Science Friday - TikTok Is Shaping How We Think About ADHD

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

TikTok and other social media sites are full of mental health content—often short, grabby, first-person videos detailing symptoms for conditions like ADHD and autism. But what does this mean for teens and young adults who spend hours a day scrolling?A new study published in PLOS One analyzes the 100 most viewed TikTok videos about ADHD to assess both how accurate they are and how young people respond to them. Researchers found that about half of the videos were inaccurate or missing key context, and that the more TikToks young adults watched, the less critical they were of the content.For some, watching social videos about mental health conditions led them to better understand themselves and eventually get a proper diagnosis and treatment. For others it made them consider if they have conditions they don’t meet the diagnostic criteria for.Host Flora Lichtman talks with the lead author of the ADHD TikTok study, Vasileia Karasavva, a PhD Student in clinical psychology at the University of British Columbia; and Dr. Jennifer Katzenstein, director of psychology, neuropsychology, and social work at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida.Guests: Vasileia Karasavva is a PhD Student in Clinical Psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.Dr. Jennifer Katzenstein is Director of Psychology, Neuropsychology and Social work and Co-director of the Center for Behavioral Health at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. Transcripts for each episode are available at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Hi, this is Flora Lichtenen, and you're listening to Science Friday. Today on the show, how TikTok is shaping our understanding of ADHD. Mental illness exists on a spectrum. So when you have creators who present their own personal experiences as a size one-feet-old solution, this is kind of very flat. If you're on TikTok, you know that the app is more than just silly dance trends, cat videos, and makeup tutorials. It's also a place where people with sharing.

shared experiences or identities find each other. And one of those communities has formed around ADHD. If you're a part of that TikTok world, you have probably seen dozens of videos like this. Five less well-known ADHD behaviors with doodles. Let's go. Number one, listening to the same song on repeat until you are sick of it. Due to your mimicking spirit, you will find yourself absorbing others' accents. Feeling that everyone is, feeling that everyone is. hates you. They're secretly talking behind your back, that you're not good enough. Sitting in your car for a really long time before you go into your house. And this is because ADHD often struggle with switching tasks. Our next guest noticed these videos popping up on her feed,

and she decided to use her clinical psychology expertise to try to understand this phenomenon better. She analyzed the 100 most viewed TikTok videos about ADHD to assess how accurate they are and how young people respond to them. Here's my conversation from March of this year with Vasalia Karasava, PhD student in clinical psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Vasalia, welcome to Science Friday. Hi, thank you for having me.

Okay, for those of us who are not on TikTok, just give us a taste of what these videos are like. Was that clip representative? Like, who's making them and what's the format? It is pretty representative. So the people who make them, in our study, we found most of them spoke from their own personal experiences, and very few of them had any training in clinical psychology or psychiatry or mental health in some related field. I think the goal for so many of these videos is for people to talk about what they've been experiencing in ADHD in a way that's cute and entertaining.

And perhaps even if it doesn't match up exactly the diagnostic criteria of ADHD. So what made you want to take a closer look at this? Well, me and the second author, who's also my friend, Caroline Miller, had found ourselves sending each other a lot of TikToks about ADHD. We are in an ADHD-related lab, so we found them interesting. And I think the algorithm picked up that we were sending them to each other, so they kept showing us more of these videos. And we kind of wanted to see if that's the average experience of the user, getting videos

that are very cute and quirky and funny, but not really. good representations of ADHD or was it just us? So when you analyze these videos, what did you find? Well, about half of them did not really match up the diagnostic criteria of ADHD. We found that a good chunk represented behaviors that are highly associated with ADHD, but they're not really symptoms of ADHD, like difficulties in social relationships. And the reason why that's not a symptom in ADHD is because there are so many other things that are associated there, like your personality or your temperament.

But by far the biggest bucket was things that are not associated with ADHD at all or with any other mental illness and are probably part of the human condition, like having a sweet tooth or listening to the same song over and over or liking a certain TV show a lot. How good are people at discerning between videos that were accurate and those that aren't This is what we wanted to find in our second study, and we show the top five and bottom five videos to about 800 young adults with or without ADHD. And we actually found that people who consume the high diet of TikTok also found these TikToks more helpful or more accurate, more likely to recommend them. They felt they were more trustworthy, even if the information in the videos was not accurate. That is correct, yes.

And they felt worse about their own ADHD symptoms and assumed ADHD is more prevalent in the population than it actually is. I think that this is very akin to doom-scrolling. Like, for example, it's probably really helpful to keep up today with what's going on in the world. But how helpful is it to you to spend hours or four hours about everything terrible that's been going on all around the glow? You probably feel a little worse about yourself.

