Technology

No, it isn't often made up for attention. And the kind of attention directed towards neurodivergent people on social media is overwhelmingly negative. The exception tends to be from other neurodivergent people.

I am neurodivergent. My partner is neurodivergent. The majority of my friends are also neurodivergent. I am aware of what misinformation about neurodivergent people looks like, and it is categorically not coming from neurodivergent people on TikTok. It is coming from communities dedicated to questioning the diagnosis of others. It is coming from neurotypicals who feel the need to gatekeep neurodivergent people and shame them for being neurodivergent.

Not having an official diagnosis doesn't mean that you aren't neurodivergent. Ive been diagnosed since I was 4, but I had far fewer barriers to getting that diagnosis than many people do. Particularly, women and girls face gigantic barriers all the time to getting diagnosed.

No expert or journalist can assess whether someone has a disorder over a video. That's just a statement of fact. Only through performing actual tests and routinely speaking directly with and observing a patient in a controlled setting can you determine if someone meets the criteria for a diagnosis.

This phenomenon of accusing neurodivergent women and nonbinary people of faking it for attention exists in every social media, not just TikTok. TikTok is just the most prominent due largely to its accessibility. Making a TikTok is far less involved than making a YouTube video. It is in many respects easy for average people to create content for.

Ive seen the "problematic posts". It's always a conventionally attractive woman or a nonbinary person showing themselves stimming or having a meltdown or talking about any of the ways that being neurodivergent impacts them. The comments questioning them are always all about "xyz isn't neurodivergent that's just normal" "they probably make up a new diagnosis to go with every gender" "I'm neurodivergent and I am inferior in every way and want to die, there's no way anyone could ever be proud of being neurodivergent, this happy woman offends me by trying to say that she is neurodivergent too". It's not scientific, it's not journalism, it's not medical. It is shaming people for being themselves. That's all.

It's not your business to gatekeep someone else's neurodivergent status. It's not your business to determine whether someone else's symptoms are valid or not. It's just ableism. That's all it is.