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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)

#551

Post by dang »

JediLuke wrote: post #241
rlv-dan wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's taboo to criticise such movements because by extension you criticise those that actually have the illness. And some movements have grown quite powerful politically. If you allude that it's problematic to let children change sex, you are painted as anti lgbtixxxx. Activism has won against science.

Quoted post unavailable.

> women are not as capable as men at life.

I don't know if it's "impolite" but I do know that you can't troll HN like this. We've banned the account.

If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

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

#552

Post by madrox »

Growing up, my teenage friend group would frequently dive into mental diagnosis and personality assessments. This feels like a very common teenage thing to do and TikTok didn't invent it. At that age, you don't know who you are or why you do things you do and there's comfort in learning about this stuff. For that matter, it's a joke among psych students that you begin to diagnose yourself and your friends as you take abnormal psych.

Or maybe it wasn't a common thing for friend groups to do and mine was strange. We didn't have the WSJ to tell us.

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

#553

Post by corobo »

luckylion wrote: post #512
LocalPCGuy wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> doesn't everyone respond extremely well to stimulants? Not really - despite their popularity (as you say, heavily sought after), studies have shown that there really isn't a significant cognitive boost for neurotypical folks that take these stimulants[1]. While they have a significant effect for those with ADHD because their brain is not providing the chemicals properly, and these drugs enable that. They aren't boo…

Is it fair to say that stimulants having a significant impact is an indicator for having ADHD? If it wasn't basically impossible to see a psychiatrist where I live, I'd try to get tested, because Armodafinil has completely changed my life.

> Is it fair to say that stimulants having a significant impact is an indicator for having ADHD?

Honestly I'd say it's the opposite. Stimulants barely touch the sides with me, even the non-prescribed types a younger version of me may or may not have dabbled in were pretty ineffective.

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

#554

Post by kortex »

Ensorceled wrote: post #374
kortex wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just not happy or healthy or as successful as I could have been. That is precisely what I mean. You were not naturally "well-adjusted", you just learned to adjust and adapt over time. It wasn't the best choice of words but I can't edit.

There are clinicians who believe that if you are not "below average" or "experiencing extreme distress" then, by definition, you don't have a disorder. Because I have a well paying job, some clinicians would not categorize me has having ADHD because I'm operating at an "above average" capacity. We're just reacting to what appears to be agreement with that approach, even if unintentional.

> We're just reacting to what appears to be agreement with that approach, even if unintentional.

Agreed. I'm addressing precisely the point in GP comment "neurodiversity is not a falsifiable diagnosis", which is something I feel quite strongly about. Other issues in this complex space that I think also are worth being discussed but I am not trying to get into in this thread:

- overdiagnosis of ADHD/ASD

- underdiagnosis of ADHD/ASD in certain subgroups (especially women/NB, minority, and underprivileged groups)

- ADHD/ASD are/are not on the same spectrum

- drug-seeking behavior for access to stimulant meds

- overmedication, undermedication, and incorrect diagnosis leading to iatrogenic harm (eg giving antipsychotics to a "bipolar" individual whose "bipolar" is realdy emotional lability due to ADHD/ASD

Each one of those topics I could talk about at length. They are related, but distinct.

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

#555

Post by chiefgeek »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #69
DoughnutHole wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I do not. I had a psychiatrist years ago who insisted I was ADHD. I was also on heavy dose of Zoloft. He prescribed Adderall XR. Took it for months. Did nothing. Years later, I've done a ton of transformative work on myself. I realized it (the supposed condition) was mostly about me not wanting to do what was in front of me. I've tried taking both standard Adderall and XR in the recent past and it does absolutely zero.

Possibly related - my PCP gave me a genetic test and it showed that I have some gene configuration that essentially makes me immune to the effects of caffeine. Which makes sense, because I have to drink a boatload to feel anything from it.

