‘Why is everyone self-diagnosing with ADHD nowadays?’: the affective economy of ADHD TikTok

In recent years in the U.S., there has been a noticeable increase in social media content that details the symptoms and experiences of living with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which, according to user comments, has led to many self-diagnosing with the disorder. Building on digital ethnographic findings, this paper examines the affective resonance of ADHD TikTok content to theorize its current proliferation. I build on Sara Ahmed’s theory of Affective Economies to identify how affects circulate in relation to the technological affordances of the TikTok app and the discourse of ADHD-related TikTok content. I argue that ADHDTok presents ADHD as a disorder comprised everyday experiences and feelings under a neoliberal regime, meaning that almost anyone can understand themselves to have the disorder. Moreover, TikTok has not just become a platform on which ADHD discourses abound; rather, the technological affordances of the platform mean that engaging with the app has become an experience that reifies and reproduces the affective qualities that have become symptomatic of ADHD. Ultimately, I argue that the affective economy of ADHDTok impacts the socio-technical imaginary of ADHD and the tendency of self-diagnosis.