The rise of TikTok ADHD coaching is “extremely risky” and potentially “very dangerous”, a UK clinical psychologist has warned.
The ADHD hashtag on TikTok has generated billions of video views in recent years, as young people take to social media to find quick and easy information about the condition.
The huge popularity of the hashtag has, however, led to concerns about the accuracy of the videos – with studies warning that many can be misleading or unhelpful.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Clinical Psychologist Susan Young warned that the trend allows influencers to offer assessment and treatment services even though they are not qualified to do so.
“There's nothing wrong with people being directed to complete questionnaires online to give them an idea – provided they recognise a questionnaire is just a questionnaire,” she said.
“It doesn't differentiate between ADHD or anxiety or a trauma-related condition, for example.
“It's just a marker that you may have ADHD and if you do get that marker in that result, then you need to go to a properly qualified person who can assess it and diagnose it.”
Dr Young noted that people who ‘self-diagnose’ themselves as having ADHD are putting themselves at a disadvantage because they can’t access medical treatments or support services in education and the workplace.
She said the influencers who set themselves up as ADHD ‘coaches’ have the potential to cause the most damage.
“I think that's extremely risky, actually, and it's very dangerous in some cases because one of the problems is that coaching is an unregulated healthcare activity,” she said.
“So, I'm a psychologist, I'm regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council, and my title is protected – but anyone can set themselves up and call themselves a coach.
“Some people have gone on some courses, they've done their best, they try to get supervision for their work and I have no doubt that there are some good coaches.
"But I've also known there to be some really horrendous coaches and it's because they're working way outside of not only their own comfort zone, but of their own personal and professional competence.”
Trauma
She warned that an inexperienced coach could potentially reopen past traumas while attempting to work through a person’s symptoms.
“When they open a question or an exploration within that kind of therapeutic framework, they might open up a can of worms that they don't know how to put back together again,” she said.
“They may raise issues that are traumatic for somebody, for example, and then leave this person less than well supported.”
"Completely misleading"
Dr Young said the short time limits of many TikTok videos can also be a problem.
“I am trying to get everything I want to say with you into ten minutes and to do that in one minute is very, very difficult,” she said.
“There's a lot of inaccurate posts.
“There are some that are, frankly, completely misleading and also there's a drive for the entertainment factor that gives a completely wrong impression of an ADHD person.”
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