because I had essentially an explanation for just about every way I was the way I was.

[@richardporter1446]

@@Geolas88 I think that for many people, putting a name (getting a diagnosis) is a huge relief, and a source of strength to take on the changes and challenges that come with mental illness and/or neurodivergence. I encourage you take your feelings and hunch concerning your childhood trauma sources, and get a proper diagnosis. Recovery differs for everyone. I wish the best of success in your journey to better health. 💪🏼🤗💪🏼

[@LC-sp9ox]

Phones social media and notifications-- have generally ruined the average person's attention span. The addicting nature of these new technologies is seriously affecting human minds.. It'd be interesting if you could do a literature review on new studies about effects of social media/ phones on the brain. I think a lot of people assume they had ADHD when really, it's very difficult to focus when we have an addicting, colorful fun metal brick attached to our hands.

[@winxclubstellamusa]

Real ADHD is a hyperactive mind that we are born with, so no. And nothing can ever cause a neurodivergence other than being born that way. Those posers don’t understand what it is, and neither do most doctors. Real ADHD is a hyperactive mind that does not shut up regardless of mood, that gets louder the more quiet the environment is, and a brain that is thoroughly mutated and causes us to have heightened senses and emotions, sensory processing disorder, severe executive functioning problems, social problems, very little working memory, and all of the symptoms of sensory and auditory processing disorders due to the combination of our heightened senses and hyperactive mind. ITS NOT BRAIN FOG like neurotypicals think! We are wired differently to the point where stimulants like coffee and adderall make us sleepy. And our eyes react differently to light and move significantly more than the eyes of a normal person due to all of the stimuli that we are taking in. We also must fidget and stim others we get anxious, while a neurotypical only fidgets when they are anxious. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!!

[@ptlovelight2971]

This is a interesting concept! I agree, I think most neurotypical people struggle because of the distractions by their phones, apps, and just general bad habits. That is not reason enough to believe they have ADHD...

[@freddiebenson1064]

I genuinely wonder how many of them find relief from (what they perceive as) adhd symptoms if they start using their phone less or consuming less 'quick dopamine every 10 seconds' media. They sometimes say that smartphones are the new smoking and I have to admit, quitting cigarettes is 100x easier than quitting excessive phone use. I feel like an old person complaining about technology but I honestly feel it's damaging us somehow.

[@winxclubstellamusa]

@@freddiebenson1064 NO! Real ADHD is a hyperactive mind that does not shut up regardless of mood, that gets louder the more quiet the environment is, and a brain that is thoroughly mutated and causes us to have heightened senses and emotions, sensory processing disorder, severe executive functioning problems, social problems, very little working memory, and all of the symptoms of sensory and auditory processing disorders due to the combination of our heightened senses and hyperactive mind. ITS NOT BRAIN FOG like neurotypicals think! We are wired differently to the point where stimulants like coffee and adderall make us sleepy. Saying that is extremely insulting to us 2.8% of the adult population who have real adhd.

[@tiredcatman7381]

As someone with adhd, I've found that I am a bit immune to some addictions because of my adhd. For example, I can't get addicted to weed because getting it is a lot of steps that I won't be able to execute and then I forget about it. And I can't get addicted to tik tok because I multi-task a lot (and tiktok can't be used as a podcast) and I also get frustrated when I don't instantly find the content I want to see (thing that tiktok does a lot to me).

[@narcowake]

Thank you Dr Ana for this much needed rational counterpoint to the social media madness / overdiagnosis ! Please keep up the much needed good work !

[@tridea333]

So I'm saying thank you. We need the truth about this and why the diagnosis is so important. It's not tying like hell to actually do these things and come out the other side and realize what you have actually done. Then on top of that knowledge of failure, you have to deal with the anger those around you who simply assume you can't be bothered.

[@shelbyschnoor9369]

This is a great video, thank you for making it. I am diagnosed with ADHD and I get upset that it’s trendy to claim you have ADHD, because for most of my life I’ve been ashamed of it, made fun of because of my behavior when I was younger, and have had a lifetime worth of struggles suffering/learning to cope/managing my disorder and learning to overcome the shame of being different- if I only knew how cool it was to be ADHD when I was crying from the difficulties in school and life or when I have been unable to sit still when required to sit still and feel I’m going to burst if I don’t get up and move around or when I’ve made impulsive decisions that I’m lucky didn’t end up worse. People are overstimulated these days because of smart phones and social media and constantly being bombarded with stimuli- so it’s understandable most people have a hard time focusing - but that’s very different than the all day every day struggle of trying to stay on task and getting half of your to do list done, have constant thoughts swirling in your head, struggling with low confidence from feeling you just can’t do it, and trying to fit into environments where you are just different….it’s not trendy, it’s not a quirky trait, it’s a life struggle if you have ADHD.

