Do you think increasing ADHD diagnosis are due to better detection or "tiktok"?
Do you think increasing ADHD diagnosis are due to better detection or "tiktok"?
I see a lot of people blaming tiktok and "brain rot" content for the increasing ADHD diagnoses, but I think its a matter of better detection, similar to how OCD and autism diagnosis have increased too.
Also as someone with ADHD, it feels like shit that it could be "my fault" or that I have brainrot.
ADHD is, as I understand it with my shitty, distantly earned BS in psychology, congenital and not acquired. You can't just "catch" ADHD, your brain was born with a neurochemical issue - not that I understand neuroscience well, but the dopamine isn't doing its job of keeping your thoughts on target, hence why only immediately rewarding things seem to be possible sometimes.
There are a lot more diagnoses of late, but I've read that part of it is the war on drugs making the Rx systematically scarce so it's just easier to blame people for seeking care rather than addressing the systemic issues. Sort of akin to blaming the consumer for climate change.
TikTok is probably not helping, and it is easy to become addicted. This is a separate matter however.
I'm a licensed mental health professional but I don't specialize in ADHD. I've been diagnosed with ADHD and take stimulants every day.
ADHD is mostly genetic, but IMO the increase in diagnoses is partly due to the information overload from the digital age we're living in. There are simply more things distracting us, more cognitive demands, such that even "normal" brains will struggle to keep up.
I want to point out, too, that the DSM has serious issues with validity and reliability. Some of the criteria are so subjective as to be useless, and two providers diagnosing the same person can arrive at very different disorders. Allen Frances, chair of the DSM-IV (we're on DSM-5 now) wrote a book called Saving Normal where he criticizes the APA's trend of pathologizing basic human experiences. With each DSM edition the diagnostic criteria get more broad, to the point that I can argue that any given person meets criteria for SOME disorder. If everyone is disordered, then what's normal anymore? How is that helpful?
Most of the diagnostic criteria for ADHD describe someone who isn't a "good student" or a "good employee." It doesn't consider context. If someone fucking hates their job, I'm not surprised they struggle to complete tasks that require sustained mental effort. Kids are reminded every day that the world is burning, so of course they're distracted from their math homework. I'm not saying people aren't suffering from what we call ADHD, I'm saying that it's a normal human response to the state of the world right now, so why are we calling it a disorder?
Edit: a word
It's not the first I've heard of professionals hating the DSM, the whole of scientific thought exists within capitalism and so its tendencies can't ever be entirely free of capitalistic slant. Being critical minded and well educated (as you appear to be, if I may say so) is perhaps the best we can do.
You can't cause ADHD, you can't prevent ADHD; it's genetic. It's not a result of patterns of thought, or video games, or television. You don't have to 'train' your child's attention span, nor can you destroy it.
People with adhd are naturally drawn to high-stimulation activities, so people associate the two - but that's like saying that smoke burns the toast.
https://www.cdc.gov/adhd/diagnosis/index.html
Diagnostic Criteria of ADHD as per DSM 5: (Must persist for 6 months, 6 of these if 16 or younger, 5 of these if 17 or older)
(1) Often fails to give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes in schoolwork, at work, or with other activities.
(2) Often has trouble holding attention on tasks or play activities.
(3) Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.
(4) Often does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties in the workplace (e.g., loses focus, side-tracked).
(5) Often has trouble organizing tasks and activities.
(6) Often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to do tasks that require mental effort over a long period of time (such as schoolwork or homework).
(7) Often loses things necessary for tasks and activities (e.g. school materials, pencils, books, tools, wallets, keys, paperwork, eyeglasses, mobile telephones).
(8) Is often easily distracted.
(9) Is often forgetful in daily activities.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10756502/
Results revealed that short-form video addiction not only directly impacted academic procrastination but also placed indirect effect on academic procrastination through attentional control.
Academic Procrastination:
Arguably 1, 4 and 6
Lower Ability to Retain Attention:
Arguably 2, 3, 6 and 8
...
