Researchers investigate complex impact of mental health discussions on TikTok

Researchers have revealed the complex ways in which social media users engage with mental health and ADHD content on platforms like TikTok, with both positive and potentially negative impacts for users.

Led by Dr Katie Saunders from Keele University's School of Medicine, the paper published in the Journal of Social Media Research outlines the different ways users on TikTok engage with mental health and ADHD content online, with a range of different and complex responses recorded.

The findings show a range of interactions between creators and users commenting on their posts; from offering support, empathy, and relating creators' experiences to their own, to actively seeking help from other users.

The results also showed how some users employ these comment sections as a discussion forum to debate things like self-diagnosis of mental health conditions, ADHD, and Autism, with some declaring the benefits of it, some explaining why they avoided formal diagnosis, and others pushing back against the concept altogether.

Dr Saunders, who carried out the study as part of her PhD at Birmingham City University, used TikTok's Application Programmer Interface (API) data to study mental health-related content from the platform over different periods in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Her team analysed content tagged under a range of relevant hashtags including #Mentalhealth, #Depression, #Anxiety, #Selfdiagnosis, and #ADHD, as well as the comments section on the videos they identified.

Their analysis revealed six broad themes for categorising the comments on these posts, including users offering support and empathy; users relating to content and comparing this to their own experiences; indirect and direct cries for help; and different discussions of self-diagnosis including affirming the practice of self-diagnosis, motivations to not self-diagnose, and negative perceptions of the practice.

The researchers say these findings show the complex nature of mental health and ADHD content on platforms like TikTok. Some users can experience positive benefits like finding supportive communities and raising awareness, but this is countered by potential misinformation, and some commenters sharing ideas about self-harm and suicide which could be harmful to vulnerable users.

The comments also reveal insights as to why more people choose to self-diagnose, such as mistrust in healthcare professionals or for financial reasons.

The researchers say these findings show evidence of the impact social media can have on potentially vulnerable users and have called for tech companies to consider appropriate safeguards and other measures to educate and protect users.

Dr Saunders said: "It was so important to conduct this research as there was such limited evidence that explored how people interact with mental health and ADHD content online, especially as the distribution of this type of content has been increasing across platforms.

"Social media is such an ingrained part of people's lives, and these findings show that if used effectively it can actually be utilised as a means to garner social support, and to interact with likeminded people. Unfortunately, it also highlights the darker side of social media where people may use these platforms to spread misinformation purely for engagement or financial gain, or to promote self-harm and suicidal ideation. But this is not limited to posts or content anymore, people are also actively having these conversations in comment sections too.

"I hope that this research is the first step in understanding these platforms better, so that users can gain the most benefits from using them. I also hope that this will lead to future projects that explore in more detail why people avoid formal support or diagnosis, and how these 'online communities' could be used to promote better wellbeing in users."