TikTokers Are Self-Diagnosing: That's Good and Bad

If WebMD ushered in the age of armchair diagnosis, TikTok has kicked the door wide open.

- Sarah Gundle

"My ADHD? I figured it out on TikTok," a new patient told me proudly. She hadn't turned to social media for answers because she wanted to; she just couldn't afford the cost of a formal psychiatric evaluation.

Appointments in the US for neuropsychological assessments, the gold standard for diagnosing conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, are increasingly hard to come by. Many are also expensive and can run anywhere from US$800 (S$1,000) to over US$10,000, depending on the complexity of the tests.

Even when the patient has insurance, it often doesn't cover the costs or, worse, denies reimbursement after the fact, deeming the evaluation "not medically necessary".

Is it harmful that social media platforms are filling an accessibility gap? The answer isn't always "yes", and the complexity of that deserves more discourse.

In my patient's case, she'd only landed in my office because her new job came with decent coverage. But as I reviewed her story, something didn't add up. The symptoms she described didn't match the diagnostic criteria for ADHD as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which sits on every mental health professional's shelf. In fact, they weren't even close.

Yet, despite receiving a diagnosis of anxiety, not ADHD, from two separate professionals, she struggled to move away from what Dr. TikTok told her.

She is hardly alone. More and more people are turning to social media for instant opinions on what ails them. The "put a finger down if..." mental health trend, in which a person holds up 10 fingers and puts one down each time they think a symptom applies to them, is increasingly popular.

Cost is one reason, but the anonymity of the internet can be attractive, too. Even those not recording themselves are taking part in the trend behind closed doors.