And we're thinking that something similar might be happening here, where people reach a point where consuming more of this content about ADHD doesn't really help them understand their own experiences and instead might make them feel worse about them. I mean, these videos are really short and, you know, they're interspersed with like cat videos and news analysis. Do you have suggestions for people on how to think more critically about them when they are sort of. served up? You know, what should people do differently? Yeah. The biggest one is if someone appears very confident, question them. Mental illness exists on a spectrum. It can appear differently on different people, especially something like ADHD. So when you have creators who present their own personal experiences as a size one-feet-all solution, this is kind of a red flag. And the second biggest red flag is to question people who in one breath are telling you, hey, you have

the symptom, and this is ADHD, and they're diagnosing you with something, and in the next breath are selling you a solution that apparently only they have and it's gate-gapped by the healthcare system. Thanks for joining me today. Thank you for your interest in our work. Vasilya Karasava, PhD student in clinical psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. After the break, what does the flood of mental health content on social media mean for teens and the clinicians who treat them? It's gotten to the point now where I actually go ahead and just ask them who they have been following online and if they've ever felt that they were similar to an influencer or someone online in a social media site. Now to zoom out a bit, TikTok and other social media sites are full of mental health content, not just about ADHD.

So what does this mean for teens and young adults who spend hours a day scrolling? What does it mean for clinicians in their practice? And how does the prevalence of these videos influence culture around mental health? Joining me now to talk through these questions and more is Dr. Jennifer Katzenstein, director of psychology, neuropsychology, and social work, and co-director of the Center for Behavioral Health at Johns Hopkins, all children's hospital based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Jennifer, welcome to Science Friday.

Thanks so much for having me, Flora. It's a pleasure to be here. How often are you seeing teens or young people come in with a self-diagnosis they picked up from social media? You know, it's more frequent, certainly, than it ever has been before. When I see my preteen and teenage patients, it's gotten to the point now where I actually go ahead and just ask them who they have been following online. And if they've ever felt that they were similar to an influencer or someone online in a social, media site. Really? So it's changed your practice. It's totally changed my practice. It has gotten me to ask the question up front. I mean, is it a helpful shortcut for you? Or is this more like this is helpful context for you? Is both, honestly. I really need the context to know. And I think mental health is one of those things where we have so many spectrums of normal. And so is this a symptom that was

just for a moment or has this been lifelong? How does it impact every day? functioning and then knowing where my child that I'm working with and their family is coming from so that I can see what are they really already thinking what have they even tried right because so many times they've even gone down some of a treatment path without having a diagnosis too how often is that self-diagnosis correct oh gosh I would say more often than not it's not correct so or it's within the within the spectrum of normal right and there's a certain amount of anxiety that's normal and that facilitates us for getting our homework done on time and studying for that test. And there's a certain amount of social anxiety that is normal too. And we do feel anxious

in new situations and it's okay to withdraw. Is it impacting your daily functioning? Is it preventing you from doing previously enjoyed activities? Is it preventing you from engaging in the home or at school? that's when we kind of head to that diagnostic arena. You know, we asked our listeners to share stories about this phenomenon of sort of self-diagnosing through social media. Let's hear one of them. Hi, my name is Courtney Sorrento. I'm from Buffalo, New York. My daughter was posting a lot on her social media about ADHD.

And I kept saying, that's me, that's me. And so here I was in my 50s, self-diagnosing. And so I brought it up to my physician and I got a test, an official test. And I do. I'm very strong ADHD. I never knew. And now I am getting treated for it and starting to improve my life. And so that actually turned out to be a happy ending.

Jennifer, is this something that you see? You know, you diagnose a kid and then the parents realize, oh, I think I have that condition. Yeah, it's funny because it goes both ways. Sometimes I'll have a parent who happens to get a diagnosis, and that might be because of someone they saw in social media or in talking with their physician. And then they start to recognize those symptoms in their kit. And we really do see that go both ways. I think one of the amazing pieces of this story for me is really just how we've broken down the stigma surrounding mental health diagnoses as well, that everyone is starting to have more access to the information.

and feeling empowered to seek out appropriate treatment and diagnosis if it's necessary. And you see in this story here how it can significantly improve your overall functioning and quality of life. Let's go to another listener. Hi, this is Michael calling from Brooklyn, New York, and I'm on Instagram. And I find that every single time I'm going through the reels and I see one about this, every single time I walk away thinking for sure that I have autism, or at least him on the spectrum somewhere.

And then I'll hold it up next to things like, but I don't really want to talk to anybody about it. And I certainly don't want to talk to my genuinely autistic people that I know in my life and bring it up to them. So there's a little bit like, okay, underneath my sureness, I kind of know that it's not really something. It's just because it'll be details like, do you have a specialized interest? I'm like, yeah, I do. Either things that, like, I know in my heart of hearts are kind of things that lots of people deal with on a day-to-day basis. But I think I started thinking about it a lot more. There has to be some reason for why I'm spending all this time on these stupid feeds.

