The interplay of OCD and TikTok: How to Enjoy without Compulsions
TikTok has become one of the most popular platforms for users to share short-form videos – but for those with OCD it can present a less than pleasurable experience which feeds into compulsive tendencies.
TikTok is designed to be compulsive. The TikTok algorithm is a complex system that employs artificial intelligence to generate personalized content for users. The algorithm also uses data from previous interactions on the platform to determine which videos a user might be interested in viewing. This includes the type of content they have previously interacted with and how long they spent viewing a particular video. The algorithm then uses this data to deliver more tailored recommendations, ensuring that users are continually presented with interesting and relevant content.
In addition, the TikTok algorithm categorizes videos into different categories, such as “Trending” or “For You”, in order to optimize the user experience. This helps ensure that users are presented with relevant content that is tailored to their interests and preferences. The algorithm also uses machine learning algorithms to further refine its recommendations over time.
TheTikTok algorithm continually adapts to provide a personalized experience for each individual user and TikTok engagement grows over time.
It is easy to see why TikTok is so addictive—it combines entertainment with instant gratification. Every user can create their own content and receive likes, comments, and shares from others in real-time. This reinforcement-based reward system encourages users to keep uploading content, creating a cycle of addiction.
The addictive nature of TikTok very much mirrors obsessive-compulsive disorder.
When users open the app it is hard for them to stop scrolling and watching more videos – just as a skin-picker cannot stop clearing pores after just a couple. People become prone to an endless cycle of checking likes, comments, and shares on their own content. Like the experience of temporary relief from compulsions, TikTok offers a reinforcement-based reward system that is soothing in the short term but ultimately detrimental. Like compulsions, TikTok behaviors, when left unchecked, grow over time.
It is important that breaking the compulsive cycles with TikTok be a self-initiated goal.
I usually begin by creating a log with a client of their maladaptive behaviors in TikTok. This can be as simple as mindlessly opening the app when they are waiting at a stoplight, or scrolling at night instead of sleeping. For those with harm OCD, they may check that they didn’t “like” offensive posts, or obsessively worry that the algorithm believes they are a certain way which doesn’t represent who they want to be.
We list out the TikTok behaviors that we identify as compulsive, in the same manner that we would any OCD cycle, and then work on eliminating them one by one based on a scale of how difficult they will be to stop. Often clients will self-initiate to delete the app because this process of untangling the compulsions is too taxing and time-consuming, and they feel ready to simply be done.
However, I caution my clients that deleting and then re-downloading the app can also become a compulsive cycle!
If you feel that you have an unhealthy relationship with any form of social media, please contact a mental health professional to support you in rebalancing your relationship to technology, so that it can once again be a pleasurable experience rather than a compulsive one.
If you are concerned about compulsive tendencies, you can take our online OCD Screener or learn more about OCD and OCD therapy by contacting Kairos Wellness Collective today.
