TikTok Users Are Faking This Disorder Now, for Some Reason
The best solution to being alone is to create friends.
The System
TikTok is estimated to have over 100 million users in the US, and 70% of all teenagers in the country use the app monthly. We have arrived at the intersection of teenaged angst, mental health, and budding identity manifesting on camera for clout and views.
One of the biggest trends on TikTok right now is to pretend you have a disorder. Users pick the mental health or neurological disorder that sounds most interesting — akin to how you choose what tub of Blue Bell you’re gonna dust off this weekend — and perform, on camera, as if they have the affliction.
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID, commonly referred to as Split Personality Disorder) has become one of the most popular targets for these fakers, but there is a lot of vocabulary that goes into understanding these videos.
DID TikTokers refer to themselves as “systems,” a collection of alternate personalities (called “alters”) that take turns “fronting,” or controlling the body. When a new alter fronts, it is called “switching.” DID TikTokers have coined a new term for non-DID people, “singlets,” which is often used in a derogatory way. DID content creators make videos introducing…
