Guardian investigation reveals promotion of dubious advice, questionable supplements and quick-fix healing methods
More than half of all the top trending videos offering mental health advice on TikTok contain misinformation, a Guardian investigation has found.
People are increasingly turning to social media for mental health support, yet research has revealed that many influencers are peddling misinformation, including misused therapeutic language, “quick fix” solutions and false claims.
Those seeking help are confronted with dubious advice, such as eating an orange in the shower to reduce anxiety; the promotion of supplements with a limited evidence base for alleviating anxiety, such as saffron, magnesium glycinate and holy basil; methods to heal trauma within an hour; and guidance presenting normal emotional experiences as a sign of borderline personality disorder or abuse.
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Wonder if this is related to the trend of people ascribung every negative interaction to the other party “clearly being a narcissist/sociopath”. It’s getting exhausting explaining that no, you can be an asshole even if you dont have ASPD
I think it is part of a broader trend of essentialism and identity becoming more and more important in the discourse. It is not enough to act assholishly in that situation, you have to be a scientifically certified asshole, scientifically categorised. In general, presenting and categorising yourself and categorising others has become very ubiquitous, and both the need to stand out and counterintuitively the need to “belong” often invite choosing more “extreme” categories than necessary.
Add to that trying to keep up with current trends, leading to “having something to say” under time pressure without knowing for sure on platforms like this, and people paying attention to things preferably if they are contrarian or making them feel either outraged or ego-stroked - as well as just in general the attention economy (with very real economic implications for people), and you have a really bad dynamic, favouring things like this.