That's just one study.
You can rather easily find dozens of studies that conclude that significant TikTok usage lowers your attention span, lowers your ability to maintain attention/focus, lowers your academic performance, is distracting in and of itself, is even more distracting because TikTok is addictive via dopamine reinforcement conditioning.
Tiktok recently got very angry when documents were made public showing that they know their product is addictive, and that this is done by design.
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/11/g-s1-27676/tiktok-redacted-documents-in-teen-safety-lawsuit-revealed
TikTok determined the precise amount of viewing it takes for someone to form a habit: 260 videos. After that, according to state investigators, a user “is likely to become addicted to the platform.”
TikTok’s own research states that “compulsive usage correlates with a slew of negative mental health effects like loss of analytical skills, memory formation, contextual thinking, conversational depth, empathy, and increased anxiety,” according to the suit.
In addition, the documents show that TikTok was aware that “compulsive usage also interferes with essential personal responsibilities like sufficient sleep, work/school responsibilities, and connecting with loved ones.”
...
I am not going to say that nature, ie genetics, plays absolutely no factor in the likelihood of developing ADHD. It certainly plays a significant role.
But to say you cannot cause and/or exacerbate ADHD via nurture, ie the activities you engage in and the environment you are a part of ... that's absolutely ludicrous, just empirically false.
ADHD diagnoses are on the rise, significant TikTok use exacerbates many of the behavior patterns which literally are the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, thus increased usage of TikTok is causally connected to increasing levels of ADHD in the population.
People are looking for it more than they used to. NOBODY was looking for it when I was young. I was probably in high school when I first heard of ADD. (They hadn't added the H yet) and the general understanding was that ADD = a spastic kid that can't sit still and makes too much noise, and that medication just sedated them to the point of complacency.
I was quiet, and liked to read, so when my third and forth grade teachers said that they were concerned about my ability to pay attention, my mom got offended that they would imply there was something wrong with her smart boy.
I wonder how my life might be different if she had listened to them instead of letting me figure it out on my own 30 years later.
"The quiet girl who is clearly not stupid and reads A LOT but has trouble organising herself will be fine, she'll be able to sort herself out, especially with the help of her parents who are both teachers - no cause for concern here, there are kids who very obviously need more help."
- my teachers, probably, in the late 80s and 90s.
I don't exactly blame them, there really were kids who needed all their attention so I fell through the cracks.
This is almost the story of my boyfriend's childhood.
"My son don't need any drugs!"
Now he's over 40 and finally putting all the pieces together. But not before going tens of thousands of dollars into debt, which is forcing him to keep a job he hates so that he can pay rent. Have I mentioned the daily panic attacks and constant stress on his body?
But he still hasn't seen anyone to get a proper diagnosis because "I am barely making it right now, but seeing someone is something I can't handle right now. Seeing someone might make it worse, and I'll just go further into debt."
So here we are. Quickly dying, and not fixing it.
This was me as well. Literally hiding other books inside school books in 4th grade because the class reading went way to slow. Didn't realize myself until I was 26. Would have been great to learn earlier and maybe avoid the college burnout
A theory I really appreciated that I heard recently was that there's definitely an uptick in female diagnoses of ADHD because, until fairly recently, doctors didn't even believe women could have ADHD. So now it's more out there and there's an uptick in adult women getting tested and being recognized with a diagnosis.
Along with that, yeah just more awareness in general causes more people to go get tested causing more diagnoses. So I'd say things like tiktok contribute to that but only in that they bring awareness to the symptoms people might've not realized were related to ADHD before, not that they cause it.
It's 100% better detection. ADHD is not something you develop, just like autism or type 1 diabetes. It is measurable (it's visible on MRIs as an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex) and some of the symptoms can be treated with drugs, but the person's body will never not need them (just like type 1 diabetes).
Suggesting that TikTok causes ADHD is similar to suggesting that sodas cause type 1 diabetes, the rise of one correlates with the other because if every kid is consuming soda/TikTok it's easier to spot the ones with Diabetes/ADHD, not because of a cause-effect relationship but because some of them will react differently.
