Last week’s deep dive from Bloomberg Businessweek into the startup culture behind Cerebral, one of the country’s most popular and lucrative telehealth providers, is an infuriating, troubling look into what happens when Silicon Valley startup culture attempts to “disrupt” the mental health industry. Spoilers ahead: It does far, far more harm than good. That doesn’t change the fact that business is booming for Cerebral, and social media platforms like TikTok are largely to blame.
“Getting patients to come to Cerebral is as easy as posting on social media,” explains Businessweek, “The company markets on Instagram and TikTok, often with variations on the message, ‘Have you ever thought you might have ADHD?’ Some ads suggest that symptoms as common as difficulty with multitasking, focusing, and stress, as well as poor planning, procrastination, and disorganization can all be symptoms of ADHD.”
