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“Things people don’t realize are symptoms of anxiety.” “Signs of inattentive ADHD in the workplace.” “Five physical things you didn’t realize were signs of depression.”
Health advice is everywhere on TikTok. And with just a few clicks, it's easy for users to fall down a rabbit hole of videos that leave them convinced they have an illness or disorder.
Nearly half of Gen Zers say health content on TikTok makes them feel anxious, according to a June 23 survey from academic writing help platform EduBirdie. And the line between medical advice and misinformation is already blurring, with nearly half of Gen Z saying they trust a health expert on TikTok more than a doctor, according to the study.
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Health anxiety isn’t new. It's called “cyberchondria,” which is the term used to describe the extreme anxiety caused by compulsively searching for medical information. It's that same feeling once associated with the term “Dr. Google.”
But the way people encounter health information is changing, and that shift is especially noticeable with Gen Z, the first generation to grow up immersed in social media. While 3% of Americans ages 65 and older say they regularly get news on TikTok, that number spikes to 43% with Gen Z, according to Pew Research.
Why online symptom searching fuels anxiety
In the age of TikTok and WebMD, it’s never been easier to spiral over medical symptoms. AI chatbots can now answer health questions in seconds, adding another layer of medical information to people's feeds and searches. Factors like public health outbreaks, deaths of high-profile figures and day-to-day stress can further exacerbate that cyberchondria.
At the same time, the rise of creators offering health advice, some without relevant credentials and others with financial incentives to promote products, has made it harder to distinguish trustworthy information from misleading claims.
Concern about a symptom turns into cyberchondria when worry persists even with reassurance, according to Dr. Christopher Pittenger, a professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and director of the Yale OCD Research Clinic. A patient might go to a doctor after seeing concerning information online, be reassured there’s nothing to worry about, and then continue searching for answers to ease their anxiety.
“I would call it a problem if the worry feeds on itself, and you get sort of caught in a spiral of continued searching and worrying,” Pittenger says.
According to the study, which surveyed 2,000 Gen Z adults, nearly nine in 10 participants said they suspected they had at least one condition, including depression, ADHD and cancer, after viewing health content online. And 38% of participants feared they were dying after viewing health videos, while 21% came to believe they had cancer.
Pittenger says cyberchondria has existed as long as there’s been an internet, but with current social media and 24/7 access, the information “comes more quickly, and maybe even if you're not looking for it.” He cautions that it’s easy to get stuck in a feedback loop, where watching one anxiety-inducing TikTok leads to clicking on more videos about the symptom.
This anxiety can manifest in physical symptoms such as increased heart rate, shortness of breath and difficulty sleeping, according to Harvard Health and Northwestern Medicine.
And Gen Z, which reports lower trust in doctors compared to older generations, is turning to influencers and their peers on social media for medical advice at higher rates.
“It’s problematic,” Pittenger says, adding that the idea that someone can “can read a one-paragraph description or watch a 90-second video” to become an expert “helps set the stage for self diagnosis.”
Why self-diagnosing can be misleading
While social media can be a helpful starting point for recognizing symptoms, experts caution against self-diagnosis without a professional evaluation.
The study found that more than half of respondents saw a doctor because something on TikTok made them worry. But at least 70% of the time, those visits ended up being a false alarm.
Before the pandemic, researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine typically saw adults seek ADHD evaluations after recognizing the same traits that led to their child’s diagnosis. Since then, however, they’ve seen more people self-refer for evaluation after connecting their experiences with ADHD symptoms they encounter online, according to Margaret Sibley, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
“The number one reason that people are self-referring is because you know they're learning more about ADHD through the internet and connecting with what they see,” Sibley says.
Pittenger and Sibley say creators have an incentive to post hot-takes that go viral, and that social media videos often over-simply complex diagnosis criteria.
“I worry about the credibility of the diagnosis,” Sibley says. “If it seems like the diagnostic standards are so flimsy that anyone could present themselves as possibly being symptomatic enough for diagnosis … it’s just going to create a lot of confusion.”
How to manage cyberchondria:
- Curb your Googling. Staying informed about health can be helpful, but repeatedly searching for symptoms can reinforce anxiety, according to Pittenger.
- Stop interacting with content. Commenting or liking videos makes similar content more likely to appear in your algorithm. Pittenger recommends asking “What is this costing me?” If a video is intruding on your evening plans or peace of mind, it might be time to turn it off.
- Turn to healthy distractions: Meditation, deep breathing, physical exercise or something as simple as doing laundry can interrupt the cycle of anxious searching.
- Rely on reputable sources. Pittenger says viewers should consider a creator’s credentials and whether they have a financial incentive to promote a product before taking their advice. “Think about why what this person says makes sense to me, and if the answer is ‘I like the video because I think they're attractive, because they speak well,’ I'm not sure those are good reasons,” Pittenger says. Instead, rely on reputable news sources and medical journals for information.
- Seek a professional diagnosis. It’s normal to have questions about your health after viewing related content, Sibley says, but only a trained healthcare professional can determine whether symptoms meet the criteria for a diagnosis. “When you assess people carefully, it's not always just about the diagnosis, but also about the solution,” she says.
Rachel Hale’s role covering Youth Mental Health at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
Reach her at [email protected] and@rachelleighhale on X.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: They watched TikToks about ADHD, anxiety and cancer. Then they worried they had them