And a diagnosis is the most compelling reason. Jennifer, any response to this? I really, these voice smells are fantastic. These are great opportunities to share because, again, when we think about symptoms, they all come together in different ways to get us to a diagnosis. And that's why there's a spectrum really for so many of the mental health diagnoses we have in autism is one of them in terms of that neurodiversity component. So having a specific interest is common for so many individuals. But does that interest interfere with your ability to talk about or be interested in any other topic?

And again, recognizing too that we're living in this time where information is coming at us. our brains are adjusting to how quickly information comes in, our attention span with the amount of device use that we use. There's research that suggests it's shortening. So really just again, evolving with the technology that we have with us, but not necessarily meaning that it's a diagnosis. Do you think this is different, this phenomenon of self-diagnosing through social media? Is it different than Googling your symptoms on WebMD or seeing a commercial for an new drug and thinking, oh, I have that. I need that. You know, that's a great question because we have had that access to information for so long.

And I had been asking many of my families again for a long time now, what have you Googled? So I get an idea of what you've been looking at. It's really about social media. I think that back and forth where you can comment and have some information back or you're getting more of an active description. And so you might just be looking on a website and seeing a list of symptoms or doing an online quiz. But when you see someone that you respect or someone that you follow and have been relating to their content in a certain way, I find that it almost has a more salient, like, personalization

or where you can identify yourself in that because you are, right, having that internet relationship with them in one way or another that even provides more of an influence than just reading about it online. It's a first person testimonial and that's more powerful. Exactly. Yeah, and emotional. Do you think that social media has reduced stigma around mental health issues? I really do. I think that as we've had more and more, especially our young adults, share their experiences, share how they're feeling, share how that impacts them on their daily lives. It's empowered others to be able to have that insight, recognize, and feel like they're not only

can be open about them and share it with others, but go and seek supports when they need them. Let's go to another listener, Julietta in Oxnard, California, who called in about this. Hi, good afternoon. Hi, tell us your story. Okay, I found out that I had ADHD while I was watching videos on TikTok. And somehow it just popped up on my feed. To me, it was something that, you know, people I went to school with, mainly boys, you know, that have that hyperactivity. But when they started talking about how it's so different with girls,

how it presents itself. And I just remember just tearing up. Like, I mean, I was crying like, but from the inside, you know, that just really heartfelt cry, just thinking that I finally have an answer. I finally found my people. I felt like there was a reason why, you know, I really never felt that I belonged or why I knew that I'm smart. I know that I'm intelligent.

just not being able to finish school. Did you go to a clinician after that to get a formal diagnosis? I did. I got the formal diagnosis. And here I am, you know, 31 years old and felt like I was starting my life over again. I mean, that's an amazing story. And I appreciate you sharing your experience with us. Thank you.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity. I, you know, listen to Sends Friday all the time. And this one was, it was just hit me to the core. This is so great to see amazing outcomes again when the stigma is broken down and people are seeking out supports and getting additional information to help guide them for their future. Incredible. And another great point that a lot of the mental health diagnoses we have can really vary between males and females.

And so when we have sometimes a typical set of symptoms, especially in ADHD, we tend to think of that more hyperactivity or impulsive behavior. And the research would suggest that sometimes girls go undiagnosed because they aren't showing those disruptive behaviors and are really more inattentive in having difficulty with focus or with distractibility. And so what I tell Pamelaus is they fly under the radar because they're well behaved and they're not that squeaky wheel

maybe in the classroom. I asked Julietta what she thought about the misinformation piece, you know, that we talked about. earlier in the segment. And she was like, I think of it like a buffet. Like I just go to the cafeteria of TikTok and I take what's useful to me and I ignore what's not. Yeah. I love that. And that's something that I hope that we're teaching everyone with any social media platform is what information is relevant to me, but then are we good consumers of that information moving forward? And are we recognizing that there is misinformation out there? And

How do we go to reputable sites to be able to verify things before they really get incorporated into our belief systems? Jennifer, thanks so much for this conversation today. Thanks so much. Pleasure to be with you. Dr. Jennifer Katzenstein, Director of Psychology, Neuropsychology, and Social Work, and co-director of the Center for Behavioral Health at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital based in St. Petersburg, Florida. If you like the show, rate and review us wherever you listen, or just go straight to guerrilla marketing. Take a friend's phone and subscribe them to this podcast. Today's episode was produced by Shoshana Bucksbaum.

I'm Flora Lichten. Thanks for listening.