[@tombuckle7160]

I love how TikTok destroyed everyone’s attention span and then showed them a million videos like this. Convinced a lot of people I personally know that they have adhd. Most are past that now or went in for a diagnosis and were told they don’t have it lol

[@oliver-the-ghost3821]

True! And once you watch a couple ADHD videos, the algorithm throws you a million more, making it more and more likely that you'll relate to the "symptoms" in those videos :/

[@charlie-jd3ls]

true

[@azul4904]

THANK YOU for this. it’s been bugging me for quite a while. i’ve been contemplating the posibility that i might have adhd for the past 3 years and all of the misinformation and the self diagnosing feels incredibly confusing, misleading and somewhat invalidating of ppl who actually have it. i’ve been talking about this with my therapist for the last couple months and we were waiting until i finished the school year (where i live we finish in december and it was my last year of highschool) to see if these concerns persisted or were merely attached to school stress/environment. now im finally seeking for professional assessment (my therapist does not specialize on this so he recommended i seeked for a neurologist) to figure this out once and for all. its slightly terrifying lol, im worried i might’ve simply been wrong on my suspicion for 3 years straight, but whatever it is i need to address it still.

[@myitinerizedlife871]

I’ve been clinically diagnosed, and what’s interesting is I had to back this video up MANY times to take in the info, and when you were going through the inattentive symptoms I couldn’t keep track of them or remember if I counted things, I couldn’t keep count, couldn’t remember things you’d said that weren’t on the screen, and currently feel like I’m crawling out of my skin from trying so hard to focus I wanted to cry for FOUR HOURS on one task. I also realized I forgot to take my medication in the middle of this and got up to get it and that is forgotten to drink water which I went to get and then started doing laundry. Then I remembered the video. I came back and started listening, and realized I was too overstimulated to take this in. When I turned it off I was too under stimulated. Trying to find a balance is hell for me many times. I struggle to follow this even though it’s important, but I want to thank you for making this. It’s important and it’s worth me struggling with my symptoms to take in what you’re saying. People in my life say, “I experience everything you just said, too.” And I say, “All at once? Your entire life? You getting into trouble at work or constantly afraid of that happening? RelTionship and family problems? Constant arguments? Does it ever STOP for you? Do you try to get away with or excuse things away with it? Cuz you shouldn’t. This is severe and debilitating and FRUSTRATING and exhausting for me. Please don’t minimize what’s happening in my brain.”

[@Sohrleas]

Y'know, I've become more and more irritated and impatient with self-diagnosis as a concept. I understand that there's a lot of people who can't afford to get diagnosed, or there's some other legit barrier, but it's still frustrating. The main reason it's personally frustrating for me is that I was talking with a classmate about how I procrastinate on some assignments sometimes, and that I need to clean my room but was never taught how so I don't even know where to begin, nor was I ever taught how to keep things clean, so everything always gets bad and I hate it. A few other things came up in the conversation as well, and she suggested that I might have undiagnosed ADHD. I asked her why, and she pulled out the oh-so-scientific database of TikTok. Great. I disagreed, and said that I just get bored with things I have to do, that's why I procrastinate. She suggested that I was in denial. Now whenever I complain about my own bad-stupid habits that I could definitely fix if I ever bothered to, she brings up ADHD again. Think we'll ever move past the self-diagnosis hype...??

[@thetickedoffpianoplayer4193]

The thing is, though, that most of the time self diagnosis isn't what you think it is. Most people who self diagnose do very careful research, sometimes for years. I don't know, maybe a kid might do that because they don't have critical thinking skills, but I certainly hope adults aren't doing that.

[@babys8640]

can you make a similar video about body dysmorphic disorder? because everyone on social media claims to have it now and i doubt that they all are diagnosed. i was diagnosed in 2016 and even though it’s way better now, i don’t think people understand how much this disorder can affect your life and that it’s not just feeling ugly. inliterally spend several HOURS everyday looking in the mirror/ taking pictures of myself because i was convinced something was wrong. not even just „ugly“ but rather „ugly“ because it grew in a way that it wasn’t supposed to grew like so it’s disfigured. sometimes i feel ugly too like everyone else but that is something completely different. also i sadly made the experience that even a lot of psychologist judge you for having it especially when you’re pretty (i am v pretty! i know that now but couldn’t see it for years. but i also got a nose job and some filler). people have no idea what it’s like and it’s kinda disrespectful using these terms like it’s a new way of saying i feel ugly/ not satisfied with my looks

[@eme9254]

Thank you so much for this video. I got diagnosed late in life and it really helped me in a lot of ways. There is some content around ADHD/Autism that is really helpful but a lot of those videos make me feel like I'm an imposter because I can't relate to all those "symptoms" . It also makes me anxious because I assume that a lot of NTs will watch those videos and might think that ADHD is not as bad, that we don't struggle at all and it's just a fake diagnosis for parents who are not capable of taking care of their children or for lazy adults. I think we have to he a lot more careful with what we put out there, especially since tiktok has become such an influential tool and it's became so much easier to put out short videos with poorly researched information (not to say that it has been better before).

[@synysterdub]

THANNNNNNNKKKK YOUUUUUU!!! Glorifying a disease that I suffer through every day is absolutely ridiculous. It feels almost impossible to behave like anyone around me, it's isolating and debilitating and you do. not. want. it.