Ironically, the algorithm pushing adhd content to my boyfriend is what made him actually realize that that's what he probably has. He just thought everyone felt the way he always has, but were better at handling their life than he was. (There might be a serious low self-esteem problem mixed in there too.)
I was diagnosed in my 20s but didn’t believe the psychiatrist. She didn’t do extensive testing or anything, just named it and prescribed for it given what I told her about myself and what she observed. I thought she was so wrong.
But the content about it over the past 5 or so years has made me realize how right she was. I understand myself so much better now that I believe that diagnosis and I’m better able to handle the challenges that come with it.
I’m grateful that my generation has become outspoken about mental health and neurodivergence.
I had ADHD a full 20 years before tiktok was invented
I was fourteen when I first got unlimited internet access.
ADHD is something you're born with.
Have you been formally diagnosed by a psychiatrist or other qualified healthcare professional?
Undoubtedly ADHD (especially ADD variant) went underreported for a very long time as until only relatively recently we'd have blamed its symptoms on other things. The increase in people being diagnosed is real.
But it needs to be done by a qualified professional because some ADHD symptoms overlap with other neurodiversity or other conditions. So a portion of self diagnosed people will, in fact, not have ADHD but something else.
Have you been formally diagnosed by a psychiatrist or other qualified healthcare professional?
Would you ask that to someone who told you they have cancer?
Just like video games don't make someone a school shooter, tiktok does not make people have ADHD. Both can exacerbate existing problems and people need to be aware of this and look at WHY kids in particular seem to spend a lot of time gaming / scrolling brainless videos. But the causes are more complex and inconvenient so society jumps on easy answers.
people need to be aware of this and look at WHY kids in particular seem to spend a lot of time gaming / scrolling brainless videos
Obviously because of the dopamine rush, this isn't new information.
actual diagnoses are likely due to better detection, self diagnoses are likely due to the Internet.
One may lead to the other
Maybe, but in my experience a lot of people who self-diagnosed and claim they have adhd are actually just chronically online and want to feel special. I've even seen some people who got tested, were told outright by professionals that they do not have adhd (and shown proof), and decided to say the doctors were trying to oppress or alienate them.
I think doctors are diagnosing ADHD more often because it didn't used to be a recognized thing. Awareness and detection are both rising. I also think as pharmaceutical companies make ADHD meds they can profit from, it is yet another incentive for doctors to give an ADHD diagnosis.
I think people are self-diagnosing ADHD more often because, well, I could probably write an essay opining on that. It's not just tiktok because the self-diagnosis trend predates tiktok but tiktok certainly contributes.
Excessive time on TikTok is not good for a person, whether it "causes" ADHD or not.
If you have an ADHD diagnosis, have a conversation with your doctor about both meds and non-med ways to improve your life. Cutting down on TikTok may be advisable, in addition to any meds or other instructions the doctor has given you. Obligatory "Lemmy is not the place for medical advice".
I wonder if adhd should even be considered something that you get diagnosed with. So many people have it its like diagnosing someone with having red hair or something. Instead society should just accept there are people who think in different way and accommodate. Though of course people should still be able to know if they have that variation.
It's probably better detection.
As for internet brain rot, I suspect that's due to the idolization of swiftly delivered entertainment over everything else.
People don't read anymore because it takes time and effort to get into the book. It takes commitment and thought. People would rather have entertainment fed to us in thousands of smaller doses. Get those micro dopamine hits with each swipe of your phone.
I suspect it's also a form of escapism. The world is turning to shit and TikTok brain rot works much in the same way as abusing drugs.
I don't think you can become ADHD. You're either born with it or not.
Depends on who does the diagnosis and for what reason.
First of all, self-diagnosis specifically linked to TikTok trends or other social media is a very dumb way of claiming to have ADHD or any defining trait of some kind. Enough users do this to make it an issue of general perception of the actual state of things.
