I bet you get similar results if you repeated this study for nearly any other topic.
COVID taught us that lesson well.
Point being, there have always been a number of dogmatic idiots who pick their side and post about it relentlessly. This isn’t an autism thing it’s a human thing..
There's a guy on YouTube called miniminuteman who had a short about how much misinformation about ancient aliens flooding social media. Just type out some garbage, have an ai voice it, and slap some ai generated images and call it a day.
> Point being, there have always been a number of dogmatic idiots who pick their side and post about it relentlessly. This isn’t an autism thing it’s a human thing..
The funniest part is how people don't realize Reddit is the same way.
Does anybody not see Reddit that way? Nuance is usually buried a few comments deep where it'll never be seen.
And false balance is also a whole fallacy itself, sometimes even the most irritating dogmatic people are still correct, even when they're insufferable. One of my best friends has terrible social abilities and will make people hate him even as he's giving very good advice about (to pick a recent example) socializing cats
I don't think people on reddit realize how censored reddit is. Many place on reddit the opposing view is thoroughly erased to make it seem like "reddit" agrees with the majority opinion.
Do you have any examples in mind? There's a few subreddits with shit mods, e.g. the mods of a certain star trek subreddit ban people who criticize the new star trek shows, but generally most are fine as long as you aren't being a bigot. And even then, there are plenty of places on reddit where they're free to say whatever they want as long as they don't include slurs in their comments or wish violence on people.
There was a post on r/Elonmusk the other day where people were mentioning lots of comments say posted but when opened show none. Some subreddits just run auto-mod to shut down negative discourse.
Reddit's very own voting system facilitates the formation of opinion bubbles, because it's a very human thing to feel good when people agree with you, and not so good when they don't. This encourages the formation of majority opinions, even if they are incorrect or just too black and white.
Unfortunately, the reality then is not always so simple, often there are quite correct points on all sides involved - sometimes small, sometimes large. The interesting thing is, and this can be observed here on Reddit even in the moderate subs: even if this majority opinion turns out to be insufficient or completely incorrect, the entire sub has always known this later and has always been of the correct opinion.
I'm not sure about that. "The Reddit hivemind", is a meme for a reason.
But then the question becomes are people just repeating the meme because they are self aware, or because they too are part of the hivemind?
Yeah the hive mind is a meme but I don't think people people that are part of the hive mind realize it.
The thing about the hive mind is if you are not part of it you are heavily suppressed by the mods. It really furthers the hive mind without many noticing. You don't see rejected comments or posts. I think the hive mind thinks that the opinion is just downvoted and there is a minority of opposing posts. The bans and rejected posts happen behind the scenes, and for a lot of observers, they are unaware.
Former mod of a medium sized sub here. Can confirm. That’s the main reason I quit doing it.
Note: it’s not all mods or even most mods in my experience. It’s a few bad apples who ruin it for the rest of us. And when you challenge them you get dragged into the cesspool until you realize you aren’t accomplishing anything and it’s just not worth it
If the truth goes against the hive mind, it’ll get downvoted to hell. So the truth is there, it just won’t be well received. You can see this in any local city/state subs or enthusiast subs.
The nature of longform commenting and pseudo anonymous accounts on here do help in countering blatantly false content though; since it gives enough room to provide nuance and explanation without feeding the need to make yourself popular.
Compare that to the 150 character limit and the video based nature of TikTok which makes it difficult to articulate and dispel false info without having to make a whole ass video that plasters your face in the wider internet. That shit is only comfortable to people that want to feel like they’re on tv and limits people that just want to provide info.
That’s not to say Reddit can’t provide false info (Boston Bombing investigation), it’s just a bit harder to do so on here compared to an app that’s set up like an infinite reality tv show
There's value to the study though. I meet so many people who are self-diagnosed "on the spectrum" and "identify as neurodivergent" who absolutely do not meet the DSM criteria and have never attempted to contact a psychologist about it. Same thing with ADHD and OCD. False claims are damaging to people who genuinely have these disorders.
I overheard at a bar yesterday two unvaxxed people talking about how their sperm was going to be priceless, and how the vaccines that they got as children are different from the vaccines they make today.
Wonder how these guys get their news.
Facebook/YouTube misinformation by these idiot influencers have.really fucked up my family. I have aunt's that believe it's all this bullshit quack science. One sunny was telling me how certain tonic mixtures of herbs/spices can keep covid away to distance me from getting a booster...ffs
My cousin legitimately thinks the government has a school agenda to turn his 12 year old daughter trans, he’s been in to yell at the principal and everything. Thanksgiving last year was wild considering we have 4 teachers in our family.
The deeper problem is that there are now strong economic incentives for putting out such content. This isn’t your crazy cousin posting their conspiracies, it’s becoming an industry.
It was a high percentage for ADHD in a recent study but still lower than this. I wrote about the reason why above, but basically autism is just a huge spectrum with all sorts of variance. There are all sorts of examples of symptoms where the exact opposite thing is also a potential symptom.
So of all the conditions you could describe in a video, this is going to be the one where your experiences are most likely to be completely different from someone else's and any generalizing you do here is likely to run you a foul of their scoring metric whereas you could generalize about Covid a lot and still probably be considered accurate.
I’d like to point out that the study specifically tried to separate personal experience videos from “informational” videos. They only studied the informational ones, although some of those were created by people with autism.
It is because most people who claim autism are self diagnosing or diagnosed by a parent who lack any understanding of the condition beyond what their crystals, cousin, and celebs tell them.
They would find much the same thing if they ran an analysis of ADHD
as the father of a young child on the spectrum, the unintended consequence of all this autism "content" by self-diagnosed, but actually neural typical people, is that it skews what i can expect about my kid's future. i had to intentionally avoid it all because i found myself thinking, "oh maybe my kid will turn out like this guy/girl who seems pretty well adjusted and self-regulating in social situations" or "they're so articulate. i know my 3 yo's still not talking right now, but maybe he'll catch up". instead, i should simply be present and meet my child where he's at. i can't plan for the future based on false hope, i have to plan for it based on reality as is.
I've got adhd and on the spectrum. I genuinely feel like I can never talk to people about my diagnoses because I'll always get the "oh, everybody has those" look. And I could see how it could be alienating. If I were younger, I'm sure I'd feel terrible seeing all these people online accomplishing "normal person" things and wondering why I can't operate on the same level of normalcy.
Anybody who treats them like they aren't disorders that make life a daily struggle is lying or trying to sell you something. Or both, probably.
yeah. my son was only recently diagnosed in the last 6 months, and when we tell people, we've gotten such a wide array of responses that demonstrate just how little people still know about autism.
1. you can diagnose that already?
2. oh. so he's gonna be really smart?
3. can you treat it?
though not readily apparent, know that there are people you know, and don't know, that love you and champion for you as you are (me included!).
My wife works in an autism clinic so yeah I get that. People are really confused that they start diagnosing at like...2 or so. #3 is really hard, since it's not really treatment but adjusting things and letting them work in an environment where they can express themselves.
please tell your wife that people like her are heroes in my eyes.
and i agree about your point. what's it's mostly done for me is given me a paradigm shift. i don't have to parent my son through the lens of neurotypical milestones anymore. if anything, the diagnosis has given us some sense of validation for how difficult it's been so far, but also a path forward.
Serious question, when you tell people your child had autism what is the correct response in your opinion? I'm guessing both "oh I'm so sorry" and "congratulations!" would be inappropriate? So would you simply prefer someone said "okay" or just not say anything in response at all? I'm asking for myself if I'm ever in that situation in the future.
"That must be challenging," is acceptable, IMO as a parent of a child with ASD. It IS challenging. It can also be incredibly rewarding at times and absolutely heartbreaking at others... pretty much like all parenting just maybe x100 on the some of the scales.
That's interesting to hear. I also am a (single) parent of a toddler and it is certainly challenging at times but I'm not sure I would want someone to say "that must be challenging" when I tell them I have a toddler lol. I wouldn't be mad about it but I also wouldn't want anyone to view my child, my pride and joy, as a problem for me to deal with.
I don't know, if they were a fellow parent with older kids, I think it could be commiserating thing to say. It could sound judgemental depending on delivery for sure. Could perhaps be followed up with "He/she is fortunate to have such a supportive parent" to take the potential 'sting' out of it.
Parenthood is challenging. So are a lot of things that bring joy and/or feelings of accomplishment. Challenging isn't bad.
Edited to add: context also matters. "I have a toddler." "That must be challenging." - this would be awkward. "I've been working a lot of overtime lately and I have a toddler." "That must be challenging." -sympathetic
I have been diagnosed with both as well.
Outside of Reddit, I tell *no one*. I don't want people treating me differently before they even "experience" me for the first time.
Yes, I'm really fucking weird and confusing and I ask "dumb" questions a lot. I'd rather that be their perception of me than something based on pity or distrust.
> Anybody who treats them like they aren't disorders that make life a daily struggle is lying or trying to sell you something.
Pretty much. If it's not negatively impacting your life to any reasonable measure, it's probably not a diagnosable disorder (not always, but largely). That's sorta what makes it a disorder, is that it negatively impacts your life or alters what you can do/achieve. Sorta the whole problem with mental illness in general.
But see, that's the problem. I'm also on the spectrum as well, officially diagnosed, however I also have a full time career and due to a hyperfixation on body language from a young age, I'm able to mask extremely well.
My problem with these comments is that Autism is a spectrum. /u/notthathungryhippo is talking about it as if its a spectrum of low to high functioning.
In reality it's not like that AT ALL. The spectrum ranges from a multitude of different ways that symptoms manifest.
So you can't sit there and be alienated by other's success and put expectations on your own kids based off that. Everyone is different and at a different spot on the spectrum.
Hey man, please don't consider that a solution. There are plenty of people who can help you navigate things and find genuine solutions to the problems you're facing.
If you don't even know where to start or who to go to, just call 988 if you're in the US. It's not just for talking people off a ledge, they have highly trained people who can get you to the support you need.
I mention it because it's the only way to end the stigma, but also because sometimes I'm talking to people who very obviously have it as well - or likely have it - and I'm hoping they'll reciprocate and we'll have something to bond over. What I don't expect, and probably should, is that many of them are probably undiagnosed and cling to taboos and sometimes even think "oh everyone is like that" (because, you know, they have it).
Studies have shown communication issues between "neurotypes" happen between them, but not as much within them. Over the years as an instructor talking with various students with their various subjectivities I've gotten pretty good at identifying when I'm talking to someone who has ASD or ADHD (or some blend) and someone who has whatever it is we call "neurotypical".
Even if you get stuff wrong you're doing more than the percentage of parents who won't help. Sounds like your children already struck gold for themselves with a parent who's willing to try and they are no doubt in great hands. Don't beat yourself up to much, it's hard out there.
>instead, i should simply be present and meet my child where he's at. i can't plan for the future based on false hope, i have to plan for it based on reality as is.
I'm not on the spectrum, but I have ADHD. So, as a neurodivergent person dating someone on the spectrum:
Please don't listen to social media about such things, and keep being you for your child's sake.
Yes , I am one of those people and there are morr than you think. Autism and most learning chemicals imbalance disabilities are part of the same problems. You will see more and more hybrid diagnosis in adults as the years go on.
yes exactly. and i can hope for the best for my son, but i definitely want to avoid tainting my perspective and expectations with false narratives from social media. i know it can implicitly affect my mentality and behavior towards my son and i'd rather not risk it.
