About a
year into the pandemic, Kianna, a high school student in
Baltimore, was feeling
increasingly isolated. While sitting alone in her bedroom there was too much
time to think, she said, so sometimes she would fixate on her seclusion or
start critiquing her appearance.
اضافة اعلان
“I remember just
being on
TikTok for hours during my day,” said Kianna, 17, who asked to be
referred to by only her first name when speaking about her mental health.
“That’s when my self-esteem started declining.”
At the time, in
early 2021, her 10th grade classes were virtual, and she had begun texting with
her friends instead of talking to them. Her anxiety bred headaches, poor sleep,
and the odd feeling of living outside of her body. Then, she started seeing
videos on TikTok about depersonalization disorder, a type of dissociative
condition that can make people feel disconnected; as if their body is detached
from their thoughts, almost like being in a dream.
“I have this,” she
recalled thinking to herself. But mental illness was not the type of thing she
would normally discuss with her friends or family. She did not tell anyone
about her revelation. “I was so in my head that something was wrong with me.”
In recent years,
discussions about mental health have proliferated on social media, particularly
on TikTok, where the format allows for easily digestible, intimate videos that
appear in a never-ending algorithmic feed. And for those researching various
disorders, it has become increasingly easy to find bite-sized definitions and
self-assessment quizzes online. While this bounty of unfiltered resources can
serve to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness, there are downsides.
A number of
mental health providers say that they are seeing an uptick in teenagers and young
adults who are diagnosing themselves with
mental illnesses — including rare
disorders — after learning more about the conditions online. In some cases,
this information can lead them toward getting the help they need, but it can
also result in people incorrectly labeling themselves, avoiding a professional
assessment, and embracing ineffective or inappropriate treatments.
‘It’s
incredibly easy to misdiagnose’
TikTok is one of the most popular web domains in the world, particularly
among adolescents and young adults, and its algorithms are adept at showing
people content that is similar to what they have lingered on in the past.
(Instagram and Facebook users also see this type of content via the Reels
feature.) The format — looping videos that are often less than one minute long
— does not leave much room for nuance. Viewers in search of mental health
information may find little more than a bullet list of symptoms.
But part of what
makes diagnosis so complicated is that the same disorder can express itself in
a child, adolescent and adult very differently — in other words, the same list
of symptoms does not apply to every age group.
“It’s incredibly
easy to misdiagnose,” said
Mitch Prinstein, the chief science officer of the
American Psychological Association. “You might have symptoms that look like
what an adult’s depression would look like, but as a child or adolescent it
very well could mean something completely different.”
It can also be hard
to be self-aware of certain symptoms, he said, and these really ought to be
observed by an objective party.
Therapists must
look at the range of experiences a client is having, when they occur and for
how long. Are they functioning in their life? How are they sleeping, eating,
relating to others? How is their mood and motivation?
On Friday, a TikTok
spokesperson said in a statement: “We strongly encourage individuals to seek
professional medical advice if they are in need of support”, adding that the
company continues to invest in digital literacy education aimed at helping
people evaluate online content.
Sara Anne Hawkins,
a licensed marriage and family therapist in Minneapolis, said that three of her
young clients recently told her they have misophonia, a condition that can make
people feel rage upon hearing other people’s sounds, like chewing or breathing.
“They’re
self-effacing about it, like, ‘Oh god, I got this off TikTok,’” she said.
“They’re like — ‘this is me, right?’”
As it turned out,
only one of her clients ended up struggling with the disorder. Regardless,
bringing it up provided an opportunity for all three to further discuss any
feelings of anger and irritability.
“I think it
empowers youth to know it’s not just them making something up, or it’s not all
in my head — ‘Look, other people feel this way, too,’” she said. But, Hawkins
added, “a little bit of information can be dangerous”.
‘It’s so easy to get roped in’
Hawkins’ son, Ronan Cosgrove, 16, who has been on TikTok for about four
years, said that among some of his peers it has become trendy to identify with
a mental health disorder. For them, he added, it is considered a personality
trait rather than something you want to heal.
“On TikTok they
show ‘Oh, I’m this, and look at how cool I am,’ and then people will look up to
those people — and it’s just so skewed and not, like, reality,” Ronan said.
“It’s so easy to get roped in”.
Kids are searching
for a community, and are using their current struggle with mental health
symptoms as a way to find like-minded people, sometimes wearing their symptoms
as a badge of pride or a shorthand way to explain themselves to others,
Prinstein said.
And some
adolescents may seek mental health information online because the adults in
their lives are not open to talking about it.
“It’s incredibly
disheartening”, he added.
A study published
in March analyzed 100 videos on TikTok with the hashtag #mentalhealth that had
collectively received more than 1 billion views. It showed that adolescents
appear to be turning to TikTok as a source of support, and the advice there is
largely driven by users’ conversations.
“A great concern is
that adolescents may be making faulty self-diagnoses and treatment plans in the
absence of professional insight,” said Corey H. Basch, a professor of public
health at William Paterson University of New Jersey and the lead author of the
study. And teenagers may also come across inaccurate information or accounts
that encourage harmful behavior, like cutting, or trigger those who are
struggling, she added.
On the flip side,
she added, finding a positive, supportive community online can be powerful,
especially for those who are marginalized or who lack access to mental health
resources.
‘Your
diagnosis is not who you
are’
If a teenager comes to their parents to discuss something they have seen
on TikTok or another social media platform, it is best to remain open and
curious, experts say.
“Take that as an
opportunity to engage them and find out more about your teenager and some of
the challenges and struggles that your teenager is going through,” said Anish
Dube, chair of the Council on Children, Adolescents and their Families at the
American Psychiatric Association. “What are some of the things that they enjoy
about this person or page they’re following? What are they identifying with?
What is it that they’re concerned about?”
Often the
information presented on social media can be inaccurate or overly simplistic,
so Dube also recommended pointing kids toward reliable sources like the APA’s
directory of mental health topics, which is also available in Spanish, and the
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s resources page for
families and youths.
In a college
setting, sometimes students are seeking a diagnosis in order to receive
services or an accommodation, said Seli Fakorzi, the director of mental health
operations at TimelyMD, a virtual health provider that serves more than 1.5
million students on more than 230 college campuses.
But other times,
she added, they just want to discover why they feel different, “or what makes
me the same as other people that I know that struggle with the same thing.”
Hawkins said it’s
also important to help kids understand that “your diagnosis is not who you are
— it’s a part of what you have”.
“Diagnosis is a starting point of understanding,” she added.
“It’s not the endpoint.”
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