TikTok is full of creators offering advice on how to improve your mental health, fight anxiety or spot the symptoms of depression. With millions of users exposed to these tips, it’s fair to wonder how trustworthy they are.
Young people are increasingly using social networks as a search engine. On TikTok in particular, mental health content is among some of the most popular on the platform; in fact, the Chinese giant itself has created a page dedicated to “psychological well-being” that can be found under the heading “mental health” if you type in the search bar.
Faced with such a deluge of content, the question remains whether this advice is relevant or rather misleading. PlushCare, a platform specializing in booking appointments for doctors and therapists, sought to gain a clearer picture by analyzing 500 TikTok videos with the hashtags #mentalhealthtips and #mentalhealthadvice in July 2022. With the help of medical professionals, who average 15 Years of experience and training from the top 50 medical schools in the US, the platform set out to determine whether the advice in the posts presented accurate and reliable information or presented potential risks to viewer well-being.
According to their results, 83.7% of the mental health advice on TikTok in their sample was misleading. While more than half (54%) of tips contain accurate information, just under a third (31%) are filled with inaccurate information. What’s worse, 14% of the content contains potentially harmful information, and only 9% of the creators of the videos analyzed had a rating relevant to helping people in trouble.
While not all advice should be dismissed, the study emphasizes how important it is not to blindly believe all the health information found on TikTok.
According to the study, one of the reasons these videos are so popular is that seeing a therapist often comes at a high price, and sometimes a very long wait time for an appointment. Thus, many users prefer to resort to free content. The 500 videos analyzed amassed 3.5 million likes, were viewed nearly 25 million times, and reached more than 43 million subscribers by the time the report was published. Those numbers show just how big the impact can be.
Beware of ADHD Videos
With more than 17.9 billion views, content with the hashtag #ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) is one of the most viral topics on the platform. Videos on attention deficit disorder are everywhere, but according to the PlushCare study, 100% of the content of the videos analyzed on these topics contained misleading information.
Content about borderline personality disorder (“BPD”) is the second most likely to contain misleading advice at 94%, followed by advice about depression and anxiety (90%).
But while much of the information is misleading, some advice may be right. That’s the case for half of the ADHD content reviewed, while 18% contained potentially harmful advice. General mental health and wellness advice had the highest percentage of relevant content (59%), while trauma videos had the least accurate content, with 58% presenting inaccurate information.
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