Mental Health Myths floating around online to be wary of
Living in a digital age has made information easily accessible. Besides the sophistication of search engines that often bring us the results we are looking for, social media platforms are another go-to channel for information. Among these, Instagram and TikTok are widely used by the younger generation in Singapore today.
Social media has improved awareness about mental health to fight against stigma, but it is also the same place where misinformation on mental health spreads. Just this year, The Guardian, the British newspaper, consulted experts on the top 100 TikTok videos found through the hashtag, #mentalhealthtips. About half contained some level of misinformation on mental health, including misuse of terms and over-generalisation of mental health conditions, etc. Misinformation could lead to seeking incorrect channels for help and applying an inaccurate diagnosis, either for oneself or for others.
For the purpose of this article, I did my own search on Instagram and TikTok too, using general terms like “mental health”. While I am no expert in this subject matter, I have found posts with questionable content, which pushed me to do further research. Although I do not claim to be proficient in this area, I hope my findings can spark further discussion on social media content related to mental health.
The first few videos I encountered were posted by Dr Kendra Campbell, a “holistic psychiatrist” who was “passionate about bringing awareness to the harms caused by medicating the human experience”. She posted this TikTok video in 2023 of a man saying: “What I’m saying is that most of what we call mental illness and much of physical illness are actually normal responses to abnormal circumstances”. The video was accompanied by the on-screen text, “You don’t have anxiety, depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder or OCD.”
The second video from a year ago featured a soundbite arguing that there was no such thing as being too needy and too sensitive, but rather behaviours that were borne out of a need for survival, lacking “love, acceptance, connection, relationships, vulnerability, safety” for a long time, with the onscreen text that wrote: “Psychiatry is a scam. Mental illness is not real.”
With no further explanation given in the captions, such posts seemed alarming coming from a psychiatrist. Many comments disagreed with her position, believing that the content was harmful and slighted people with actual mental health conditions.
This denial of mental health conditions as illnesses can be linked to the anti-psychiatry calls happening in the West since the 1960s. It sprouted from criticisms of malicious psychiatric practices, with theories that “problems in living” caused most mental illnesses instead of being “actual diseases with neurobiological underpinnings”. However, there are extreme camps in the movement today, with some who believe that mental illness does not exist at all, despite the improvements made in psychiatry to propose evidence-based care.
Another series of TikTok content put out by Lauren Tobey, founder of Phoenix Rising, argued that the numbness inside of us, despite our ability to carry out daily activities, was a symptom of c-PTSD (Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) instead of high-functioning depression. In one of the videos posted this year, she stated that because our “nervous system [had] been in survival mode for so long, it [forgotten] what safety actually [felt] like” and it was our “childhood trauma living in [our] body”. She explained that the diagnosis of depression and antidepressants did not work as “the real problem is not chemical imbalance”. The video ended with her asking viewers to comment “numb” and grab the free guide in her profile to understand the happenings in our bodies.
There are a few layers to uncover from her posts. Firstly, the term “high-functioning depression” is often seen on social media posts to describe “people who experience symptoms of depression but are able to function relatively well in their daily lives”. It is not an official clinical diagnosis, however. The Anxiety & Depression Association of America suggests that the use of the term “high functioning” can trivialise the condition and promote a set of ideas of how depression would manifest visually.
Secondly, while there have been a few studies that focus on the comorbidity of c-PTSD with depression, I could not find an article written about their similarities. I did, however, find a piece written by Michael Quirke, a therapist, on his website about c-PTSD and depression. He claims that there are symptoms of c-PTSD that do not reflect depression, like “intrusive memories, hyper-arousal, and nightmares”, but “all of depression’s symptoms can be observed in a complex trauma”. It requires an extensive study by the practitioner of the person in question to make a judgment.
Therefore, the topic on the link between c-PTSD and depression seems like a complex topic that requires nuance and cannot be encapsulated in several short video posts. Simplifying mental health conditions on social media can be a problem, like another TikTok video that shows what are supposed to be physical signs of depression, even though the said signs can apply to anyone in any situation. Beyond that, mental health can be presented as a form of aesthetic like this Instagram post, which shows AI-generated images of bedrooms to represent the different conditions, adding to the trivalisation of mental health issues.
The sky is the limit when it comes to the internet. You can access any form of content from anywhere around the globe through various social media platforms, including posts that oversimplify mental health issues or make sweeping, controversial statements. Therefore, it is important to verify the source of the posts and conduct your own research on the matters to minimise the chances of falling for online myths.
References
AI was asked to turn mental health disorders into bedrooms. The results are surreal, thought-provoking, and strangely accurate. Each room captures the feeling of living with conditions like ADHD, anxiety, and depression in a way words never could. Do you think these visualizations feel accurate? 👀🛏. (n.d.). Instagram. Retrieved November 27, 2025, from https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOocPDfkRTW/?igsh=MXU4NWh6a25yYjg2ZQ==
Abrams, Z. (2024, November 6). Addressing misinformation about mental health with patients. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/journalism-facts/misinformation-mental-health
Campbell, K. (2023, July 16). 💊We are medicating normal. TikTok. https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSfe1bhc2
Campbell, K. (2024, February 11). TikTok. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@doctorkendramd/video/7334073211010960686?_r=1&_t=ZS-91TcYwIiuwS
Campbell, K., MD. (n.d.). Meet Dr. Campbell. Free Range Psychiatry. Retrieved November 27, 2025, from https://freerange.org/meet-dr-campbell/
CPTSD and Depression: Understanding the Connection Between Them. (n.d.). Michael G. Quirke, MFT. Retrieved November 27, 2025, from https://michaelgquirke.com/understanding-the-connection-between-c-ptsd-and-depression/
Dr.mehss. (2024, April 16). TikTok - Make your day. TikTok. https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSfe1Yvbr/
Faeaz, N. F. (2024, October 31). Is consuming mental health content on social media good or bad? The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/is-consuming-mental-health-content-on-social-media-good-or-bad
Hall, R., & Keenan, R. (2025, May 31). More than half of top 100 mental health TikToks contain misinformation, study finds. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/31/more-than-half-of-top-100-mental-health-tiktoks-contain-misinformation-study-finds
McCullars, A. (2025, March 27). Dispelling Misconceptions About High-Functioning Depression. Anxiety & Depression Association of America. https://adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-the-experts/blog-posts/consumer/misconceptions-high-functioning-depression
Pomeroy, R. (2023, August 14). Why 1960s psychiatrists started the anti-psychiatry movement. Big Think. https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/anti-psychiatry/
Rossiaky, D. (2023, October 24). Psychologists say mental health advice shared on social media is often misleading. Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/experts-express-concern-over-mental-health-advice-posted-on-social-media-platforms#Can-social-media-help-with-mental-health
Stea, J., Black, T., & Pierre, J. (2020, September 9). Op-Ed: Why Anti-Psychiatry Now Fails and Harms: — Formerly a healthy corrective, movement now distracts from real problems and actively hurts people. MedPage Today. https://www.medpagetoday.com/psychiatry/generalpsychiatry/88526
Tobey, L. (2025, November 6). TikTok - Make your day. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@laurentobeyphoenix/video/7569610168418323743?_r=1&_t=ZS-91YnoRzYvS8