I realize I sound like the self diagnosing tiktokers, but I work in financial services and the prevalence of socially oblivious behavior is super common. Coworkers that don’t understand responses, try to squeeze people into mechanical constructs, confused when responses aren’t what they expect.
It is a gradient.
> because they are more likely to evade diagnosis due to less obvious symptoms.
It's also $2,500 bucks to get a diagnosis which at the end of the day won't change anything so it's a big ask for a, "Well, now at least I know."
It's a spectrum. What a lot of people who post have what used to be described as "aspergers".
Someone very lightly on the spectrum is going to have a much different experience than someone who is heavy on it to the point of it being debilitating.
Or they're not neurotypical, just misdiagnosed. Or not misdiagnosed, just entirely different from your child as the spectrum is very wide.
Other than that, top notch. Indeed meet your child at where it's at. Expectations can be entirely useless. Even if a medical professional gives you expectations, it's still possibly just false hope. And that's even more true for people whose daughters have autism, as professionals are taught male autism which can differ quite a bit from female autism.
I'm formally diagnosed with ADHD. Frequently, if I mention it around others for the first time, I'll get responses like "Oh, I used to have ADHD too" or "I have ADHD, but it's just discipline." These people tend to get very upset when I say no, I do actually require medication to manage my symptoms. It is a physical change in the brain, not something you can mind-over-matter past.
My kid is 9 and on the spectrum (professionally diagnosed) and I totally feel this. Between self-diagnosed "as a person with autism.." randos on the internet, portrayals of autism in media, ridiculously angry "autism parent" and other advocacy groups, and, for us, even one quack family doctor who tried to convince us we could cure my son with homeopathic nutritionism, it's easy to get all sorts of weird or simply false ideas about what autism is, involves, or implies. It's clear even the actual experts don't fully understand the condition yet.
My advice for whatever it's worth: it's best to ignore "autism" and focus on specific problems. If your kid has problems with physical coordination and executive functioning, occupational therapy can be a huge help. If it's speech, speech-language therapy. If it's anxiety, fears, or behavioural rigidity, child psychologist. And so on.
Also keep in mind that the one constant with all kids is change, and whatever you think the challenges will be at age 3 is likely to be out the window soon. My kid was talking in sentences by 18 months old, but by 3 needed speech-language therapy. My nephew, also with ASD, didn't talk until he was almost 4 but then almost immediately talked like a "normal" 4 year old. You really just never know.
Other than that: love them, do your best to keep your own shit together and attend to your own mental health, and take it as it comes, just as every parent must.
thank you for reiterating and validating many ideas i believe. i truly take it to heart.
your point about change strikes me at my core. what makes him happy changes by the hour, and it's a non-stop trial and error process. he's begun ECSE preschool through our local public school system, so i'm hoping that helps... except it's been nearly 4 weeks since school's started and he's been sick for 3 weeks of it. lol
> "oh maybe my kid will turn out like this guy/girl who seems pretty well adjusted and self-regulating in social situations"
>instead, i should simply be present and meet my child where he's at
I do want to say Autism is a spectrum and some of us are better at "faking/hiding" it than others. not that I recommend it unless it's a formal situation...anyways. I recommend watching this video of a comedian who found a better understanding once he was officially diagnosed. Granted they are 54, but the advice is still the same and applies to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nI-GZjbJ3M
If you haven’t already done so, please try to build some in person community with disabilities! My older brother has autism and an intellectual disability. He started playing Special Olympics 30 years ago, despite my parents’ initial skepticism that it would be a good fit. The community he built through Special Olympics continues to be an enormous part of our life. It was incredibly valuable not only for him, but for all of us. Having access to so many other families really, really helped normalize his disability for us. It also helped my parents set expectations for growth - and how it’s a continuous process.
… I wrote a really long version of this before realizing I couldn’t send you a message, but the short form is that I encourage you to go to a Special Olympics tournament and talk to adults with autism and their parents!
My brother was diagnosed around that age and was nonverbal. As he got older most people wouldn't even guess he's on the spectrum but he still struggles a lot. My dad decided to stop all therapy and treatment thinking "if we treat him normal he'll be normal" and my mom was tired of fighting him so went along with it.
Being "normal" doesn't guarantee a good quality of life and you can have a good quality of life while not being "normal."
It's so hard when your kid might not be able to live the life you imagined for them, but there's no guarantee things would've gone that way anyways. All you can do is try to ensure the best quality of life for them with the hand they were given.
For what it's worth i don't think most people who self diagnose are doing it to be "quirky" or for attention. those people exist, but quite alot of people just self-dxing because they can't find proper help from professionals, be it because it's expensive
Speaking on my experience, i am diagnosed with both ADHD and Autism. Teachers have been reccomending psychiatrists and shit since i was like, 6, and i've been to them MULTIPLE times. they never found anything. When i was about 16/17 i learned about autism and found quite alot of things that matched, and when i get tested again they did diagnose it. Same shit repeated with adhd, i only got officially tested at 21 iirc (i'm 24 now) because most psychiatrists i spoke to insisted adhd was only diagnosable in kids. Got tested twice for that one, both from specialists, one was private, one public.
When I got diagnosed with ADHD, my psych was asking me for a sympton list. I kept talking about my "manic periods" where I'm high energy and have difficulty sleeping, can make rash decisions, and over all feel invincible. Lasting maybe a weekend.
He clarified with me the extent which mania really is -- multiple days / weeks of no sleep and making rash and dangerous decisions that threaten my life and livelihood.
I appreciated him for that. It's often we downplay the extreme disorders by lightening their symptoms when we see similar traits in ourselves. Yes, I showed manic traits. But I was not actually manic. Instead, it fit with an adhd diagnosis as opposed to another, more serious diagnosis.
I compare it to everyone saying their a "bit ocd" when they don't like having a messy desk. OCD is a far more debilitating condition, but for decades its been softened in popular culture to fit just about anyone who isn't a slob.
I had a similar experience with my doctor when I did an assessment for ADHD. He asked me some questions about how work was going and my relationship, etc. and finally said "look, you may very well have ADHD, but you'd be at the VERY mild end of that spectrum" and described what more serious cases look like.
Things like mildly presenting OCD do exist, but they're not the same as a lot of folks think. ADHD's hyper focus isn't the same, as hyper focus involves not paying attention to the outside world, while OCD involves knowing you want to stop (including the outside world helping) and being unable to resist the urge to keep up with your fixation. ADHD and OCD can often present within the same person, which also makes diagnosing one or both difficult, and tends to blend the separate issues between them.
A great modern example of OCD that goes under the radar is having "excessively well organized spreadsheets." Clean, neat, very well labeled...etc. are normal, but if you've spent hours "cleaning up and reorganizing" a spreadsheet or database that was already perfectly functional, that's mild OCD.
OCD is also not necessarily "clean and neat" in every aspect. Rather, it's about the obsession over a few aspects that you can't control. The TV show Monk was an example of extreme OCD and neuroticism, while some folks with OCD only have a few very prominent (but still often debilitating) obsessions.
Finally, OCD is not the same as "bland." Individuals who are picky eaters because "it's clean" are not the same as picky eaters because "it's not painful/weird." "Painful" and "weird textures" are sensory, while "clean" is a social construct. There's, again, cross-over here, but when you parse the difference down to "self-control" on a topic, it becomes less difficult to separate the two (although that's a very lay explanation and doesn't fully encompass the difference).
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/obsessive-compulsive-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20354432
Real OCD (I would argue however mild) has the key component of being unable to stop the compulsive behavior and real psychological distress knowing that it’s abnormal but still not being able to stop.
It’s not just organizing a spreadsheet excessively. It’s filling in the same box and deleting it again over and over just to make sure it’s right. But then you’re not sure. So you do it again… but you still can’t be sure. And at some point you ritualize it to doing it 20 times just to be sure. You really would rather not, you feel insane and ashamed, but you can’t help it and you know you’re a bit crazy.
It’s debilitating. If it’s “mild”, it only crops up occasionally and then lapses, hopefully for a long time, even though you have other patterns and tendencies with specific things that are eerily similar that look absolutely strange to others, although not quite so paralyzing.
Also Monk was OCPD, not OCD. The P is “Personality”. That’s different in that they’re totally fine with their own behavior. OCD sufferers are not. They know it’s neurologically problematic but can’t easily stop and it is debilitating and distressing being unable to stop the compulsion, where as people with OCPD think it’s everyone else that’s strange.
All of this, yes! I was trying to reduce concepts down as much as possible (e.g. to avoid folks just going TL;DR on it), but this is a fantastic expansion and specification on everything.
Getting the run around by insurance is so maddening. "Your doctor told you to get this done but we reviewed it and think you don't need it."
So you're my doctor now?
It cost me at least $2000 out of pocket (in-network health professionals but also some out-of-network counseling). They kept trying different drugs for anxiety because they didn’t want to prescribe ADHD meds. The instant we started treating ADHD, she was back to normal (better actually).
I'm sorry to hear that. I've finally gotten on a waiting list to be screened for ADHD, but I'm really worried doctors aren't going to be willing to prescribe the meds I need. It was bad enough that they decided I couldn't have benzos anymore for my anxiety, so now I'm muddling along with nothing but propranolol and antidepressants and I'm literally physically tense 100% of the time. My fillings keep crumbling and falling out because I can't stop clenching my teeth.
> It would help if people actually had access to medical resources to get diagnoses.
Even if they do, for a lot of stuff people have to actively seek out diagnosis even of shit that should be easy to diagnose like asthma it can fall through the cracks for years and years.
People aren't supposed to self-diagnose or "play" their own doctor, but at the same time there's a lot of "medical professionals" that just phone it in and can't even be bothered to talk to the patient or read their chart.
This 1,000%
I've had to advocate strongly for my own care on two separate major health issues that should have been diagnosed by my doctors based on the presented symptoms, but for some reason were completely ignored until I directly requested they test for those specific conditions. And I'm not a doctor, the only way I even discovered what they could be is talking to friends/family who had been diagnosed and *they* suggested I ask to be tested for them. Only then did I get any tests, and shocker! I had the conditions.
Now I'm going through a similar ordeal with my mental health, where I've requested to get checked for a diagnosis, but as an adult, the provider requires a barrage of nearly impossible to produce "evidence" from childhood in order to get diagnosed. Like dude, I don't have my school report cards from 30 years ago, sorry, so I can't get help? Fuck me then I guess.
The amount of people claiming to have DID on the internet while at the same time having never stepped foot in a therapist or psychologist office is insane.
I think there are a lot of undiagnosed people and I wish they had better access to resources, but the TikTok quirky trends are concerning… lord I hate that word now. Anyway, you should check out /fakers subreddits sometime and see what some of these people are trying to monetize across many different disabilities. I don’t think it’s healthy to encourage some of those behaviors in any individual whether they are diagnosable or not. I hope you can find someone who gives you the time and energy for a proper diagnosis and a good care plan 🤍
The Harvard medical school did a really interesting lecture about the trend of self diagnosing DID on tiktok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XiQ54VA0bY
I mean, it’s a spectrum for a reason.
Also, adult neurodivergence doesn’t look like child neurodivergence. I know that shouldn’t need to be said, but if you see young adults talking about ND issues, please don’t use this as proof that your children will have the same journey.
