A 2025 survey of 2,565 Australians by Growth Distillery and Medibank, found that nearly 2 in 3 respondents use platforms like Instagram and TikTok as their main source of mental health and wellbeing information.
50% of the most viewed mental health videos on TikTok were shown to be misleading.
A recent investigation by The Guardian analysed the 100 most viewed videos on TikTok tagged #mentalhealthtips.
A panel of qualified mental health experts found that 52 out of them contained misleading or harmful advice.
Therapy-speak has gone viral.
Terms like:
- 👉 Trauma
- 👉 Gaslighting
- 👉 Narcissist
- 👉 Attachment style
- 👉 Triggered
- 👉 Dissociation
are everywhere now...
But they’re often taken out of context or wrongly defined.
We’re self-diagnosing.
- “If you do this one thing, you probably have ADHD.”
- “If they make you question yourself, it’s gaslighting.”
- “Don’t like conflict? That’s a trauma response.”
- “They don’t take accountability? Narcissist.”
Comments like this encourage people to take on clinical labels without consulting a professional.
Why are more people self-diagnosing online?
Platforms like TikTok and Instagram are:
✔️ Fast
✔️ Free
✔️ Relatable
✔️ Always available
When professional support feels out of reach, self-diagnosis seemingly offers a short-cut to an explanation, identity and a sense of control.
We're just trying to understand ourselves.
But without proper guidance, it’s easy to:
❌ Mislabel
❌ Mistake discomfort for disorder
❌ Miss the real issue
❌ Build your identity around a false diagnosis
Social media isn’t therapy.
It can help:
– Raise awareness
– Spark important conversations
– Show you're not alone
– Plant a seed
- Open your mind to possibilities.
But it can't give you everything you need.
What can you do?
- Be mindful who you choose to follow
- Don’t assume what people say is accurate
- Cross-check your sources
- Talk to your GP, seek out an accredited therapist, contact a credible mental health service
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