A technology entrepreneur who has lived with multiple mental health conditions is warning that some young people may be adopting symptoms they first encounter in TikTok videos.
Josef Newton, who has experienced OCD and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and later created an app aimed at tackling health anxiety, has drawn attention to what he calls ‘symptom borrowing’.
Newton describes the term as the process of noticing, reinterpreting or anticipating sensations and behaviours after seeing similar experiences shared by others online.
‘Attention, expectation and anxiety can amplify everyday physical feelings or behaviours that previously went unnoticed,’ he added.
His warning comes as social media platforms such as TikTok rely on powerful recommendation algorithms that repeatedly serve users content linked to topics they have already engaged with or shown interest in.
If a user has watched a clip about a content creator’s diagnosis of a condition, the app will show them several similar videos, Newton suggests.
But Newton says this can fuel anxiety, making viewers search their mind and body for symptoms that may not exist.
These recommendations can make relatively uncommon diagnoses feel both familiar and personally relevant, he added.
Experts are warning of the dangers of so-called ‘symptom borrowing’ among people watching content about health conditions on social media.
It comes months after researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA) warned that inaccurate social media posts about ADHD and autism could be encouraging some young people to believe they have the conditions.
The UEA study examined more than 5,000 social media posts across various platforms, and said misinformation about conditions like ADHD and autism was ‘consistently higher on TikTok than other platforms’.
Diagnoses of ADHD diagnoses have risen around 20-fold since the turn of the century.
Around 2.5 million Britons today have the condition, which the NHS describes as when ‘the brain works differently to most people’.
At the time, Dr Eleanor Chatburn, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, claimed young people are increasingly using social media to understand their symptoms.
‘While this questioning can be a helpful starting point, it’s important these questions lead to proper clinical assessment with a professional,’ she said.
‘As well as leading to misunderstanding of serious conditions and pathologising ordinary behaviour, misinformation can also lead to delayed diagnosis for people that actually do need help.’
Newton also warned users to be cautious of social media content that presents ordinary experiences as signs of an underlying health condition.
These include procrastination, feeling shy at social gatherings or becoming tired after socialising.
Other warning signs of ‘symptom borrowing’, he said, include noticing a behaviour for the first time only after watching a video about it.
‘A great example of this is if somebody asks you to notice how your tongue feels in your mouth; it suddenly becomes difficult to ignore’, he explained.
‘The sensation was always there, but attention has made it prominent. Health videos can replicate a similar effect.’
He said this ‘does not prove that a symptom is insignificant’ but urged people to ask themselves whether they’d ever noticed it before, or whether it has ever caused them any problems in life.
Newton also said users should take notice when the same symptom seems to point to different conditions depending on what appears on their social media feed.
For example, tiredness might one day be interpreted as a symptom of ADHD and the next as evidence of burnout.
Josef says checking symptoms after watching an informative video is perfectly normal.
But repeatedly monitoring them, he warned, may end up ‘maintaining the fear rather than answering it’.
He added: ‘Pay attention to how you feel after consuming the content. If you are more frightened, confused or compelled to keep searching, the videos are no longer functioning as useful health education.
‘Set a clear boundary: write down the concern, step away from symptom content and consult an appropriate professional or reputable medical source.
‘One qualified conversation is likely to be more useful than another hour of conflicting videos.’
He stressed, however, that people who experience symptoms after encountering health content online are not necessarily pretending or imagining them.
The symptoms can feel entirely genuine, he said, and more awareness may cause people to focus on sensations or behaviours they would previously have ignored.
At the time of the University of East Anglia study, a TikTok spokesman said: ‘This is a flawed study that relies on outdated research about multiple platforms.
‘The facts are that we remove harmful health misinformation and provide access to reliable information from the WHO, so that our community can express themselves about what matters to them and find support.’
TikTok have been approached for further comment.
The social media platform has been linked to misleading ADHD content previously.
Research in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry in 2022 analysed 100 TikTok videos that discussed the condition.
Scientists found that more than half were classed as misleading, while just around a fifth were useful.
The team, led by University of British Columbia researchers, also found that most of the misleading videos had been posted by non-healthcare professionals.
There are fears that increasing volumes of such content, paired with symptom borrowing, could be behind rising diagnoses in a range of conditions.
‘The concern here is that few content creators are medical professionals and serve anecdotal evidence only,’ says Newton.
‘Social media often provides valuable education, language and validation, but short-form videos don’t replicate clinical assessments.
‘Of course, TikTok can be the reason a user recognises a genuine problem and seeks support, which is a positive.
‘It becomes problematic when recognition evolves into monitoring. Once you have learnt a list of symptoms, your brain may begin to search for them.’