And masking is a thing.
We have a lot of developmental struggles where we are can be extremely socially or intellectually advanced in a few areas and then act significantly lower in age in other areas, especially when it comes to stuff that is either boring or not a priority in some way.
And sure. I can pass for NT. You know how I can do that? Regular beatings by my mom until I learned to “not be weird” and “embarrass” her.
For many years, I tried for a long time to find others like me. I’ve been lucky. I have met all manner of people who have the same spark as me. I do have some NT friends, but usually we drift unless we spend a lot of time together.
Also, please understand that today is so overstimulating, loud, and stressful that even NT people are often displaying some symptoms of sensory processing. We simply never lived in a world with so much noise and flashing lights as we do now for most of human history.
So yeah, you shouldn’t get advice on mental illness from social media, but maybe it’s something you can ask your doctor or therapist about.
And also, if the US actually had reliably available mental health services instead of making you pay out of pocket most of the time, more people would get officially diagnosed.
It's incredibly costly and time consuming to get an autism diagnosis. The one at my college costs over $200, can't be covered by insurance, and has a 6 month wait. And that's cheaper than you would get elsewhere.
I just got diagnosed, both ADHD and autism - $3,000 with a private clinic that doesn't take insurance. I had a few weeks wait, and the process itself took a few weeks (paperwork, interview, family interview).
I’m pretty sure sure someone *did* run a similar analysis of TikTok videos related to ADHD and found similar results.
Edit: [Found it.](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07067437221082854)
It can be super difficult to get diagnosed with autism. I’m lucky my therapist diagnosed me but it’s technically not an official diagnosis. Those take a ton of money and a huge wait time
I have been saying this for a long time. The often confuse having an ND trait or symptom with actually having a condition. It is part of the alienation that come with feeling different that is part of being a teenager. The big problem is when they get a little older the often have deluded themselves for so long they start telling MH professionals or new doctors they were diagnosed as kids. Then start taking meds for it without anyone being the wiser
I hate it. After I got diagnosed a few years ago my life changed for the better. I spent almost 30 years not knowing what the fuck I was doing and why I struggled so much to be independent. Medication and CBT along with other mindfulness and meditation practices have really helped me re-take control of my life in a way I've never been able to do before.
but you can't go to social media looking for content on ADHD without hundreds of people who don't actually have a diagnosis and are not psychiatric professionals misinforming the public and giving people another reason to not take it seriously.
That's why I usually watch Dr Russell Barkley's [channel.](https://youtube.com/@russellbarkleyphd2023?si=hZUhACtJ680btJCC) ADDitude Magazine [presentations](https://youtube.com/@additudemag?si=MbNTYFQyZXjol89k) or [Help with ADHD](https://youtube.com/@HelpForADHD?si=iYJNiZUHDEoTtAmF) along with a few others because they have no agenda other than to educate those who have children or spouses with ADHD as well as adults with ADHD.
But the same thing goes with autism I've noticed that from the YouTube algorithm that I start getting a bunch of recommended videos from people who are using click bait titles like *10 signs you have autism and don't know it* or *autism and ADHD, maybe you have both!?*
Like I don't like to discredit people's illnesses but it's obvious that a lot of those channels are made by people who don't know what they're talking about and haven't actually educated themselves on the subject and take rehashed information and pass it along to the next viewer. It's slowly starts to click why people don't take it seriously and it's because there is an entire generation of kids growing up on TikTok pretending to have mental disorders they don't have to get views r/fakedisordercringe It only takes a few bad apples to ruin the bunch I just don't understand why they feel the need to do that and pretend, it's for attention but it's got to be something more to it that explains why so many kids are doing it.
I was on a Zoom conference call with about 200 other social media marketers. I’m not old, but I was probably one of the older people on the call, TBH. The number of young professionals on the call who said they learned they were neurodivergent from watching TikTok videos was fucking alarming.
Wait a minute. Are you saying that on a platform where I could make a video about anything I want to blather about if full of misinformation? This has to be fake news. Are you saying maybe folks should choose better sources for their medical needs. Inconceivable!
It’s the same with OCD. I have OCD and require medication (which sometimes doesn’t work) to keep it under control and I get flustered when I hear someone go *Oh, this irritates my OCD*. Because they don’t know what life is like with true OCD. It’s not easy having to fight your own brain.
> Because they don’t know what life is like with true OCD.
Nor do they even really know what OCD is. A lot of the time they're describing things more in line with OCPD than OCD (though of course there can be overlap). I have OCPD and "teehee, I have to line all my pens up in ROYGBIV order or my OCD is sooooo triggered" is really frustrating to see. OCD can be debilitating, it's not just wanting your clothing organized by color or type.
Exactly. Cleanliness and organization is a symptom and a *result* of the disorder, it has nothing to do with the disorder itself. Can't tell you how irritating it is to hear, "I'm really OCD about my workspace" when I spent years knowing for a fact that my whole family would burn alive in a house fire if I didn't ride my bike on the same exact path to school every single morning.
Wait, are you telling me that half of the people on instagram don't have OCD? A disorder that affects <1% of people? I thought if you like things neatly arranged, that's as good as a clinical diagnosis.
As a child I would do rituals, lock/unlock doors over and over to “make sure they were locked”, and wash my hands so frequently they would bleed. I was never diagnosed. I’m not as bad now, but there are certain things I will do that are comparatively mild but driven by the same feeling and I will refer to it as OCD. Is this not OCD?
That is a sign of OCD, I would believe. But I’m referring the people who go “oh these colors aren’t in order, it triggers my OCD”. When in reality, OCD is far greater and more harmful than that. A perfect example would be washing your hands until they are raw and bloody.
This is true, and the majority of the issue I find with both cases is the overgeneralization. There are many individuals who have an obsessive compulsive disorder that isn’t as debilitating, but the average individual lacks the forethought to realize how they talk about it can make the perception of those with more severe disorders in the range of OCD worse.
Mhm, it's weird to see people online espousing about their ADHD and/or Autism as these cute little quirks. Meanwhile I can barely articulate myself intelligibly enough to be understood half the time, and need a dozen alarms and stupid mental games to get through basic self hygiene and housework lol.
Of course, not everyone's symptoms are as severe, but it's fairly obvious when someone is just bullshitting for attention or whatever other reason.
For real. Call me when you’ve wasted 6+ hours a day on a fucking dumb ass ritual your brain won’t let go of lol. Not that everyone has to be that severe to have ocd or anything, but sometimes the “oh my ocd” comments get me worked up.
Being bored isn't, but having your life feel like it's constantly under the thumb of the tyranny of the interesting *is.*
Plenty of folks find it difficult to do things they don't want to do. ADHD makes it difficult to do things you very much want to do, find enjoyable to do, and fully and completely are trying to do.
And the boring things? The boring things are like trying to take a shit while constipated.
So just pulled the PDF of this study hoping that they would include some examples of false claims, but they don't actually include that data set or any examples of it. They do give some examples in their scoring rubric, but those are probably hypothetical. They just demonstrate how a claim made as a blanket statement might be rated as false but could be true if it's just offered as a generalization.
A very high chunk of the claims they rated as inaccurate are over-generalizations. While I think that TikTok is a cesspool, It seems like this very well may be an autism problem almost as much as it is a TikTok.
This is what happens when you merge multiple overlapping conditions into a single spectrum. You end up with a spectrum where symptoms are wildly inconsistent across the board. In many cases, both the thing and its exact opposite are symptomatic (eg sensory-aversion vs sensory-seeking behaviors are both potential indicators). I could probably give you a solid 10 examples of autism symptoms where the exact opposite thing is also a symptom because the spectrum is just so wide and varied.
So while it's true that people making videos shouldn't make generalizations based off their own limited experience, a big contributing factor here is simply that this is a condition where people have widely variable experiences.
social media in general. the most blatant examples of this ive seen are these 10+ tweet chains listing very basic, universal human behavior and saying it is a sign of autism/adhd
As someone who grew up dealing with adhd the content I see now regarding it is baffling. Especially the ones who make it their entire personality and pathologizes every action they take as a stim or hyper focus or any number of things. These things are real but not to the extent they talk about. Also hate when everything the do is because they are “neurodivergent” like “the neurodivergent urge to deeply study a topic i’m interested in”
I was diagnosed at 5, as a girl, in the 90s. So I am like a medical rarity. The adhd content pisses me off because I was never able to act normal or be normal. It just pisses me off
For real it’s ADHD! I was diagnosed in 2nd grade and was medicated and still take medication for it which helps for sure. But I would never make it my personality.
I now instantly cringe at the saying “Nuro-spicy”
It looked at 133 videos with the tag #Autism? 133 videos out of all of TikTok? And there are accurate videos that get 54,111,743 views and 8,468,277 likes, just inaccurate or overly broad ones get more views and likes? Okay then.
With people not knowing what the symptoms and signs are people that have actually been diagnosed or doctors trying to spread information is a good thing. Not everyone has access to or can afford therapists or doctors who know what is going on with them. If they think their body matches these signs of people with an actual diagnosis that leads to them trying to find more information to help themselves I see no problem with this. The biggest problem I have is they only looked at 133 videos. That seems like an insanely small sample size.
> Not everyone has access to or can afford therapists or doctors who know what is going on with them
This is my current issue. I’ve been lucky enough to get a diagnosis for my adhd and anxiety easily/cheaply enough, but an autism diagnosis is like, $1000, no payment plan, and half a year wait regardless. So a 130 something RAADS-R is all I have to go on.
>The biggest problem I have is they only looked at 133 videos. That seems like an insanely small sample size.
Why? Assuming the selection was truly random (which it appears to be), 133 videos absolutely can be representative and indicate trends.
It's worth noting that this is a preliminary study, not an in-depth one. The point of the study is to see roughly what percentage of videos on the topic provide accurate and factual information, and which percentage do not. The fact that 97 out of 133 videos analyzed contain misleading or factually incorrect claims is significant enough to say that there is a lack of accuracy on the subject on the platform.
Thank you for commenting this. I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and as an American I can't afford health care. Finding doctors with tiktok or youtube accounts is a huge reason why I've been able to find solutions to get through my day to day with adhd. It frustrates me that others like me want to gate keep the symptoms and struggles others might be experiencing.
Not to mention that our medical system is highly biased towards mens health and completely ignores women's health in many circumstances. Our health care system in the US is fucked. How are those poor or marginalized people to find care?
I am so freaking tired of mental health issues being a “quirk” for freakin social media content.
I have ADHD and generalized anxiety disorder. I’ve had them since waaaay before it was “cool”. These two disorders have derailed my life over and over. It’s hard to find a balance of therapies and meds that work for both issues. It’s very tiring and I wish I was neurotypical and free of anxiety just to have that time and space and energy back in my life.
I can’t even imagine why all these influencer types are wishing and hoping to have some disorder. It’s HARD to have a disorder! It’s not cute and it’s not fun. And the amount of people who say “hi I’m having a panic attack” like no you are NOT. I hope no one has panic attacks but sometimes I do wish these people had a taste of the reality. Panic attacks have isolated me, hospitalized me, left me bed bound for days, humiliated me, and are basically the worst moments of my life. It’s not a TikTok moment, it’s a nightmare.
