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On social media, telehealth advertisements promise quick mental health diagnosis and simple treatments.

This can contribute to an algorithmically flattened and consumerized form of mental health diagnosis.

Some telehealth companies have come under fire for their diagnosing and prescribing practices.

Red flags point to problematic telehealth ads and harmful social media mental health content.

A “hot” “mental glow-up” is on offer from an influencer if you click on a link—not to buy the latest beauty or self-improvement product on the TikTok Shop, but to take a short mental health quiz that may lead to a diagnosis. Videos across social media platforms portray brighter, newly productive people (initially depicted as overworked and overwhelmed) after welcoming their branded aesthetic medication package at their doorstep. The before/after trope brings to mind beauty and weight loss ads, but these ads promise to medically transform your mind.

Telehealth ideally provides remote care to those who would have trouble accessing it otherwise. Issues of telehealth advertising on social media arise, however, when they sell oversimplified and optimizable versions of complex and serious mental health issues like depression, anxiety, or ADHD.

In recent years, telehealth companies that advertise on social media and help shape our popular understanding of mental health have made headlines, with executives being fined and arrested for unauthorized distribution of controlled substances.

A massive market opened up for these medications when restrictions on telehealth prescribing of controlled substances (including some psychiatric meds requiring careful medical oversight) were lifted near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when access to medical care was low and need was high.

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