So while I'd say that detection has increased, the alleged "brainrot" has followed as well - for the duration of the trend's popularity.
It was Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid. Then it was video games. Now they blame TikTok.
Don't believe those people. They want any excuse except the actual answer, that humanity exists on several sliding scales. And while there is a normative zone, it's not at all abnormal to be outside that zone.
While I am very much against the idea that "things were better in my day", I don't think the idea that the rise of social media, short form content and rapid gratification has had on today's society and upcoming generations should be tossed out offhand. I do think there is something fundamentally different with some of the content presented nowadays, and how easy to access and addictive it can be.
It's not just short form video algorithms. Streaming TV shows are made to where they effectively end about 15 minutes into the next episode. Video games are workshopped right down to the sounds they use for loot boxes.
And all of that might have an effect, but that effect is pretty clearly to draw in normal people. Not to somehow create ADHD.
Absolutely. Years of dedicated research have been spent maximizing the attention economy
I struggled in school despite being smart. I was tested but they said I didn't have it.
Then as an adult, I re-tested. They updated the things they look for and are more aware of how people can try to mask and deal with their symptoms, which in the past made it difficult to diagnose. I was diagnosed then.
Going through this with ASD now after my surprise adult ADHD diagnosis a few years ago lol
If you test more, you detect more.
Considering I've never used TikTok or joined it, I was diagnosed in 2022 (or so, I don't remember), after almost 40 years of life. So much of my past, pre- and post-internet era, started to make sense when I learned that ADHD has an inattentive side that lacks the hyperactivity.
It's not that the diagnosis of and has exploded due to "X cause," but like autism, we have increased identification for them or categorize behaviors differently.
Ehhhhhh, I think it's a little of column A and a little of column B.
I think the biggest tik tok contributor is people now hear about ADHD and decide because they get bored in schoo sometimes they must have it etc. (As someone who struggles not to chew through their own gums as a form of fidgeting, I find this really irritating.) But let's put that aside because I don't think that's what you're asking about. I'll also ignore the fact that more people are walking into therapists having read all the symptoms and knowing essentially what to say to receive a "diagnosis."
To the actual question, I do think TikTok/smartphones/internet are definitely rewiring our brains in ways that mirror a lot of symptoms of ADD/ADHD. There's a depressingly good book about it called the Shallows but the basic thesis is that the financial incentives of the internet are geared to keep you clicking and moving through things (so you see more new ads) which habituated people to very short term impulses/reward structures. In other words, impulse control and trouble focusing long term.
Tiktok definitely reduces the attention span of its users. Same goes for YouTube shorts, instagram reels and all other short form content. But more ADHD cases being diagnosed comes down to better detection and generally more awareness by the public for the symptoms.
both? i was diagnosed super young, and by the time i got to college some people around me spent so much time on their phones or dodged so much homework it made me feel i was on a more even playing field lol
The rates are also increasing. Not just better detection.
RCCX Theory.
The increase in rates is contributed by people having children later. Lots of peopld have kids later in life compared to decades ago. Like ASD there is a link between parental age at the time of having the child and an increase in non-normative conditions. It’s not the only cause, just a factor that increases risk.
Not better detection and not tiktok in particular, better information available and less stigma allowing more people to out themselves. Same with LGBTQ+ and many other non-apparent, but taboo traits throughout history. As they become more widely aceptable, people can be out or at least people can better understand that these traits are not them being broken, lazy, evil, or selfish.
I think it's because a lot of people struggle to match the expectations put on them. Said expectations are too high even for neurtypical people, to the point where they seek diagnosisses to get accomdations. Late stage capitalism making everyone feel like they aren't up to par when par is 16 swings on an 18-hole course.
you cant really cause adhd but Theres are a lot of people on tiktok that want to be mentally ill, so they make shit up, or believe in signs that are ordinary. also, tiktok probably made more people lazy & depressed so they had to go to therapy which is why they even got a chance to be diagnosed.
source: I was one of them.