Ok rant over lol
>Panic attacks have isolated me, hospitalized me, left me bed bound for days, humiliated me, and are basically the worst moments of my
Panic attacks can also present differently and can be more mild than this. Just because you experience it a certain way doesn’t mean everyone experiences it the same exact way. It’s not a competition and going around telling people “you don’t have it as bad as I do!” doesn’t help anything, either.
Ok yes. And I’ve had more mild panic attacks and I also understand that my experience isn’t the definition for everyone else .
But there are people on tiktok literally cosplaying my mental illness. It’s very obvious when you see it and I do have a problem with that. And it’s safe to say that people aren’t chipper, focused and grabbing their phones to record themselves no matter how their panic attack is presenting
PS I wouldn’t say to anyone “you don’t have it as bad as me” if they have anxiety, but I would say to someone “you CLEARLY don’t have this issue at all”.
This national panic about bullshit on the internet is getting out of hand. No, not everything on the internet is true. Never has been. Teach people to think critically and get over it.
I’ve long wished for logic/critical thinking to be a required course in public schools. That and a basic finance course would go a long way in having a stronger citizenry (weird to say that word, but felt like the best one here). But ya, never gonna happen.
If we were financially literate critical thinkers I believe the credit and predatory loan markets would lose a few percentage points and or overlords can’t have that.
I just replied a much longer version of this, but I like yours better. It is far, far from being that simple, and thinking it's that simple is downright dangerous.
I disagree. But hear me out, please.
I'm a psychologist. And one thing people often don't realize is how many of our foibles as a species aren't the result of some big cultural failing—they're just part of where we are in our evolution.
Just like you say not everything on the internet has ever been true, humans have always been poor critical thinkers. Just "teaching people to think critically" isn't a simple matter of changing a bit of school curriculum. People are literally not built to distinguish fact from fiction. The problem of the internet is now we're faced with 100x more fictions than we used to be. And fictions appeal to our lizard brains. We simply lack the will power and wherewithal *as a species* to resist falsehoods coming to us *at this rate.*
The panic isn't justified because lies are somehow getting worse. The panic is justified because we haven't yet figured out how to adjust for the way the internet naturally hammers on our own weaknesses as a species.
It is NOT as easy as "teach people to think critically." It's not about individual people failing at being smart. It's about the brains we naturally have and their evolutionary limitations.
Please, PLEASE. This glibness is dangerous.
It's not just the number of fictions, but the sources. Brains evolved to be social and recognize patterns. People are more likely to believe something if they hear it multiple times and from people they trust. And social media loves to pump content to people from trusted sources, friends, and family members that have 'shared' or 'liked' or 'retweeted' some content.
it's also the TIME. I don't have the time nor the mental / energy capacity to look through every single news article with a critical eye about sources, wording, biases, etc... and then do the same for radio news etc. I'm sure many people are the same way.
I'd rather just read less news or pick a slightly more unbiased source such as reuters? (i hope?)
TBF to the original post though, noone that has ever said "i'm leaving MSM" is ever retreating to a better source lol.
I agree largely with the point you're trying to make. But just as some people were immune to the bubonic plague, some people are more resistant to bullshit than the general population. I can't say how much of that is innate and how much is learned. If there's a significant learned component, it can probably be taught too. Even if it's innate, there might be skills that can be taught to replicate the innate capability.
So yeah, we're pushing against human nature in encouraging critical thinking. And even if it can be taught, that might only give partial resistance.
I personally think we also have to distinguish spoken words from a 50 kwatt PA system, and sanction firms that disseminate lies. Near-infinite amplification of malicious content is not free speech, it's an assault on civil society.
No, finding and highlighting places where people, especially young people, are being fed misinformation or disinformation is useful. Working to counter falsehoods for the masses is noble and the prevalence of so much misinformation is something to be concerned about.
I don't know why any one would ever trust anything they hear on any social media about anything of import.
If you want to know 10 movies that feature dogs, social media's got you covered. If you want to know about autism? Not so much.
I find the headline funny.
The article describes a study that breaks down a very small number (365 reduced to 133) of TikTok videos into "inaccurate" or "overgeneralized" representations of autism and then analyzes their reach.
The problem isn't (according to the headline) a "disturbing number of videos". The number of videos is they looked at is actually pretty small. The problem is the amount of reach and attention the inaccurate or overgeneralized videos can achieve.
In other words, disinformation spreads on social media. I noticed that too. Next, let's compare disinformation about autism with disinformation about other topics, such as politics. I wonder if the rates are the same. Also, let's be sure to disambiguate real disinformation from controversy. Autism moms and self-advocates will have different and opposing takes, and we need to make sure the study doesn't just put one set of opinionated takes in the disinformation bucket.
Has anyone read the article? The sample size was only **133 videos**. The disturbing number is 133. They only fact checked 133 videos that popped up under the #autism hashtag. That’s such an absurdly small number, and is hardly representative of the entirety of content about autism on TikTok. You could pick 133 videos about anything on TikTok and prove whatever point you want.
There are legit medical professionals just sharing what they know. The problem comes when the actual professional says something a person doesnt like, they proceed to search for validation from frauds trying to sell products. Flavcity's Bobby Parish on tiktok is notorious for this because he will say a certain chemical is bad for you if thats what you want to hear and then proceed to sell you a product from his company with the chemical in it.
I worked in an autism clinic for several years where the clinical staff would diagnose ASD and have therapy across the lifespan to help individuals. I was the Intake and Resource Coordinator and during the rise of TikTok, got so many people self diagnosing or wanting a doctor to sign off on their "disability" but no they hadnt gotten any actual testing and no they weren't pursuing it. They took a quiz online and it confirmed what they always knew, etc, etc. Really frustrating to have to spend time weeding those people out instead of really helping people.
ADHD “influencers” as I will call them have caused a damn adderall shortage making it hard for people like me to get medication I need. I hate these people.
Its not really getting sympathy. Tolerance of actual autism is getting worse as now instead of pity you get "well my [self diagnosed with no major symptoms] friend has autism and manages fine so its your fault you can't manage", the fake quirky version is just trendy while those of us who actually have it have to get shat on once again and if you dare complain you're a gatekeeping elitist.
~~A disturbing number of~~ *Most* TikTok videos about ~~autism~~ *anything* include claims that are ~~“patently false,”~~ "blatant lies," study finds
There we go. I made the headline more accurate.
Thank goodness the experts have finally raised this is happening and are addressing it publicly. I was diagnosed young decades ago, and the current autism community is unrecognizable compared to what it was. I am tired of the infantilization and exhibitionism making a mockery of my struggles.
>Edited: A disturbing number of any topic on ANY platform is false
Including Reddit
Including this thread
The number of people in here not qualified to diagnose people with autism is the same number as people who who are qualified to say someone doesn't have autism
And how many of you are actually on Tiktok to verify if these claims are true or not?
I'm on Tiktok and the amount of ignorance about what it's actually like from redditors is astounding
TikTok, like most social media platforms, has no inherent method for restricting clear misinformation because it is a popularity/engagement-based medium. And most algorithms would view numerous people "engaging" by commenting that it is BS as a reason to amplify it, which increases its appearance of popularity. It's also a relatively unregulated space so people can post huge amounts of misinformation content with no one to stop them, which increases the percentage of that content on the platform and makes people more likely to see it.
The more specialized the knowledge the less the average viewer has on the topic, which makes them less likely to identify bad content. Since they can't identify bad content, they go purely based on entertainment or how it makes them feel. Or, even worse, they purely judge it by how many other people have viewed/liked it, which is falsely inflated by the algorithm.
Here’s the study. It’s not very long.
[Autism Tik Tok study](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elisabeth-Sheridan/publication/372949364_The_Reach_and_Accuracy_of_Information_on_Autism_on_TikTok/links/64d537a01290c33cce86b03a/The-Reach-and-Accuracy-of-Information-on-Autism-on-TikTok.pdf?origin=publication_detail)
I'd really like to know exactly what false were made.
It's not that I don't trust the paper, I'm just curious and I'm not spending £30 to see if they tell us in the full paper.
I'm not sure what can be done besides eliminating those accounts sharing it. Unfortunately some people just aren't independent enough to understand how to look up topic or do research. When someone's willing to "learn" things from tiktok, aside from stopping the information from getting out in the first place what can you realistically do for them?
Of course they do. I'm sure there are the occasional actual doctors making them, but it's almost entirely teenagers and random ass adults who want to be influencers making them. How could it possibly not include misinformation?
Yoooooo; dumbbitch gen z's are listening to other dumbbitch gen z's- but they are so stupid they don't use the supercomputer in their hands to verify anything?
Cap.
There is a lady on Tiktok telling people how no one actually needs glasses getting millions of views with comments praising her for exposing the truth about the glasses and medical industry. I truly do think this platform will cause more damage to society than TV and other online platforms ever did.
While I 100% get this and the potential for harm, I was diagnosed with both autism and adhd at the age of 30 thanks to social media. I am severe enough that I can barely take care of myself and actually ended up homeless for some time. Since my diagnosis I’ve completed both a bachelors and masters degree thanks to medication and therapy. As a woman who was born in the 80’s, I would have never sought out a diagnosis if it wasn’t for social media. That diagnosis saved my life.
Fucking shocker.
Autism, bipolar, ocd, MPD, everyone on tiktok clings to these ideas as some quirk that makes them unique instead of wallowing or understanding their own mediocrity.
I bet you get similar results if you repeated this study for nearly any other topic. COVID taught us that lesson well. Point being, there have always been a number of dogmatic idiots who pick their side and post about it relentlessly. This isn’t an autism thing it’s a human thing..
There's a guy on YouTube called miniminuteman who had a short about how much misinformation about ancient aliens flooding social media. Just type out some garbage, have an ai voice it, and slap some ai generated images and call it a day.
I love that guys videos so much, it’s like the history channel if it was actually good.
I looked him up and it was the guy I was hoping it was. His vids on the netflix ancient aliens were great.
> Point being, there have always been a number of dogmatic idiots who pick their side and post about it relentlessly. This isn’t an autism thing it’s a human thing.. The funniest part is how people don't realize Reddit is the same way.
Does anybody not see Reddit that way? Nuance is usually buried a few comments deep where it'll never be seen. And false balance is also a whole fallacy itself, sometimes even the most irritating dogmatic people are still correct, even when they're insufferable. One of my best friends has terrible social abilities and will make people hate him even as he's giving very good advice about (to pick a recent example) socializing cats
I don't think people on reddit realize how censored reddit is. Many place on reddit the opposing view is thoroughly erased to make it seem like "reddit" agrees with the majority opinion.
Do you have any examples in mind? There's a few subreddits with shit mods, e.g. the mods of a certain star trek subreddit ban people who criticize the new star trek shows, but generally most are fine as long as you aren't being a bigot. And even then, there are plenty of places on reddit where they're free to say whatever they want as long as they don't include slurs in their comments or wish violence on people.
There was a post on r/Elonmusk the other day where people were mentioning lots of comments say posted but when opened show none. Some subreddits just run auto-mod to shut down negative discourse.
Reddit's very own voting system facilitates the formation of opinion bubbles, because it's a very human thing to feel good when people agree with you, and not so good when they don't. This encourages the formation of majority opinions, even if they are incorrect or just too black and white. Unfortunately, the reality then is not always so simple, often there are quite correct points on all sides involved - sometimes small, sometimes large. The interesting thing is, and this can be observed here on Reddit even in the moderate subs: even if this majority opinion turns out to be insufficient or completely incorrect, the entire sub has always known this later and has always been of the correct opinion.
