'Feeling anxious? Eat an orange in the shower': Over half of top 100 Tik Tok mental health advice videos contain misinformation
1 June 2025, 15:30 | Updated: 1 June 2025, 15:32
Experts have established that 52 out of 100 videos offering advice on dealing with trauma, neurodivergence, anxiety, depression and severe mental illness contained misinformation.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
The top 100 trending videos posted under the hashtag #mentalhealthtips included questionable advice, supplement recommendations and dubious quick-fix healing tips, according to an investigation by the Guardian.
Tips included eating an orange in the shower to alleviate anxiety and using anxiety-reducing supplements including saffron, magnesium glycinate and holy basil which have little medical evidence to support their effectiveness.
Videos also suggested methods to cure serious trauma in just one hour, and guidance that claimed normal emotional experiences are signs of serious mental illnesses such as borderline personality disorder (BPD), or abuse.
David Okai, a consultant neuropsychiatrist and researcher in psychological medicine at King’s College London said some of the videos used therapeutic language incorrectly.
He said many videos offered advice based on anecdotal evidence or personal experience which "may not be universally applicable”.
Read More: Over 2 million people in England likely to have ADHD, figures reveal
Dan Poulter, a former health minister and NHS psychiatrist who reviewed the videos about severe mental illness, said some of them “pathologise everyday experiences and emotions, suggesting that they equate to a diagnosis of serious mental illness”.
“This is providing misinformation to impressionable people and can also trivialise the life experiences of people living with serious mental illnesses.”
Amber Johnston, a British Psychological Society-accredited psychologist who reviewed the trauma videos, said: “Each video is guilty of suggesting that everyone has the same experience of PTSD with similar symptoms that can easily be explained in a 30-second reel."
"The truth is that PTSD and trauma symptoms are highly individual experiences that cannot be compared across people and require a trained and accredited clinician to help a person understand the individual nature of their distress."
“TikTok is spreading misinformation by suggesting that there are secret universal tips and truths that may actually make a viewer feel even worse, like a failure, when these tips don’t simply cure.”
Chi Onwurah, a Labour MP, and chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, said the committee was investigating misinformation on social media.
“Significant concerns” had been raised in the inquiry about the effectiveness of the Online Safety Act in “tackling false and/or harmful content online, and the algorithms that recommend it”, she said.
“Content recommender systems used by platforms like TikTok have been found to amplify potentially harmful misinformation, like this misleading or false mental health advice."
“There’s clearly an urgent need to address shortcomings in the OSA to make sure it can protect the public’s online safety and their health.”
Prof Bernadka Dubicka, the online safety lead for the Royal College of Psychiatrists, told the Guardian that although social media could increase awareness around mental health, it was important that people were able to access up-to-date, evidence-based health information from trusted sources.
Mental illness could only be diagnosed through a “comprehensive assessment from a qualified mental health professional”, she added.
TikTok said videos discouraging people from seeking medical support or promoting dangerous treatments were removed.
When people in the UK search on TikTok for terms associated with mental health conditions they are also directed to official NHS guidance.
A TikTok spokesperson said: “TikTok is a place where millions of people express themselves, come to share their authentic mental health journeys, and find a supportive community. There are clear limitations to the methodology of this study, which opposes this free expression and suggests that people should not be allowed to share their own stories.“
"We proactively work with health experts at the World Health Organization and NHS to promote reliable information on our platform and remove 98% of harmful misinformation before it’s reported to us.”
TikTok's guidelines on Mental and Behavioural Health says the platform does not allow videos promoting suicide, self-harm, or disordered eating, but makes no mention of mental-health related disinformation.
A government spokesperson said ministers were “taking action to reduce the impact of harmful mis- and disinformation content online” through the Online Safety Act.
The Online Safety Act requires major social media platforms to "be more transparent about which kinds of potentially harmful content they allow" and requires platforms to prevent children from accessing harmful content.
