There are lots of articles on the internet always trying to make ADHD into something that is gained through internet addictions than something that a person is born with. I keep hearing, “TikTok is making kids have short attention spans/ADHD” or “I have ADHD now because I scroll through Instagram for hours” and etc. The person probably already had ADHD and TikTok or whatever else didn’t just make it appear out of thin air, it just made the symptoms more noticable (speaking from experience.)
This has the same feeling as vaccines causing autism or OCD is from being anal about order and cleanliness. It’s offensive and downright false.
Social media addiction is real, of course and this is not to knock down those who have it without or with ADHD. It’s just frustrating that ADHD is a scapegoat for “those damn phones”.
It rings true in a different way.
Social media is designed to take advantage of ADHD and amplify the problems, however it does not give people who don’t have it ADHD. Just might worsen a pre-existing condition.
ADHD causes an increased risk of all sorts of addictions because we lack dopamine. That doesn’t mean all people with addictions have ADHD though. In Australia we have a huge issue with video gambling machines. We call them pokies here, and they’re in a lot of pubs and bars. I made myself a promise when I turned 18 that I would never play even once and I never have. Because they’re full of all kinds of things to keep you addicted and playing, and I knew they’d suck my brain in. Most social media is the same, and when TikTok became popular I promised myself I’d never download it.
I think people deciding social media/phone addiction is an ADHD problem and doing what you’re talking about is definitely a big issue. It detracts from actually ADHD people’s struggles, especially invalidating those with more potentially destructive addictions like gambling or hard drugs. It’s already hard enough to get help for drug addictions without being ceremoniously undiagnosed, because clearly you tricked the diagnosis out of someone for drugssss!
Edit: I should make clear that I’m familiar with this because I used to have an alcohol addiction.
Back in the 80s they blamed it on TV and video games. IF they thought it was real to begin with, many people just thought a good ass whoopin’ would straighten them out.