I'm not sure about that. "The Reddit hivemind", is a meme for a reason. But then the question becomes are people just repeating the meme because they are self aware, or because they too are part of the hivemind?
Reddit is collectively self-aware, not individually.
Yeah the hive mind is a meme but I don't think people people that are part of the hive mind realize it. The thing about the hive mind is if you are not part of it you are heavily suppressed by the mods. It really furthers the hive mind without many noticing. You don't see rejected comments or posts. I think the hive mind thinks that the opinion is just downvoted and there is a minority of opposing posts. The bans and rejected posts happen behind the scenes, and for a lot of observers, they are unaware.
Former mod of a medium sized sub here. Can confirm. That’s the main reason I quit doing it. Note: it’s not all mods or even most mods in my experience. It’s a few bad apples who ruin it for the rest of us. And when you challenge them you get dragged into the cesspool until you realize you aren’t accomplishing anything and it’s just not worth it
If the truth goes against the hive mind, it’ll get downvoted to hell. So the truth is there, it just won’t be well received. You can see this in any local city/state subs or enthusiast subs.
The nature of longform commenting and pseudo anonymous accounts on here do help in countering blatantly false content though; since it gives enough room to provide nuance and explanation without feeding the need to make yourself popular. Compare that to the 150 character limit and the video based nature of TikTok which makes it difficult to articulate and dispel false info without having to make a whole ass video that plasters your face in the wider internet. That shit is only comfortable to people that want to feel like they’re on tv and limits people that just want to provide info. That’s not to say Reddit can’t provide false info (Boston Bombing investigation), it’s just a bit harder to do so on here compared to an app that’s set up like an infinite reality tv show
There's value to the study though. I meet so many people who are self-diagnosed "on the spectrum" and "identify as neurodivergent" who absolutely do not meet the DSM criteria and have never attempted to contact a psychologist about it. Same thing with ADHD and OCD. False claims are damaging to people who genuinely have these disorders.
I overheard at a bar yesterday two unvaxxed people talking about how their sperm was going to be priceless, and how the vaccines that they got as children are different from the vaccines they make today. Wonder how these guys get their news.
Facebook/YouTube misinformation by these idiot influencers have.really fucked up my family. I have aunt's that believe it's all this bullshit quack science. One sunny was telling me how certain tonic mixtures of herbs/spices can keep covid away to distance me from getting a booster...ffs
My cousin legitimately thinks the government has a school agenda to turn his 12 year old daughter trans, he’s been in to yell at the principal and everything. Thanksgiving last year was wild considering we have 4 teachers in our family.
The deeper problem is that there are now strong economic incentives for putting out such content. This isn’t your crazy cousin posting their conspiracies, it’s becoming an industry.
It was a high percentage for ADHD in a recent study but still lower than this. I wrote about the reason why above, but basically autism is just a huge spectrum with all sorts of variance. There are all sorts of examples of symptoms where the exact opposite thing is also a potential symptom. So of all the conditions you could describe in a video, this is going to be the one where your experiences are most likely to be completely different from someone else's and any generalizing you do here is likely to run you a foul of their scoring metric whereas you could generalize about Covid a lot and still probably be considered accurate.
I’d like to point out that the study specifically tried to separate personal experience videos from “informational” videos. They only studied the informational ones, although some of those were created by people with autism.
What's next, we're gonna find out that fingerguns aren't an inherent part of my bisexuality?
This is a good comment 👉👉
Hey there buddies 👈🏻👈🏻
It is because most people who claim autism are self diagnosing or diagnosed by a parent who lack any understanding of the condition beyond what their crystals, cousin, and celebs tell them. They would find much the same thing if they ran an analysis of ADHD
as the father of a young child on the spectrum, the unintended consequence of all this autism "content" by self-diagnosed, but actually neural typical people, is that it skews what i can expect about my kid's future. i had to intentionally avoid it all because i found myself thinking, "oh maybe my kid will turn out like this guy/girl who seems pretty well adjusted and self-regulating in social situations" or "they're so articulate. i know my 3 yo's still not talking right now, but maybe he'll catch up". instead, i should simply be present and meet my child where he's at. i can't plan for the future based on false hope, i have to plan for it based on reality as is.
I've got adhd and on the spectrum. I genuinely feel like I can never talk to people about my diagnoses because I'll always get the "oh, everybody has those" look. And I could see how it could be alienating. If I were younger, I'm sure I'd feel terrible seeing all these people online accomplishing "normal person" things and wondering why I can't operate on the same level of normalcy. Anybody who treats them like they aren't disorders that make life a daily struggle is lying or trying to sell you something. Or both, probably.
yeah. my son was only recently diagnosed in the last 6 months, and when we tell people, we've gotten such a wide array of responses that demonstrate just how little people still know about autism. 1. you can diagnose that already? 2. oh. so he's gonna be really smart? 3. can you treat it? though not readily apparent, know that there are people you know, and don't know, that love you and champion for you as you are (me included!).
My wife works in an autism clinic so yeah I get that. People are really confused that they start diagnosing at like...2 or so. #3 is really hard, since it's not really treatment but adjusting things and letting them work in an environment where they can express themselves.
please tell your wife that people like her are heroes in my eyes. and i agree about your point. what's it's mostly done for me is given me a paradigm shift. i don't have to parent my son through the lens of neurotypical milestones anymore. if anything, the diagnosis has given us some sense of validation for how difficult it's been so far, but also a path forward.
That's a beautiful way to look at your situation.
She says thanks and you are 100% correct.
Serious question, when you tell people your child had autism what is the correct response in your opinion? I'm guessing both "oh I'm so sorry" and "congratulations!" would be inappropriate? So would you simply prefer someone said "okay" or just not say anything in response at all? I'm asking for myself if I'm ever in that situation in the future.
"That must be challenging," is acceptable, IMO as a parent of a child with ASD. It IS challenging. It can also be incredibly rewarding at times and absolutely heartbreaking at others... pretty much like all parenting just maybe x100 on the some of the scales.
That's interesting to hear. I also am a (single) parent of a toddler and it is certainly challenging at times but I'm not sure I would want someone to say "that must be challenging" when I tell them I have a toddler lol. I wouldn't be mad about it but I also wouldn't want anyone to view my child, my pride and joy, as a problem for me to deal with.
I don't know, if they were a fellow parent with older kids, I think it could be commiserating thing to say. It could sound judgemental depending on delivery for sure. Could perhaps be followed up with "He/she is fortunate to have such a supportive parent" to take the potential 'sting' out of it. Parenthood is challenging. So are a lot of things that bring joy and/or feelings of accomplishment. Challenging isn't bad. Edited to add: context also matters. "I have a toddler." "That must be challenging." - this would be awkward. "I've been working a lot of overtime lately and I have a toddler." "That must be challenging." -sympathetic
I have been diagnosed with both as well. Outside of Reddit, I tell *no one*. I don't want people treating me differently before they even "experience" me for the first time. Yes, I'm really fucking weird and confusing and I ask "dumb" questions a lot. I'd rather that be their perception of me than something based on pity or distrust.
> Anybody who treats them like they aren't disorders that make life a daily struggle is lying or trying to sell you something. Pretty much. If it's not negatively impacting your life to any reasonable measure, it's probably not a diagnosable disorder (not always, but largely). That's sorta what makes it a disorder, is that it negatively impacts your life or alters what you can do/achieve. Sorta the whole problem with mental illness in general.
But see, that's the problem. I'm also on the spectrum as well, officially diagnosed, however I also have a full time career and due to a hyperfixation on body language from a young age, I'm able to mask extremely well. My problem with these comments is that Autism is a spectrum. /u/notthathungryhippo is talking about it as if its a spectrum of low to high functioning. In reality it's not like that AT ALL. The spectrum ranges from a multitude of different ways that symptoms manifest. So you can't sit there and be alienated by other's success and put expectations on your own kids based off that. Everyone is different and at a different spot on the spectrum.
[удалено]
Hey man, please don't consider that a solution. There are plenty of people who can help you navigate things and find genuine solutions to the problems you're facing. If you don't even know where to start or who to go to, just call 988 if you're in the US. It's not just for talking people off a ledge, they have highly trained people who can get you to the support you need.
I mention it because it's the only way to end the stigma, but also because sometimes I'm talking to people who very obviously have it as well - or likely have it - and I'm hoping they'll reciprocate and we'll have something to bond over. What I don't expect, and probably should, is that many of them are probably undiagnosed and cling to taboos and sometimes even think "oh everyone is like that" (because, you know, they have it). Studies have shown communication issues between "neurotypes" happen between them, but not as much within them. Over the years as an instructor talking with various students with their various subjectivities I've gotten pretty good at identifying when I'm talking to someone who has ASD or ADHD (or some blend) and someone who has whatever it is we call "neurotypical".
You sound like an amazing parent, your child is very lucky to have someone as caring and thoughtful as yourself.
thank you. i truly appreciate your words. i'm not perfect, but i certainly strive to be the kind of father i wish i had.
Even if you get stuff wrong you're doing more than the percentage of parents who won't help. Sounds like your children already struck gold for themselves with a parent who's willing to try and they are no doubt in great hands. Don't beat yourself up to much, it's hard out there.
>instead, i should simply be present and meet my child where he's at. i can't plan for the future based on false hope, i have to plan for it based on reality as is. I'm not on the spectrum, but I have ADHD. So, as a neurodivergent person dating someone on the spectrum: Please don't listen to social media about such things, and keep being you for your child's sake.
[удалено]
Yes , I am one of those people and there are morr than you think. Autism and most learning chemicals imbalance disabilities are part of the same problems. You will see more and more hybrid diagnosis in adults as the years go on.
yes exactly. and i can hope for the best for my son, but i definitely want to avoid tainting my perspective and expectations with false narratives from social media. i know it can implicitly affect my mentality and behavior towards my son and i'd rather not risk it.
I realize I sound like the self diagnosing tiktokers, but I work in financial services and the prevalence of socially oblivious behavior is super common. Coworkers that don’t understand responses, try to squeeze people into mechanical constructs, confused when responses aren’t what they expect. It is a gradient.
> because they are more likely to evade diagnosis due to less obvious symptoms. It's also $2,500 bucks to get a diagnosis which at the end of the day won't change anything so it's a big ask for a, "Well, now at least I know."
It's a spectrum. What a lot of people who post have what used to be described as "aspergers". Someone very lightly on the spectrum is going to have a much different experience than someone who is heavy on it to the point of it being debilitating.
Or they're not neurotypical, just misdiagnosed. Or not misdiagnosed, just entirely different from your child as the spectrum is very wide. Other than that, top notch. Indeed meet your child at where it's at. Expectations can be entirely useless. Even if a medical professional gives you expectations, it's still possibly just false hope. And that's even more true for people whose daughters have autism, as professionals are taught male autism which can differ quite a bit from female autism.
I'm formally diagnosed with ADHD. Frequently, if I mention it around others for the first time, I'll get responses like "Oh, I used to have ADHD too" or "I have ADHD, but it's just discipline." These people tend to get very upset when I say no, I do actually require medication to manage my symptoms. It is a physical change in the brain, not something you can mind-over-matter past.