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

#556

Post by seltzered_ »

jquery wrote: post #250
rlv-dan wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's taboo to criticise such movements because by extension you criticise those that actually have the illness. And some movements have grown quite powerful politically. If you allude that it's problematic to let children change sex, you are painted as anti lgbtixxxx. Activism has won against science.

It was never taboo to criticize pro-ana groups. Being lgbt isn’t a mental illness. Not medically speaking, anyway. Maybe they were considered such in the past. Go far enough back and we used bloodletting as a common treatment, our understanding generally improves with time. I have no desire to go back to an era where lgbt people were persecuted. With respect to your other point. “Children” is a broad category. Pre-pu…

I'm supportive of what you're trying to say and thankful for the video you shared.

Just to add some context the parent author is might be trying to refer to "rapid onset gender dysphoria" ( https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... ) which, while far out of my understanding, is a rather new topic that's still being studied.

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

#557

Post by overthemoon »

albrewer wrote: post #267
overthemoon wrote: post #5

Tik Tok is the reason I've been told several times I have ADHD. Pretty sure I don't! This phenomenon is so infuriating. The only half-convincing defense I've heard of it is that it could, maybe, theoretically, disseminate information about illnesses to people who don't have the money to see a professional, but the other effects are so much worse it doesn't seem worth it.

On the flip side, I asked my psych to take an ADHD test because I found the stuff at /r/ADHDmemes consistently hit far too close to home to be a coincidence.

Do you mind if I ask how that went? I've circled these issues before. For me, I suspect the underlying issue is something else, but I'm curious about your experience.

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

#558

Post by kortex »

uoaei wrote: post #529
JulianChastain wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> 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?

IMHO, yes, but actually, no? ADHD is marked by executive dysregulation. An immature brain (they say the brain does not mature until the 20s) also shows poor executive control. However, ADHD is detectable as certain processing difficulties within an age cohort.

Similarly, I don't think it's a lack of coping mechanisms. It's very heritable, even controlling for upbringing/habits (I'm adopted by very obviously non-ADHD and disciplined parents - I did not pick up basically any of their coping skills naturally and had to develop my own).

I think it's almost entirely congenital - between genes and gestation, your neurodivergency die is cast at birth (unless acquired via brain injury).

> This was because he had developed a set of very successful coping strategies to make up for his lack of executive function.

I think this takes a special set of conditions, and/or a mild case of it. Some people do learn to cope. I would contend even these folks have indicators of stress/mental health problems, even if non-obvious. Or they just drew the best possible ADHD hand in terms of life events.

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

#559

Post by cptcobalt »

madrox wrote: post #552

Growing up, my teenage friend group would frequently dive into mental diagnosis and personality assessments. This feels like a very common teenage thing to do and TikTok didn't invent it. At that age, you don't know who you are or why you do things you do and there's comfort in learning about this stuff. For that matter, it's a joke among psych students that you begin to diagnose yourself and your friends as you take…

I participated in this with friend groups, prior to the era of TikTok. I think it's actually an interesting exercise, since doing things like MTBI tests in a group—even if the results/outcomes are tenuous at best—it helps you start to understand and breakdown how different people tick.

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

#560

Post by anotherman554 »

faeriechangling wrote: post #364
watwut wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are treating "not presenting symptoms as kids" and "not being diagnosed as a kid" interchangeably.

I'm not, I'm in no way saying that explicitly or implicitly. I do not even remotely conflate these two things. It is possible to show symptoms as a child, not get diagnosed as a child, and get diagnosed as an adult. I have zero issue with that. Here's the exact phrasing of the criteria https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/hcp-dsm.html >Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period (but may not become fully…

There might be a difference between medicine as written and medicine as practiced. Suppose a psychiatrist talks to a patient and confirms they have every symptom. Clearly a textbook case, except the patient says "I was symptom free in childhood."

Does the psychiatrist conclude the patient doesn't meet the criteria, or does the psychiatrist conclude the patient wasn't self aware enough in childhood to know if they exhibited symptoms so a diagnosis is warranted?

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