* Matthew Yglesias tweeted about this comment piece in a psychiatry journal urging research into the role social media plays in spreading self diagnosed psychiatric conditions. The abstract:
There has been an increasing recognition among both medical and psychological professionals, as well as the public media, of a concerning trend for child and adolescent users of audiovisual-based, algorithmic social media platforms (e.g., TikTok) to present with or claim functional psychiatric impairment that is inconsistent with or distinct from classic psychiatric nosology. In this short communication, we provide a detailed historical overview of this transdiagnostic phenomenon and suggest a conceptual model to organize thinking and research examining it. We then discuss the implications of our suggested model for accurate assessment, diagnosis, and medical-psychiatric treatment. We believe there is an urgent need for focused empirical research investigation into this concerning phenomenon that is related to the broader research and discourse examining social media influences on mental health.
It gives as its main example the upswing in young people thinking they have developed a Tourette's tic after watching Tourette's sufferers (some real, some fake) on Tiktok. Even though I meant to, I don't think I have posted previously about that phenomena, but there was an article about it over a year ago in Psychology Today, and I see that it also featured on 60 Minutes, and a couple of times in The Guardian.
The article only mentions "gender identity related conditions" once, in passing, but people commenting on Yglesias's tweet often raise it, for obvious reasons. Someone posted a Tiktok video of a teenage girl publically coming out as "a guy", something she said she only realised two days before, and getting hugs and endorsement immediately. She also talks about how hurtful it will be to hear the wrong pronouns at home, so it's a case of instant victimhood as well as instant membership of a new friend club. (I don't know the context, but it looked something like a high school queer support group.).
Anyway, just as I was thinking that it's good to see there is likely to be support from some psychiatric professionals about the likely role of social contagion in the sudden upsurge of teenage girls thinking they can only be happy as "a guy", I had a look at Twitter feed of one of the authors, JD Haltigan, and it's a worry. He has very Trumpy attitudes on many issues - including hating the MSM, a huge covid policy critic, and retweets Glenn Greenwald and Musk with approval. In other words, I wouldn't trust him on a lot of issues, and he's not the type of person who I would hope was not into "culture war-ing" so that he could be seen as a politically neutral critic.
One of the other authors is also on twitter and doesn't tweet about politics at all. She's a Tourette's and OCD researcher. No reason to doubt her credibility, although why she has "warrior in training" in her Twitter profile is unclear!
Anyway, interesting stuff.
* I watched, so you don't have to, Xi Jinping's 15 minute New Year Address on CGTN. Fortunately, Taiwan only got fleeting mention, which I took as some indication that an invasion is not high on his priorities.
Apart from that, it's pretty incredible to watch how, when you're a dictator, you can just power through complete reversals of vital policy (I'm referring to the abandonment of zero covid) with nothing reassembling apology, or acknowledgement of any form of mistake by anyone.
From the general gist of topics on CGTN today, I do get the impression that Xi wants to re-engage with the world again, and not just Putin. In fact, wouldn't you love to know what Xi really thinks of Vlad's call for them to unite against the West, when Ukraine makes him look both weak and morally degenerate.
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