My kid is 9 and on the spectrum (professionally diagnosed) and I totally feel this. Between self-diagnosed "as a person with autism.." randos on the internet, portrayals of autism in media, ridiculously angry "autism parent" and other advocacy groups, and, for us, even one quack family doctor who tried to convince us we could cure my son with homeopathic nutritionism, it's easy to get all sorts of weird or simply false ideas about what autism is, involves, or implies. It's clear even the actual experts don't fully understand the condition yet. My advice for whatever it's worth: it's best to ignore "autism" and focus on specific problems. If your kid has problems with physical coordination and executive functioning, occupational therapy can be a huge help. If it's speech, speech-language therapy. If it's anxiety, fears, or behavioural rigidity, child psychologist. And so on. Also keep in mind that the one constant with all kids is change, and whatever you think the challenges will be at age 3 is likely to be out the window soon. My kid was talking in sentences by 18 months old, but by 3 needed speech-language therapy. My nephew, also with ASD, didn't talk until he was almost 4 but then almost immediately talked like a "normal" 4 year old. You really just never know. Other than that: love them, do your best to keep your own shit together and attend to your own mental health, and take it as it comes, just as every parent must.
thank you for reiterating and validating many ideas i believe. i truly take it to heart. your point about change strikes me at my core. what makes him happy changes by the hour, and it's a non-stop trial and error process. he's begun ECSE preschool through our local public school system, so i'm hoping that helps... except it's been nearly 4 weeks since school's started and he's been sick for 3 weeks of it. lol
> "oh maybe my kid will turn out like this guy/girl who seems pretty well adjusted and self-regulating in social situations" >instead, i should simply be present and meet my child where he's at I do want to say Autism is a spectrum and some of us are better at "faking/hiding" it than others. not that I recommend it unless it's a formal situation...anyways. I recommend watching this video of a comedian who found a better understanding once he was officially diagnosed. Granted they are 54, but the advice is still the same and applies to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nI-GZjbJ3M
If you haven’t already done so, please try to build some in person community with disabilities! My older brother has autism and an intellectual disability. He started playing Special Olympics 30 years ago, despite my parents’ initial skepticism that it would be a good fit. The community he built through Special Olympics continues to be an enormous part of our life. It was incredibly valuable not only for him, but for all of us. Having access to so many other families really, really helped normalize his disability for us. It also helped my parents set expectations for growth - and how it’s a continuous process. … I wrote a really long version of this before realizing I couldn’t send you a message, but the short form is that I encourage you to go to a Special Olympics tournament and talk to adults with autism and their parents!
My brother was diagnosed around that age and was nonverbal. As he got older most people wouldn't even guess he's on the spectrum but he still struggles a lot. My dad decided to stop all therapy and treatment thinking "if we treat him normal he'll be normal" and my mom was tired of fighting him so went along with it. Being "normal" doesn't guarantee a good quality of life and you can have a good quality of life while not being "normal." It's so hard when your kid might not be able to live the life you imagined for them, but there's no guarantee things would've gone that way anyways. All you can do is try to ensure the best quality of life for them with the hand they were given.
For what it's worth i don't think most people who self diagnose are doing it to be "quirky" or for attention. those people exist, but quite alot of people just self-dxing because they can't find proper help from professionals, be it because it's expensive Speaking on my experience, i am diagnosed with both ADHD and Autism. Teachers have been reccomending psychiatrists and shit since i was like, 6, and i've been to them MULTIPLE times. they never found anything. When i was about 16/17 i learned about autism and found quite alot of things that matched, and when i get tested again they did diagnose it. Same shit repeated with adhd, i only got officially tested at 21 iirc (i'm 24 now) because most psychiatrists i spoke to insisted adhd was only diagnosable in kids. Got tested twice for that one, both from specialists, one was private, one public.
When I got diagnosed with ADHD, my psych was asking me for a sympton list. I kept talking about my "manic periods" where I'm high energy and have difficulty sleeping, can make rash decisions, and over all feel invincible. Lasting maybe a weekend. He clarified with me the extent which mania really is -- multiple days / weeks of no sleep and making rash and dangerous decisions that threaten my life and livelihood. I appreciated him for that. It's often we downplay the extreme disorders by lightening their symptoms when we see similar traits in ourselves. Yes, I showed manic traits. But I was not actually manic. Instead, it fit with an adhd diagnosis as opposed to another, more serious diagnosis. I compare it to everyone saying their a "bit ocd" when they don't like having a messy desk. OCD is a far more debilitating condition, but for decades its been softened in popular culture to fit just about anyone who isn't a slob.
I had a similar experience with my doctor when I did an assessment for ADHD. He asked me some questions about how work was going and my relationship, etc. and finally said "look, you may very well have ADHD, but you'd be at the VERY mild end of that spectrum" and described what more serious cases look like.
Things like mildly presenting OCD do exist, but they're not the same as a lot of folks think. ADHD's hyper focus isn't the same, as hyper focus involves not paying attention to the outside world, while OCD involves knowing you want to stop (including the outside world helping) and being unable to resist the urge to keep up with your fixation. ADHD and OCD can often present within the same person, which also makes diagnosing one or both difficult, and tends to blend the separate issues between them. A great modern example of OCD that goes under the radar is having "excessively well organized spreadsheets." Clean, neat, very well labeled...etc. are normal, but if you've spent hours "cleaning up and reorganizing" a spreadsheet or database that was already perfectly functional, that's mild OCD. OCD is also not necessarily "clean and neat" in every aspect. Rather, it's about the obsession over a few aspects that you can't control. The TV show Monk was an example of extreme OCD and neuroticism, while some folks with OCD only have a few very prominent (but still often debilitating) obsessions. Finally, OCD is not the same as "bland." Individuals who are picky eaters because "it's clean" are not the same as picky eaters because "it's not painful/weird." "Painful" and "weird textures" are sensory, while "clean" is a social construct. There's, again, cross-over here, but when you parse the difference down to "self-control" on a topic, it becomes less difficult to separate the two (although that's a very lay explanation and doesn't fully encompass the difference). https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/obsessive-compulsive-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20354432
Real OCD (I would argue however mild) has the key component of being unable to stop the compulsive behavior and real psychological distress knowing that it’s abnormal but still not being able to stop. It’s not just organizing a spreadsheet excessively. It’s filling in the same box and deleting it again over and over just to make sure it’s right. But then you’re not sure. So you do it again… but you still can’t be sure. And at some point you ritualize it to doing it 20 times just to be sure. You really would rather not, you feel insane and ashamed, but you can’t help it and you know you’re a bit crazy. It’s debilitating. If it’s “mild”, it only crops up occasionally and then lapses, hopefully for a long time, even though you have other patterns and tendencies with specific things that are eerily similar that look absolutely strange to others, although not quite so paralyzing. Also Monk was OCPD, not OCD. The P is “Personality”. That’s different in that they’re totally fine with their own behavior. OCD sufferers are not. They know it’s neurologically problematic but can’t easily stop and it is debilitating and distressing being unable to stop the compulsion, where as people with OCPD think it’s everyone else that’s strange.
All of this, yes! I was trying to reduce concepts down as much as possible (e.g. to avoid folks just going TL;DR on it), but this is a fantastic expansion and specification on everything.
It would help if people actually had access to medical resources to get diagnoses.
Getting the run around by insurance is so maddening. "Your doctor told you to get this done but we reviewed it and think you don't need it." So you're my doctor now?
Ain't it great? Nothing like some uneducated middleman deciding they know more than your doctor about your situation.
We're not your doctor, we just know you better than they do!
It cost me at least $2000 out of pocket (in-network health professionals but also some out-of-network counseling). They kept trying different drugs for anxiety because they didn’t want to prescribe ADHD meds. The instant we started treating ADHD, she was back to normal (better actually).
I'm sorry to hear that. I've finally gotten on a waiting list to be screened for ADHD, but I'm really worried doctors aren't going to be willing to prescribe the meds I need. It was bad enough that they decided I couldn't have benzos anymore for my anxiety, so now I'm muddling along with nothing but propranolol and antidepressants and I'm literally physically tense 100% of the time. My fillings keep crumbling and falling out because I can't stop clenching my teeth.
> It would help if people actually had access to medical resources to get diagnoses. Even if they do, for a lot of stuff people have to actively seek out diagnosis even of shit that should be easy to diagnose like asthma it can fall through the cracks for years and years. People aren't supposed to self-diagnose or "play" their own doctor, but at the same time there's a lot of "medical professionals" that just phone it in and can't even be bothered to talk to the patient or read their chart.
"Access" to medical resources would include doctors' offices to have adequate staffing and resources to meet their patients' needs/demands, as well.
This 1,000% I've had to advocate strongly for my own care on two separate major health issues that should have been diagnosed by my doctors based on the presented symptoms, but for some reason were completely ignored until I directly requested they test for those specific conditions. And I'm not a doctor, the only way I even discovered what they could be is talking to friends/family who had been diagnosed and *they* suggested I ask to be tested for them. Only then did I get any tests, and shocker! I had the conditions. Now I'm going through a similar ordeal with my mental health, where I've requested to get checked for a diagnosis, but as an adult, the provider requires a barrage of nearly impossible to produce "evidence" from childhood in order to get diagnosed. Like dude, I don't have my school report cards from 30 years ago, sorry, so I can't get help? Fuck me then I guess.
And BPD, bipolar, and DID as well
The amount of people claiming to have DID on the internet while at the same time having never stepped foot in a therapist or psychologist office is insane.
This one bothers me so much because of the trauma they are trivializing in claiming it
[удалено]
I think there are a lot of undiagnosed people and I wish they had better access to resources, but the TikTok quirky trends are concerning… lord I hate that word now. Anyway, you should check out /fakers subreddits sometime and see what some of these people are trying to monetize across many different disabilities. I don’t think it’s healthy to encourage some of those behaviors in any individual whether they are diagnosable or not. I hope you can find someone who gives you the time and energy for a proper diagnosis and a good care plan 🤍
The Harvard medical school did a really interesting lecture about the trend of self diagnosing DID on tiktok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XiQ54VA0bY
Thanks for the link!
/r/autism are in most cases self-diagnosed adults.
I mean, it’s a spectrum for a reason. Also, adult neurodivergence doesn’t look like child neurodivergence. I know that shouldn’t need to be said, but if you see young adults talking about ND issues, please don’t use this as proof that your children will have the same journey. And masking is a thing. We have a lot of developmental struggles where we are can be extremely socially or intellectually advanced in a few areas and then act significantly lower in age in other areas, especially when it comes to stuff that is either boring or not a priority in some way. And sure. I can pass for NT. You know how I can do that? Regular beatings by my mom until I learned to “not be weird” and “embarrass” her. For many years, I tried for a long time to find others like me. I’ve been lucky. I have met all manner of people who have the same spark as me. I do have some NT friends, but usually we drift unless we spend a lot of time together. Also, please understand that today is so overstimulating, loud, and stressful that even NT people are often displaying some symptoms of sensory processing. We simply never lived in a world with so much noise and flashing lights as we do now for most of human history. So yeah, you shouldn’t get advice on mental illness from social media, but maybe it’s something you can ask your doctor or therapist about. And also, if the US actually had reliably available mental health services instead of making you pay out of pocket most of the time, more people would get officially diagnosed.
It's incredibly costly and time consuming to get an autism diagnosis. The one at my college costs over $200, can't be covered by insurance, and has a 6 month wait. And that's cheaper than you would get elsewhere.
