Danielle Elliott

This series was brought to you by Understood.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with learning and thinking differences, like ADHD and dyslexia. From understood.org, our executive directors are Laura Key, Scott Cochier, and Seth Melnick. A very special thanks to Ray Jacobson, Julie Zietz, Jordan Davidson, Sarah Greenberg, and Kathleen Nadeau.

If you want to help Understood continue this work, consider making a donation at understood.org.

If you want to help Understood continue this work, consider making a donation at understood.org.

Believe it or not, I wasn't on social media during the height of the pandemic. Instagram got boring. No one was going anywhere or doing anything. There was nothing to be mindlessly voyeuristic about. I deleted my accounts and wasn't really on from March 2020 to November 2021, except a few days here and there. I never join TikTok because I'm afraid I'll get addicted.

Believe it or not, I wasn't on social media during the height of the pandemic. Instagram got boring. No one was going anywhere or doing anything. There was nothing to be mindlessly voyeuristic about. I deleted my accounts and wasn't really on from March 2020 to November 2021, except a few days here and there. I never join TikTok because I'm afraid I'll get addicted.

The few times I've looked at it, I've ended up scrolling through snowboarding videos for hours. So, no, I wasn't on social media during the pandemic. What'd I miss? The birth of ADHD social media, apparently. By the time I tuned in, in early 2022, there were millions of posts with the hashtag ADHD. They had more than 11 billion views on TikTok. They filled my entire Instagram discovery page.

The few times I've looked at it, I've ended up scrolling through snowboarding videos for hours. So, no, I wasn't on social media during the pandemic. What'd I miss? The birth of ADHD social media, apparently. By the time I tuned in, in early 2022, there were millions of posts with the hashtag ADHD. They had more than 11 billion views on TikTok. They filled my entire Instagram discovery page.

For women who were on social media during the pandemic, these posts sparked an explosion of interest in ADHD. Terry Matlin, author of The Queen of Distraction, has been treating women with ADHD since the late 90s. She told me she's never received such a sudden flood of emails from women looking for treatment.

For women who were on social media during the pandemic, these posts sparked an explosion of interest in ADHD. Terry Matlin, author of The Queen of Distraction, has been treating women with ADHD since the late 90s. She told me she's never received such a sudden flood of emails from women looking for treatment.

Some said they'd learned about ADHD on social media, and now they wanted to talk to their doctors about it. They wanted help navigating these conversations.

Some said they'd learned about ADHD on social media, and now they wanted to talk to their doctors about it. They wanted help navigating these conversations.

Terry took this as a sign of progress. For decades, medical schools failed to educate psychiatrists and other doctors on the ways ADHD shows up in everyday life, especially for women. The lack of education and training led to years of misdiagnosis. She was happy to see that women were now more informed. She also worried about that information. In 2021, she joined TikTok to see if she could help.

Terry took this as a sign of progress. For decades, medical schools failed to educate psychiatrists and other doctors on the ways ADHD shows up in everyday life, especially for women. The lack of education and training led to years of misdiagnosis. She was happy to see that women were now more informed. She also worried about that information. In 2021, she joined TikTok to see if she could help.

Hello. Terry is one of many health professionals who jumped into the social media conversations. In 2021, the New York Times wrote about this phenomenon. A headline says, Therapists are on TikTok. How does that make you feel? A group of researchers in Dublin, Ireland, tracked 28 active social media accounts owned by mental health professionals. All of these accounts had at least 100,000 followers.

Hello. Terry is one of many health professionals who jumped into the social media conversations. In 2021, the New York Times wrote about this phenomenon. A headline says, Therapists are on TikTok. How does that make you feel? A group of researchers in Dublin, Ireland, tracked 28 active social media accounts owned by mental health professionals. All of these accounts had at least 100,000 followers.

And according to the study, a third of the creators' posts aimed to educate people about mental health concerns. The value of all this mental health content is up for debate. Whether it contributed to the sudden rise in diagnosis is not. There is no question that TikTok and the pandemic sparked something. Social media made it easier for information to spread to more people.

And according to the study, a third of the creators' posts aimed to educate people about mental health concerns. The value of all this mental health content is up for debate. Whether it contributed to the sudden rise in diagnosis is not. There is no question that TikTok and the pandemic sparked something. Social media made it easier for information to spread to more people.

Women started talking to each other, and they started understanding that they weren't the only ones struggling in the ways they were struggling.

Women started talking to each other, and they started understanding that they weren't the only ones struggling in the ways they were struggling.

I wanted her to tell me her story because of how well it illustrates how many women came to their ADHD diagnosis through the explosive combination of the pandemic and social media, as well as the ups and downs of that process. So, Parker, can you introduce yourself?