April is national Autism Awareness Month, which got me thinking about the trend from a couple of years ago where people were diagnosing themselves with autism. And this isn’t a “new” thing.
It started during COVID when we were all locked inside and social media was the only thing that allowed people to stay interconnected. The first trendy mental illness was Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), a disorder that results from immense and horrific childhood trauma. However, people used this to make up different personalities for themselves, likely to cope with the isolation of the pandemic. Eventually, “Meet the Alter” videos were trending on TikTok and new pages of different DID systems appeared out of the blue. Even now, people are still debunking these accounts that have kept up the facade for years. In reality, people were just lonely and, in an increasingly isolated world, having different “alters” gave an outlet for an overactive imagination.
This trend has continued to popularize different mental health issues. Autism was the next target, where people would self-diagnosis based on what symptoms were presented on TikTok. However, TikTok has the tendency to only present the “pretty” symptoms of mental health disorders. The hyperfixations seen in ADHD and autism were an easy target, and the word became overused so much it lost its clinical meaning. The romanticization of OCD as well has a historical place on social media and in popular culture. People present OCD as wanting to be clean and organized. In reality, OCD is a debilitating loop of intrusive thoughts, recognizing these thoughts as problematic, but still following through on compulsions to reduce them. And these intrusive thoughts aren’t fun or organized, they’re uncontrollable, invasive, and oftentimes disgusting.
People are so scared of being seen as “weird” or outside of the norm that they use mental illness as a guise. Not only does this perpetuate a stereotype that people with DID, autism, or OCD are not “normal,” but making these disorders trendy trivializes the debilitating effects they have on people’s lives.
Because, most of the time, your active imagination does not mean you have DID. You are not autistic, you are just shy. No, that’s not a hyperfixation, it’s just something you’re interested in that isn’t super popular. You don’t have OCD, you just enjoy having an organized, clean space.
Mental illness is not your costume and TikTok is not a reliable source. If you suspect you have one of these disorders, seek out a psychologist and get professional help. But, most importantly, don’t rely on social media to see these surface-level symptoms and diagnose yourself with a life-altering disorder.