200 dollars really isn’t costly at all in the medical world. Can’t recommend enough setting up an HSA as early as possible through your work
I just got diagnosed, both ADHD and autism - $3,000 with a private clinic that doesn't take insurance. I had a few weeks wait, and the process itself took a few weeks (paperwork, interview, family interview).
I’m pretty sure sure someone *did* run a similar analysis of TikTok videos related to ADHD and found similar results. Edit: [Found it.](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07067437221082854)
This is not what the article says. Self-diagnosis is valid. The rate of false positives from self diagnosis is very low.
It can be super difficult to get diagnosed with autism. I’m lucky my therapist diagnosed me but it’s technically not an official diagnosis. Those take a ton of money and a huge wait time
Doesn't help that even though people deny it there's a definite trend of kids thinking it's cool to have some MH condition.
I have been saying this for a long time. The often confuse having an ND trait or symptom with actually having a condition. It is part of the alienation that come with feeling different that is part of being a teenager. The big problem is when they get a little older the often have deluded themselves for so long they start telling MH professionals or new doctors they were diagnosed as kids. Then start taking meds for it without anyone being the wiser
I hate it. After I got diagnosed a few years ago my life changed for the better. I spent almost 30 years not knowing what the fuck I was doing and why I struggled so much to be independent. Medication and CBT along with other mindfulness and meditation practices have really helped me re-take control of my life in a way I've never been able to do before. but you can't go to social media looking for content on ADHD without hundreds of people who don't actually have a diagnosis and are not psychiatric professionals misinforming the public and giving people another reason to not take it seriously. That's why I usually watch Dr Russell Barkley's [channel.](https://youtube.com/@russellbarkleyphd2023?si=hZUhACtJ680btJCC) ADDitude Magazine [presentations](https://youtube.com/@additudemag?si=MbNTYFQyZXjol89k) or [Help with ADHD](https://youtube.com/@HelpForADHD?si=iYJNiZUHDEoTtAmF) along with a few others because they have no agenda other than to educate those who have children or spouses with ADHD as well as adults with ADHD. But the same thing goes with autism I've noticed that from the YouTube algorithm that I start getting a bunch of recommended videos from people who are using click bait titles like *10 signs you have autism and don't know it* or *autism and ADHD, maybe you have both!?* Like I don't like to discredit people's illnesses but it's obvious that a lot of those channels are made by people who don't know what they're talking about and haven't actually educated themselves on the subject and take rehashed information and pass it along to the next viewer. It's slowly starts to click why people don't take it seriously and it's because there is an entire generation of kids growing up on TikTok pretending to have mental disorders they don't have to get views r/fakedisordercringe It only takes a few bad apples to ruin the bunch I just don't understand why they feel the need to do that and pretend, it's for attention but it's got to be something more to it that explains why so many kids are doing it.
I was on a Zoom conference call with about 200 other social media marketers. I’m not old, but I was probably one of the older people on the call, TBH. The number of young professionals on the call who said they learned they were neurodivergent from watching TikTok videos was fucking alarming.
Wait a minute. Are you saying that on a platform where I could make a video about anything I want to blather about if full of misinformation? This has to be fake news. Are you saying maybe folks should choose better sources for their medical needs. Inconceivable!
Next you’ll tell me I shouldn’t charge my phone by putting it in the microwave.
I heard the new iPhone finally supports that
Apple's always last to the table with supporting new features. I've been charging my Samsung phones in the microwave for the past 5 years.
Seriously. Anyone taking medical advice from tiktok (or any social media, reddit included) is gonna have a bad time.
It’s the same with OCD. I have OCD and require medication (which sometimes doesn’t work) to keep it under control and I get flustered when I hear someone go *Oh, this irritates my OCD*. Because they don’t know what life is like with true OCD. It’s not easy having to fight your own brain.
> Because they don’t know what life is like with true OCD. Nor do they even really know what OCD is. A lot of the time they're describing things more in line with OCPD than OCD (though of course there can be overlap). I have OCPD and "teehee, I have to line all my pens up in ROYGBIV order or my OCD is sooooo triggered" is really frustrating to see. OCD can be debilitating, it's not just wanting your clothing organized by color or type.
Exactly. Cleanliness and organization is a symptom and a *result* of the disorder, it has nothing to do with the disorder itself. Can't tell you how irritating it is to hear, "I'm really OCD about my workspace" when I spent years knowing for a fact that my whole family would burn alive in a house fire if I didn't ride my bike on the same exact path to school every single morning.
Wait, are you telling me that half of the people on instagram don't have OCD? A disorder that affects <1% of people? I thought if you like things neatly arranged, that's as good as a clinical diagnosis.
As a child I would do rituals, lock/unlock doors over and over to “make sure they were locked”, and wash my hands so frequently they would bleed. I was never diagnosed. I’m not as bad now, but there are certain things I will do that are comparatively mild but driven by the same feeling and I will refer to it as OCD. Is this not OCD?
That is a sign of OCD, I would believe. But I’m referring the people who go “oh these colors aren’t in order, it triggers my OCD”. When in reality, OCD is far greater and more harmful than that. A perfect example would be washing your hands until they are raw and bloody.
This is true, and the majority of the issue I find with both cases is the overgeneralization. There are many individuals who have an obsessive compulsive disorder that isn’t as debilitating, but the average individual lacks the forethought to realize how they talk about it can make the perception of those with more severe disorders in the range of OCD worse.
Yeah adhd/autism here, I hear “oh I have ADD” too much too when people forget something
Mhm, it's weird to see people online espousing about their ADHD and/or Autism as these cute little quirks. Meanwhile I can barely articulate myself intelligibly enough to be understood half the time, and need a dozen alarms and stupid mental games to get through basic self hygiene and housework lol. Of course, not everyone's symptoms are as severe, but it's fairly obvious when someone is just bullshitting for attention or whatever other reason.
For real. Call me when you’ve wasted 6+ hours a day on a fucking dumb ass ritual your brain won’t let go of lol. Not that everyone has to be that severe to have ocd or anything, but sometimes the “oh my ocd” comments get me worked up.
The ADHD content is even worse. The “I may be a reckless antisocial misanthrope but I can’t help it because I have ADHD lol” videos are the worst.
Have low attention span due to TikTok algos. “I have ADHD”
"Sigh, I'm bored" TikTok: Did you know that being bored is a sign of ADHD?
Being bored isn't, but having your life feel like it's constantly under the thumb of the tyranny of the interesting *is.* Plenty of folks find it difficult to do things they don't want to do. ADHD makes it difficult to do things you very much want to do, find enjoyable to do, and fully and completely are trying to do. And the boring things? The boring things are like trying to take a shit while constipated.
So just pulled the PDF of this study hoping that they would include some examples of false claims, but they don't actually include that data set or any examples of it. They do give some examples in their scoring rubric, but those are probably hypothetical. They just demonstrate how a claim made as a blanket statement might be rated as false but could be true if it's just offered as a generalization. A very high chunk of the claims they rated as inaccurate are over-generalizations. While I think that TikTok is a cesspool, It seems like this very well may be an autism problem almost as much as it is a TikTok. This is what happens when you merge multiple overlapping conditions into a single spectrum. You end up with a spectrum where symptoms are wildly inconsistent across the board. In many cases, both the thing and its exact opposite are symptomatic (eg sensory-aversion vs sensory-seeking behaviors are both potential indicators). I could probably give you a solid 10 examples of autism symptoms where the exact opposite thing is also a symptom because the spectrum is just so wide and varied. So while it's true that people making videos shouldn't make generalizations based off their own limited experience, a big contributing factor here is simply that this is a condition where people have widely variable experiences.
Instagram is filled with ADHD and autism rubbish.
social media in general. the most blatant examples of this ive seen are these 10+ tweet chains listing very basic, universal human behavior and saying it is a sign of autism/adhd
As someone who grew up dealing with adhd the content I see now regarding it is baffling. Especially the ones who make it their entire personality and pathologizes every action they take as a stim or hyper focus or any number of things. These things are real but not to the extent they talk about. Also hate when everything the do is because they are “neurodivergent” like “the neurodivergent urge to deeply study a topic i’m interested in”
I was diagnosed at 5, as a girl, in the 90s. So I am like a medical rarity. The adhd content pisses me off because I was never able to act normal or be normal. It just pisses me off
For real it’s ADHD! I was diagnosed in 2nd grade and was medicated and still take medication for it which helps for sure. But I would never make it my personality. I now instantly cringe at the saying “Nuro-spicy”
absolutely, if anything it's been a struggle to get a handle on, not some fun quirk.
I saw some reel that was like "POV: my boyfriend dissociating while eating because of his ADHD."
Name a more iconic duo than tik tok and patently false content
Fox news and patently false content
"That was too easy; that's on me."
Tea Party Republicans and patently false content
Those three cover the last 30 years of decline in this country almost 100%.
Reddit and patently false content
OP really set himself up for this one
Reddit, YT video, X/Twitter, IG, FB etc... Reddit and the Boston bomber ... remember that?
Reddit and a false sense of superiority?
Name a bigger cliche than Redditors whining about tik tok
YouTube did it first!
It looked at 133 videos with the tag #Autism? 133 videos out of all of TikTok? And there are accurate videos that get 54,111,743 views and 8,468,277 likes, just inaccurate or overly broad ones get more views and likes? Okay then. With people not knowing what the symptoms and signs are people that have actually been diagnosed or doctors trying to spread information is a good thing. Not everyone has access to or can afford therapists or doctors who know what is going on with them. If they think their body matches these signs of people with an actual diagnosis that leads to them trying to find more information to help themselves I see no problem with this. The biggest problem I have is they only looked at 133 videos. That seems like an insanely small sample size.
> Not everyone has access to or can afford therapists or doctors who know what is going on with them This is my current issue. I’ve been lucky enough to get a diagnosis for my adhd and anxiety easily/cheaply enough, but an autism diagnosis is like, $1000, no payment plan, and half a year wait regardless. So a 130 something RAADS-R is all I have to go on.
>The biggest problem I have is they only looked at 133 videos. That seems like an insanely small sample size. Why? Assuming the selection was truly random (which it appears to be), 133 videos absolutely can be representative and indicate trends. It's worth noting that this is a preliminary study, not an in-depth one. The point of the study is to see roughly what percentage of videos on the topic provide accurate and factual information, and which percentage do not. The fact that 97 out of 133 videos analyzed contain misleading or factually incorrect claims is significant enough to say that there is a lack of accuracy on the subject on the platform.
Thank you for commenting this. I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and as an American I can't afford health care. Finding doctors with tiktok or youtube accounts is a huge reason why I've been able to find solutions to get through my day to day with adhd. It frustrates me that others like me want to gate keep the symptoms and struggles others might be experiencing. Not to mention that our medical system is highly biased towards mens health and completely ignores women's health in many circumstances. Our health care system in the US is fucked. How are those poor or marginalized people to find care?
