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She Discovered Her ADHD on TikTok But Who Else Was Going To Tell Her?
What happens when teenagers don’t see themselves in the dominant narrative of autism and ADHD
It’s becoming a bit stale, this carry-on about teenagers using TikTok to “self-diagnose” themselves with conditions like autism and ADHD. It’s even worse when you hear it from people who should know better: psychologists, teachers and others who are trained to work with young people.
Apparently they’re doing it for attention, especially the girls. It’s the in-thing, guaranteed to give them an edge with the cool kids. And if they’re not conspiring to monopolise people’s attention, they’re hapless victims of misinformation, incapable of forming their own conclusions.
None of this makes any sense. There are countless other ways a teenager could court attention if that was what they were seeking, which of course for a kid who has been desperately trying to fit in rather than stand out, it is most likely not. And how much of this fevered concern is just adults projecting their uncertainty about the digital world onto kids?
It’s easier to parrot these throw-away lines than stop and unpack the truth that’s being obscured: that teenagers are seeking answers in Tiktok because the adults in their lives…
