Young Women Self-Diagnose ADHD and Anxiety via TikTok Before 1st Psychiatric Visits
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 18
Young Women Self-Diagnose ADHD and Anxiety via TikTok Before 1st Psychiatric Visits
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 18
Summary
Teenage girls and young women are arriving at first psychiatric appointments already declaring conditions such as ADHD, OCD, anxiety and depression, the psychiatrist writes.
Instagram symptom research, TikTok quizzes and comparisons with friends are helping shape those self-diagnoses before formal evaluation begins.
The essay says that therapy-speak now often precedes therapy itself, leaving parents torn between alarm over mental health and alienation from unfamiliar jargon.
Years of listening to girls led the psychiatrist to argue that dismissing or overreacting can block communication, and that adults should focus on what the distress language is trying to convey.