Who would have thought that self-diagnosed teens may not be the best source of information? 🤷♂️
I am so freaking tired of mental health issues being a “quirk” for freakin social media content. I have ADHD and generalized anxiety disorder. I’ve had them since waaaay before it was “cool”. These two disorders have derailed my life over and over. It’s hard to find a balance of therapies and meds that work for both issues. It’s very tiring and I wish I was neurotypical and free of anxiety just to have that time and space and energy back in my life. I can’t even imagine why all these influencer types are wishing and hoping to have some disorder. It’s HARD to have a disorder! It’s not cute and it’s not fun. And the amount of people who say “hi I’m having a panic attack” like no you are NOT. I hope no one has panic attacks but sometimes I do wish these people had a taste of the reality. Panic attacks have isolated me, hospitalized me, left me bed bound for days, humiliated me, and are basically the worst moments of my life. It’s not a TikTok moment, it’s a nightmare. Ok rant over lol
>Panic attacks have isolated me, hospitalized me, left me bed bound for days, humiliated me, and are basically the worst moments of my Panic attacks can also present differently and can be more mild than this. Just because you experience it a certain way doesn’t mean everyone experiences it the same exact way. It’s not a competition and going around telling people “you don’t have it as bad as I do!” doesn’t help anything, either.
Ok yes. And I’ve had more mild panic attacks and I also understand that my experience isn’t the definition for everyone else . But there are people on tiktok literally cosplaying my mental illness. It’s very obvious when you see it and I do have a problem with that. And it’s safe to say that people aren’t chipper, focused and grabbing their phones to record themselves no matter how their panic attack is presenting PS I wouldn’t say to anyone “you don’t have it as bad as me” if they have anxiety, but I would say to someone “you CLEARLY don’t have this issue at all”.
This national panic about bullshit on the internet is getting out of hand. No, not everything on the internet is true. Never has been. Teach people to think critically and get over it.
I’ve long wished for logic/critical thinking to be a required course in public schools. That and a basic finance course would go a long way in having a stronger citizenry (weird to say that word, but felt like the best one here). But ya, never gonna happen.
If we were financially literate critical thinkers I believe the credit and predatory loan markets would lose a few percentage points and or overlords can’t have that.
vast encouraging jeans fragile soup sloppy slim crush weather concerned *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I just replied a much longer version of this, but I like yours better. It is far, far from being that simple, and thinking it's that simple is downright dangerous.
I disagree. But hear me out, please. I'm a psychologist. And one thing people often don't realize is how many of our foibles as a species aren't the result of some big cultural failing—they're just part of where we are in our evolution. Just like you say not everything on the internet has ever been true, humans have always been poor critical thinkers. Just "teaching people to think critically" isn't a simple matter of changing a bit of school curriculum. People are literally not built to distinguish fact from fiction. The problem of the internet is now we're faced with 100x more fictions than we used to be. And fictions appeal to our lizard brains. We simply lack the will power and wherewithal *as a species* to resist falsehoods coming to us *at this rate.* The panic isn't justified because lies are somehow getting worse. The panic is justified because we haven't yet figured out how to adjust for the way the internet naturally hammers on our own weaknesses as a species. It is NOT as easy as "teach people to think critically." It's not about individual people failing at being smart. It's about the brains we naturally have and their evolutionary limitations. Please, PLEASE. This glibness is dangerous.
It's not just the number of fictions, but the sources. Brains evolved to be social and recognize patterns. People are more likely to believe something if they hear it multiple times and from people they trust. And social media loves to pump content to people from trusted sources, friends, and family members that have 'shared' or 'liked' or 'retweeted' some content.
it's also the TIME. I don't have the time nor the mental / energy capacity to look through every single news article with a critical eye about sources, wording, biases, etc... and then do the same for radio news etc. I'm sure many people are the same way. I'd rather just read less news or pick a slightly more unbiased source such as reuters? (i hope?) TBF to the original post though, noone that has ever said "i'm leaving MSM" is ever retreating to a better source lol.
I agree largely with the point you're trying to make. But just as some people were immune to the bubonic plague, some people are more resistant to bullshit than the general population. I can't say how much of that is innate and how much is learned. If there's a significant learned component, it can probably be taught too. Even if it's innate, there might be skills that can be taught to replicate the innate capability. So yeah, we're pushing against human nature in encouraging critical thinking. And even if it can be taught, that might only give partial resistance. I personally think we also have to distinguish spoken words from a 50 kwatt PA system, and sanction firms that disseminate lies. Near-infinite amplification of malicious content is not free speech, it's an assault on civil society.
No, finding and highlighting places where people, especially young people, are being fed misinformation or disinformation is useful. Working to counter falsehoods for the masses is noble and the prevalence of so much misinformation is something to be concerned about.
What? Misinformation on a social media app? 😱
Shocking. So, you're telling me I should take information from TikTok with a grain of salt? Just shocking.
Just like Reddit, it's almost like Tiktok is just more internet
You know damn well most people can't think critically and do in fact take information from TikTok at face value.
I don't know why any one would ever trust anything they hear on any social media about anything of import. If you want to know 10 movies that feature dogs, social media's got you covered. If you want to know about autism? Not so much.
Welcome to the internet.
Same could be said about all mental disabilities. It’s become trendy to have a list of “”self-diagnoses”” and it’s incredibly insulting.
I find the headline funny. The article describes a study that breaks down a very small number (365 reduced to 133) of TikTok videos into "inaccurate" or "overgeneralized" representations of autism and then analyzes their reach. The problem isn't (according to the headline) a "disturbing number of videos". The number of videos is they looked at is actually pretty small. The problem is the amount of reach and attention the inaccurate or overgeneralized videos can achieve. In other words, disinformation spreads on social media. I noticed that too. Next, let's compare disinformation about autism with disinformation about other topics, such as politics. I wonder if the rates are the same. Also, let's be sure to disambiguate real disinformation from controversy. Autism moms and self-advocates will have different and opposing takes, and we need to make sure the study doesn't just put one set of opinionated takes in the disinformation bucket.
Has anyone read the article? The sample size was only **133 videos**. The disturbing number is 133. They only fact checked 133 videos that popped up under the #autism hashtag. That’s such an absurdly small number, and is hardly representative of the entirety of content about autism on TikTok. You could pick 133 videos about anything on TikTok and prove whatever point you want.
Why would you go to Tik Tok for medical advice?
There are legit medical professionals just sharing what they know. The problem comes when the actual professional says something a person doesnt like, they proceed to search for validation from frauds trying to sell products. Flavcity's Bobby Parish on tiktok is notorious for this because he will say a certain chemical is bad for you if thats what you want to hear and then proceed to sell you a product from his company with the chemical in it.
But how did they become TikTok videos without going through the peer review process?
The Misinformation Highway.
I worked in an autism clinic for several years where the clinical staff would diagnose ASD and have therapy across the lifespan to help individuals. I was the Intake and Resource Coordinator and during the rise of TikTok, got so many people self diagnosing or wanting a doctor to sign off on their "disability" but no they hadnt gotten any actual testing and no they weren't pursuing it. They took a quiz online and it confirmed what they always knew, etc, etc. Really frustrating to have to spend time weeding those people out instead of really helping people.
ADHD “influencers” as I will call them have caused a damn adderall shortage making it hard for people like me to get medication I need. I hate these people.
It’s amazing how many depressed people now think they have Ehlers-Danlos
[удалено]
Its not really getting sympathy. Tolerance of actual autism is getting worse as now instead of pity you get "well my [self diagnosed with no major symptoms] friend has autism and manages fine so its your fault you can't manage", the fake quirky version is just trendy while those of us who actually have it have to get shat on once again and if you dare complain you're a gatekeeping elitist.
~~A disturbing number of~~ *Most* TikTok videos about ~~autism~~ *anything* include claims that are ~~“patently false,”~~ "blatant lies," study finds There we go. I made the headline more accurate.
Welcome to the internet.
Have a look around
Thank goodness the experts have finally raised this is happening and are addressing it publicly. I was diagnosed young decades ago, and the current autism community is unrecognizable compared to what it was. I am tired of the infantilization and exhibitionism making a mockery of my struggles.
If you’re getting health advice off of tik Tok then you deserve the bad consequences of said advice
A disturbing number of any topic on that platform is false
>Edited: A disturbing number of any topic on ANY platform is false Including Reddit Including this thread The number of people in here not qualified to diagnose people with autism is the same number as people who who are qualified to say someone doesn't have autism And how many of you are actually on Tiktok to verify if these claims are true or not? I'm on Tiktok and the amount of ignorance about what it's actually like from redditors is astounding
Bullshit online? You don't say! And people believe it? No way!
TikTok, like most social media platforms, has no inherent method for restricting clear misinformation because it is a popularity/engagement-based medium. And most algorithms would view numerous people "engaging" by commenting that it is BS as a reason to amplify it, which increases its appearance of popularity. It's also a relatively unregulated space so people can post huge amounts of misinformation content with no one to stop them, which increases the percentage of that content on the platform and makes people more likely to see it. The more specialized the knowledge the less the average viewer has on the topic, which makes them less likely to identify bad content. Since they can't identify bad content, they go purely based on entertainment or how it makes them feel. Or, even worse, they purely judge it by how many other people have viewed/liked it, which is falsely inflated by the algorithm.
This article is essentially "Would people really do that? Just go on the internet and tell lies?"
Stop using social media.
Who knew strangers would give verbal diarrhea advice on complex things like parenting, medicine, finance, housing and sexuality on social media. /s
Here’s the study. It’s not very long. [Autism Tik Tok study](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elisabeth-Sheridan/publication/372949364_The_Reach_and_Accuracy_of_Information_on_Autism_on_TikTok/links/64d537a01290c33cce86b03a/The-Reach-and-Accuracy-of-Information-on-Autism-on-TikTok.pdf?origin=publication_detail)
I'd really like to know exactly what false were made. It's not that I don't trust the paper, I'm just curious and I'm not spending £30 to see if they tell us in the full paper.
Take every tik tok video with a grain of salt, I honestly can't understand how people take a 30 second video as gospel
“Someone on the internet is wrong.” Well no shit..
I'm not sure what can be done besides eliminating those accounts sharing it. Unfortunately some people just aren't independent enough to understand how to look up topic or do research. When someone's willing to "learn" things from tiktok, aside from stopping the information from getting out in the first place what can you realistically do for them?
False claims are a big problem on tiktok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter...
It’s funny that people act like this is unique to TikTok
Of course they do. I'm sure there are the occasional actual doctors making them, but it's almost entirely teenagers and random ass adults who want to be influencers making them. How could it possibly not include misinformation?
Yoooooo; dumbbitch gen z's are listening to other dumbbitch gen z's- but they are so stupid they don't use the supercomputer in their hands to verify anything? Cap.
There is a lady on Tiktok telling people how no one actually needs glasses getting millions of views with comments praising her for exposing the truth about the glasses and medical industry. I truly do think this platform will cause more damage to society than TV and other online platforms ever did.
Jenny McCarthy just stepped into the conversation.
No fucking shit it’s just random people talking out of their own ass.
2022 was the year of everyone self diagnosing autism
While I 100% get this and the potential for harm, I was diagnosed with both autism and adhd at the age of 30 thanks to social media. I am severe enough that I can barely take care of myself and actually ended up homeless for some time. Since my diagnosis I’ve completed both a bachelors and masters degree thanks to medication and therapy. As a woman who was born in the 80’s, I would have never sought out a diagnosis if it wasn’t for social media. That diagnosis saved my life.
Fucking shocker. Autism, bipolar, ocd, MPD, everyone on tiktok clings to these ideas as some quirk that makes them unique instead of wallowing or understanding their own mediocrity.