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TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

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Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#521

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Simple objective reality. Nobody is diagnosing boys as trans or having gender dysphoria simply because they play with Barbies. People in a certain bubble may believe it's happening, but in the real world it takes a lot more than "plays with barbies" to get that diagnosis.

What makes you think you have more access to objective reality than others ?

What makes you think anyone can have access to objective reality? What makes you think a first assertion holds more weight than a second? What makes you think bubbles are not a thing? What makes you think certain phrases don't immediately betray how little someone knows about people outside of their bubble?

I know enough people outside of the heteronormative experience to know that nothing about playing with Barbies pushes people toward being trans. It's reminiscent of the classic "violent games make kids violent" line. That's not the case at all -- rather violent kids are attracted more to violent games. The causality is completely incorrect and displays an obvious naivete paired with a pre-existing ideological bias.

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#522
post #499

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I strongly disagree. I think most people I know are careful to not throw around the word "depression" when they talk about being sad. They are keenly aware of the difference. And they know the difference between "being anxious" or "having anxiety" and having an actual anxiety disorder. Of course, a lot of times the lines are blurred. Whole most medical professionals are forced to draw a stark line in order to make an…

No offense but if most people around you are throwing around the word "depression," I would personally consider that a red flag (unless you're in the medical profession). Either your friend circle are unusually showing symptoms of depression or they're misusing the term/self-diagnosing themselves.

I clearly stated that "most people I know are careful to not throw around the word "depression". The rest of what I wrote syncs with this perspective. Not sure what you read.

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#525

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If that "delusion" were really so maladaptive it would have been outcompeted by now.

The concept of (religious fanatics + nuclear weapons) has greatly undermined the old 'utilitarian' argument about the social benefits of religion. For those who haven't heard it, that argument is something like 'yes, religious texts are just fairy tales, but religious belief leads to social cohesion and confers survival advantages on a society, so we should promote it, even though we don't believe in it ourselves.' A…

I buy that argument. I am a 44 year old atheist and even in my life I've seen the difference in society from when being a Christian in the US was just something most people did, to now where we're all much more secular.

Religion's negatives get a lot more press than it's positives.

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#526
post #183

I've done a lot of thinking about this issue, and there's two topics I notice. First, disability has become a status symbol in certain circles. Second, the huge rise in self-diagnosed disability. On the latter point, these kids are acting out these disabilities with such sincerity and 24/7 consistency that they effectively are disabled for all practical purposes, it's just that the diagnosis might be different than t…

I think the cause may be wanting a way to opt out of the pressure cooker that modern life is. I'm disabled (I have MS), and the one benefit to it is that I have a 'get out of social expectations free' button I can push if things get too difficult. If I'm not feeling well, it's acceptable for me to cancel plans, call off work, make sub-optimal decisions (putting my health above my earning capacity, etc.). In short, di…

One of my friends on my bike racing team has MS.

He does the opposite, and uses it against me all the time. "I have MS, and I can do this, so you'll be at the race with me right?"

It usually works :)

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#527

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Well the problem with ADHD is the same problem of pretty much all psychological disorders - diagnosis is only ever really fuzzily falsifiable. You get diagnosed with it if you tick enough of the boxes of behaviours/dysfunctions associated with it - you can fall short of a diagnosis by one behaviour and still be in a very similar condition to a diagnosed person, or tick enough boxes but fall short based on the diagnos…

I can credibly claim stimulant treatment for adhd saved my life so I'm not at all skeptical of its value in this context. But doesn't everyone respond extremely well to stimulants? They're some of the most common recreational drugs and neurotypical people seek them out for performance enhancement on cognitive tasks.

> But doesn't everyone respond extremely well to stimulants?

I wish lmao. I'm on meds and while I can see a difference between non-meds and now I could easily go back to bed after they kick in and sleep the entire day away. Still doing the dosage dance with the doc.

Someone who didn't need them would likely be a little hyper if not bouncing off the walls depending on the dosage.

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

This is an uninformed and sexist viewpoint of differences between men and women. Women cry more.. men bottle it up and let it out as a form of aggression usually to people who are no the source of stress. Ask yourself why are men the ones committing mass shootings and not women? There is probably a large mental health gap that needs to be addressed, and the resistance to getting therapy or being in touch with feeling…

> Ask yourself why are men the ones committing mass shootings and not women?

1 reason: testosterone

it promotes aggressive and risky behavior

I agree that sexism is a problem and should be addressed properly, but the untold truth is that mass shootings are the cultural product of a violent society.

while the real issue, IMO, is that Globally, death by suicide occur about 1.8 times more often among males than among females

The bottom line is most men (especially young men, suicide is one of the primary - if not the most common - cause of death for teenagers all around the World) prefer to kill themselves than kill someone else.

Also men make up almost 80 per cent of all homicide victims recorded worldwide.

They are also globally much more involved in protecting other people from life threatening situations.

That's something we should actually focus on, IMO, instead of the derogatory "boys being boys".

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#529
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> much of it seems very difficult to falsify It's quite straightforward, albeit involved (as in technically easy, but takes time) to falsify. You have to work with a licensed medical professional who will evaluate traits, strengths, and difficulties, and to what extent they impact functioning as a person in society. Basically, are they "well-adjusted"? If they make it through school, college and adulthood without a t…

I think the whole point of the term neordivergent is imply that many mental disorders aren't impairments in the sense of stop you from living life, but are different ways of perceiving. For example, I know an eye surgeon who was diagnosed with ADHD in his forties. He is incredibly successful and by all external measures well adjusted. This was because he had developed a set of very successful coping strategies to mak…

This opens an interesting line of inquiry. Is ADHD simply the lack of adequate coping mechanisms? Is ADHD somehow the "default" state of a human mind, and the effect of maturing into a particular psychosocial niche that some level of coping mechanisms are required to "function" "correctly" per socially constructed standards?

Re: TikTok videos leave teens thinking they have rare mental disorders (2021)

#530

It feels as though our society has collectively forgotten that mental illness can be socially transmissible. I remember in 00s there seemed to be mainstream acknowledgement and concern that anorexia and distorted perception of one's body can be socially transmissible, ripping through teen social cliches particularly, and could be spread through the internet by "pro-ana" websites and chat groups. I don't hear much abo…

>It feels as though our society has collectively forgotten that mental illness can be socially transmissible. I remember in 00s there seemed to be mainstream acknowledgement and concern that anorexia and distorted perception of one's body can be socially transmissible

In the 90s, there was a study done on "sensitivity to environmental toxins," where people would complain about sickness and headaches and similar things from new carpet or new paint in offices.

IIRC, the study found that the reported cases were in a kind of "line of sight," i.e. one person would complain about it to another person, and before long it had passed all the way through the weird social groupings in cube farms, passed from person to person.

It's odd, but important to remember, that humans are still just smarter than average herd animals.

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