Why armchair diagnosis is now all the rage on TikTok

Helen Coffey questions why social media users have become so emboldened to pronounce autism and ADHD in others

- Helen Coffey

“Are you sure you haven’t got ADHD, babe?” The question comes from a dear and well-meaning friend after I mention in passing how I swing between being hyper-focused and struggling to concentrate at work. I politely shrug and chirp, don’t think so!”, while secretly wondering when and why it became perfectly acceptable to throw out armchair diagnoses to our mates – or, indeed, perfect strangers – based on the scantest of “symptoms”.

Aside from being just plain wrong – if I have Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) then I’d argue so does anyone who’s ever worked an office job or owned a smartphone – it’s kind of, well, rude, isn’t it? Not to mention utterly bizarre that the average layperson feels so comfortable flinging out medical labels. In the era of social media, it seems like everyone considers themselves an “expert” on neurodivergence – even when that “expertise” boils down to having listened to a podcast or watched a YouTube short about it one time.

The issue has come to the fore again due to actor Bella Ramsey’s revelation that they obtained their autism diagnosis while filming the first season of The Last of Us after a crew member spotted and flagged the signs. In Ramsey’s case, it was slightly different; the colleague in question genuinely had first-hand experience as their own child is neurodivergent.

But that’s a rarity these days. Most of the time, the person proffering their strident opinion on the complexities of the chemical makeup of your brain or the way it’s wired is completely unqualified to do so. The age of the armchair diagnosis is in full swing.