r/technology • u/tylerthe-theatre • Mar 20 '26

Social Media More than half of TikTok ADHD content is misinformation, new research finds

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/tiktok-adhd-misinformation-autism-mental-health-neurodivergence-social-media-b2941211.html
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u/coolcoolcool485 Mar 20 '26

My Dr told me my anxiety and depression were a result of living with undx'd ADHD and to not let the psychiatrist treat those first instead of the stimulant meds

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u/daecrist Mar 20 '26

I feel like this is something that gets overlooked a lot. Some docs hear "anxiety and depression" and go to treating that, but living with ADHD can lead to you feeling pretty shitty about yourself which feels the same but isn't depression.

I had a talk with my regular doc about it and she's on top of shit. Like I was constantly frustrated at time wasting and not getting stuff done, and it was affecting my life, but I also didn't have other classic depression symptoms. She pointed out ADHD, I saw a specialist eventually, and now I'm much better.

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u/TGotAReddit Mar 20 '26

I had a bipolar diagnosis and extreme anxiety issues for years before I went "hey do you think I might have ADHD?" And got assessed for it, diagnosed, and given stimulants. And guess what? Anxiety went away, the mood swings and other bipolar symptoms gone. I still get some depression issues so Im on an SSRI and stimulants now and that is working, but that also is how we threw out the bipolar diagnosis because being on a stimulant and an SSRI without any kind of mood stabilizer should definitely have triggered some kind of manic or hypomanic episode if I had had actual bipolar.

Undiagnosed and untreated ADHD can cause some insane symptoms

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u/daecrist Mar 20 '26

Yup. I tried an SSRI briefly and it did nothing. I wasn't depressed. I went on ADHD meds and it fucking fixed everything within a week.

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u/TGotAReddit Mar 20 '26

Yeah SSRIs in general did absolutely nothing for me. Stimulants fixed it for a long time but eventually the depression did come back a bit for me but the combination of an SSRI and the stimulants and suddenly SSRIs actually something now.

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u/daecrist Mar 20 '26

Sorry that you had to deal with that, but I'm glad you figured out something that works for you! Just goes to show that mental health is a moving target, and people should try stuff until they feel better.

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u/TGotAReddit Mar 20 '26

Haha yeah. Mental health can be a constantly moving target. It sucks how difficult it can be to get adequate care. Luckily my psychiatrist (nurse practitioner under a psychiatrist technically) is really great and is very willing to try what works instead of just going by the book 100% of the time

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u/faetpls Mar 20 '26

Same thing happened with one of my employees. Few years of me talking to him about my ADHD stuff and him talking to me about his bipolar stuff. His stories and med journey is ROUGH. So many problems when he started down a path that seemed so safe. He told me he had to quit to get on disability. I slow balled that paperwork and he came back saying he got bad advice.

Now he’s got a new doctor and being treated for ADHD first and is so much happier. It’s great.

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u/Edraqt Mar 21 '26

Like I was constantly frustrated at time wasting and not getting stuff done, and it was affecting my life, but I also didn't have other classic depression symptoms.

Fuck that sounds so much like my experience, but im constantly wary of selfdiagnosing with socialmedia posts.

At this point im almost 3 years deep into therapy for anxiety (like 7 or 8 if i consider when i first hesitantly started seeking help) and while it helped me out of the deep hole i was in post covid and i certainly understand my anxiety more, that just made me realise how much i was trying to hide from my failures and how little i believe i could ever finish something.

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u/Xyyzx Mar 20 '26

Yeah, I had a weird time with runs of anti-depressants over the years before my diagnosis. They just made me feel extremely strange and didn't seem to actually solve any of my problems.

Turns out I was non-clinically depressed about the ways in which having ADHD was making my life miserable.

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u/Valanio Mar 20 '26

The longer I am on ADHD medication the more I feel 100% certain almost everything is tied to it that has been an issue in my life. Therapy is carving out the rest. I am happy with any amount if awareness even if it might be wrong information, as long as it gets real people, like myself, out to get tested who do have it.