TicTok: How following influencers with Tourette's Syndrome is harming girls
Teenage girls around the world have been developing nervous tics after obsessively watching TikTok videos featuring people with Tourette's Syndrome.
Doctors in various countries including the US, UK and Germany have noted with alarm an increase in girls visiting their office since the start of the pandemic.
After months of investigation, experts from leading facilities in the three countries found that the majority of the girls reporting symptoms were spending excessive amounts of time following ‘influencers’ with Tourette's Syndrome on video sharing app TikTok.
The genetic nervous system disorder results in repetitive, involuntary sounds or movements. It is usually diagnosed around the age of six and is more common in boys.
In Germany, Dr Kirsten Müller-Vahl said she had seen a rise in the number of girls visiting her practice in Hanover, Germany, and that each was displaying similar tics, rather than their own unique ones.
The girls often shouted “flying shark,” “you’re ugly” or “heil Hitler”, she told the Jerusalem Post.
Dr Müller-Vahl soon made the connection between these tics and those of a popular German named Jan Zimmerman, who shares on social media how he copes with Tourette's.
The trend is being seen around the world. In the US, Donald Gilbert, a neurologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and specialist in the syndrome, has seen approximately 10 new patients each month since the start of the pandemic, up from just one a month before, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In the UK, doctors said videos posted to TikTok with the caption #tourettes now have around 4.8 billion views, up from 1.25 billion in January, according to another study.
"Some teenage girls report increased consumption of such videos prior to symptom onset, while others have posted videos and information about their movements and sounds on social media sites," the report said.
"They report that they gain peer support, recognition and a sense of belonging from this exposure. This attention and support may be inadvertently reinforcing and maintaining symptoms."
Experts say the majority of these patients are not suffering from Tourette's itself, but a functional movement disorder that could have been encouraged by stress and anxiety caused by the pandemic.
