"Can you diagnose me with this? I saw it on TikTok and I'm sure I have it."
The first time I heard this from a patient, I had to Google what TikTok even was. I came to find out that the usual internet search of random symptoms has now evolved into searching social media for diagnostic criteria.
How are we to react to this new trend?
1. Resist the urge to be dismissive.
"Don't confuse your Google search for my medical degree" is the old quote that you may have heard or even said. It now may be closer to "do not confuse your TikTok views for my thousands of hours of training."
It is natural to be somewhat defensive when a patient approaches a trained healthcare professional with information that they gathered from a potentially less reliable source such as social media. However, we must first recognize that if we respond with hostility or defensiveness, we do not help the alliance that we want to build with the patient. As frustrating as it may be at times, we must learn to coexist with the reality that our patients will be getting information from social media and not our favorite medical journal.
