Alberta resident Amy Brandley was diagnosed with ADHD in her youth, but despite receiving treatment, she felt she had symptoms not explained by the diagnosis.
Brandley says she consulted with mental health specialists throughout her childhood for things like not being able to control her emotions, but her concerns were always chalked up to ADHD.
The 27-year-old artist says it wasn’t until she saw videos of young women talking about their mental health on social media that she started to make sense of things. Experiences she thought were unique to her — like sensory overload — pointed to a potential explanation: She may be autistic, too.
“It was both a long journey, but also a few sparks here and there of seeing this content and being like, that seems rather familiar, that seems rather relatable,” said Brandley.
Alberta artist Amy Brandley was diagnosed with ADHD as a child. It wasn’t until her early 20s, after coming across videos on social media, that she considered the root of some of her personal struggles may have been connected to undiagnosed autism. (Submitted by Amy Brandley)
After meeting with an autism expert and undergoing a battery of tests, Brandley was diagnosed with both ADHD and autism spectrum disorder.
Mental health experts say they’re seeing an increasing number of young patients, like Brandley, leaning on advice from social media to connect symptoms to a potential diagnosis, even before consulting with a physician.
While, they say they aren’t against patients getting information from online sources, they caution against treating symptoms without professional oversight.
Neurodivergence leading the conversation
Ottawa child psychiatrist Dr. Gail Beck says she’s used to patients coming to therapy with concerns about conditions like depression and anxiety.
Over the past decade, however, she’s noticed that young people — especially women — are increasingly asking about autism and ADHD.
“One of the things that’s … very different, is the number of young people who come to me and tell me that they’re neurodiverse,” Beck told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of The Dose podcast.
Toronto psychiatrist Dr. Doron Almagor says patients who were never diagnosed as children may see examples of neurodivergence on social media and find that something just clicks.
Despite increased provincial funding, only about a quarter of kids registered for the Ontario Autism Program are receiving funding for core clinical services, a figure that has remained relatively unchanged for the past year and a half. Meanwhile, the number of kids registering with the program continues to grow.
Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and autism than girls, in part because girls are more likely to mask their symptoms, says Almagor, a former president of the Canadian ADHD Alliance
“They would … try not to cause any trouble, not get in trouble, try to do their work and not get diagnosed with either ADHD or autism.”
People often imagine children with ADHD as class disruptors, unable to sit still or pay attention. While that stereotype can be true, research suggests it’s more often boys who get identified for exhibiting hyperactive symptoms. Girls with ADHD are more often identified for showing the inattentive symptoms associated with the condition.
Likewise, boys with autism may exhibit symptoms like withdrawn social behaviour or blunt, literal communication, whereas research suggests girls might be surrounded by peers but still feel unable to meaningfully connect.
It’s OK to look up your symptoms, but be open to being wrong
Beck says she notices her patients typically start to question their mental health around middle and high school, sometimes going to the web for answers.
So when patients come to her having already researched their symptoms — even pitching certain diagnoses — the first thing Beck does is ask them to share their research with her.
“And if they tell me ‘I got it on TikTok, I’m on a group on Instagram,’ whatever they tell me, I will look it up and often with them in the office,” she said.
“I want to see where they’re getting this information.”
Once Beck knows more about where her patients have researched their condition, she guides them through the consultation, trying her best to correct any misinformation along the way.
Likewise, Montreal psychiatrist Dr. Alexandre Hudon says social media is an everyday part of life, so clinicians can’t minimize its influence on how people examine their symptoms.
“It can be really rich because you can open [them] up and really, really try to get a better sense of how they ended up using this information to put labels on their life,” said Hudon, who researches how social media and artificial intelligence influence youth mental health.
Not only do these conversations help clinicians learn more about their patients, being open-minded about where patients get their information also helps clinicians guide their patients to more accurate diagnoses, says Hudon.
Nonetheless, Almagor cautions that not all online sources of information are equal.
“One of the talks that I give to the public is trying to guide them to finding social media influencers that are in fact valid, reliable, are able to give good information,” said Almagor. He notes that some influencers who present as neutral could be paid content creators capitalizing on the mental health distress of others.
He says patients also need to be open to formal diagnostic evaluations for their conditions, especially if their symptoms point to other reasons for their distress.
Use of AI for health questions also increasing
Of course, people aren’t just leaning on social media for mental health guidance.
Some polls suggest almost half of respondents have turned to artificial intelligence chatbots for medical advice, so it’s perhaps no surprise that young people are turning to sources like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini for mental health help.
Almagor says AI chatbots can be useful, but adds they can often make mistakes because they lack lived human experiences.
Manitoba wants to ban social media and artificial intelligence chatbots for those under 16. CBC visits a Winnipeg school already using AI in the classroom to hear what students and educators think.
“Across medicine, you need to be very careful in taking any AI chatbot as medical advice,” he said.
Amy Brandley — who sometimes shares about her journey to diagnosis on her own social media channels — says she thinks people rely a little too much on chatbots. She says people are better off learning from each other rather than machines.
“Even if it’s just like some person who has like 300 followers on TikTok sharing their experience, I think that’s more valuable than what an AI can tell you,” she said.
