A disturbing number of TikTok videos about autism include claims that are “patently false,” study finds::A recent study published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders found that a significant majority (73%) of informational videos on TikTok tagged with “#Autism” contain inaccurate or overgeneralized information about autism. Despite the prevalence of misinformation, these videos have amassed billions of views, highlighting the potential for widespread misconceptions about autism on the platform. …
Tiktok is still probably a better source of information than most British doctors. Official diagnosis by an expert is obviously the gold standard but I would imagine self diagnosis remains the starting point for the majority of people.
That is a completely ridiculous statement.
On the other hand, most people who ended up getting a diagnosis for some form of neurodivergence had suspicions themselves before specifically asking to get tested. In my experience, medical professionals really are not looking out for stuff as much as they should.
I myself ended up getting a diagnosis as an adult after my own insistence at getting tested, despite how obvious it was my whole life.
Not only did every teacher, doctor, court and family member fail to notice, a series of doctors denied that it existed over a period of years. I completely lost faith in our health service.
This is probably what you can expect when the subject matter is as fraught as anything-mental-health can be, and when what passes for clinical experts willing and able to share information on it are so rare as to be unicorns, plus many of them are working from outdated DSM criteria anyhow.
I was clinically diagnosed during the pandemic, then turned unpacking my own experience of autism into a new special interest (lol of course I would do that). I specifically follow quite a few accounts on tiktok belonging to health care practitioners and researchers, and I regard what they have to say in that light, while I also follow lots of ‘hey-I-self-diagnosed-now-let’s-talk-about-it’ accounts and consider what they have to say in that light.
I’m left with the impression that the researchers and practitioners are in an exciting, evolving field in which the subject matter is less-well-known than we might all like, and that the lay autistic folk sharing their experiences are doing it because frankly, the experts weren’t filling that need and what do high-masking/hyperverbal autistic folk do when we know a thing or two? We infodump, that’s what we do. (like this. you’re reading it now. sorry, not-sorry)
Are we always right? Heavens, no.
But, is the bar low to begin with? Oh, yes. Yes, it is. For example, while these tiktokers are sharing what they think (maybe it’s wrong, or DSM-inaccurate, etc.) there are also charlatans out there waving autism around like it’s a boogeyman your children get if they receive vaccinations, when there’s no evidence to support claims like that.
Inaccuracy was measured against the Autism diagnosis in the DSM and standard approved treatments. These are always going to be out of date because you’re not allowed to run tests on humans. Something about ethics. So the DSM and psych industry are always playing catch-up. Meanwhile, you have a large group of people with lived experience sharing that experience. Surely that counts for something?
“Videos produced by health care practitioners were more likely to be *accurate * [emphasis mine] compared to those by autistic creators and ‘other’ creators”
Yes, of course the actual autistic people would know less about how to address their daily issues than doctors /s
Still, anyone who created a tiktok on how to ‘cure’ autism can get fucked. That part I can agree with.
Today I learned some people actually think tiktok is the place for accurate medical information
Wait a minute, you mean to tell me that people on TikTok will lie to everyone for views? /s
