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What will happen to your body when TikTok is banned — experts warn of serious withdrawal among serial scrollers
NY Post ^ | 1/18/25 | Georgia Worrell

Posted on 01/19/2025 2:29:35 AM PST by Libloather

TikTok junkies are in for a painful biology lesson.

The controversial app’s imminent removal over Chinese spying concerns — possibly as soon as 12:01 a.m. Sunday — could spark serious physical and psychological withdrawal among serial scrollers, doctors told The Post.

“The universal symptoms of withdrawal from any addictive substance are extreme anxiety, irritability, insomnia, depression and cravings – and people who are addicted to TikTok, if they stop using it abruptly, may experience any or all of these symptoms,” said Stanford psychiatrist Dr. Anna Lembke.

Lembke, who specializes in addiction medicine, also warned of mood swings, panic attacks and dysphoria – a profound negative mood – that could plague TikTok’s faithful after the app’s removal.

On Friday, the US Supreme Court unanimously voted to uphold a law that will ban the social media app nationwide unless the Beijing-based company, ByteDance, sells it to a US-approved buyer.

Without TikTok as a vice, levels of dopamine — a chemical that’s released in the brain when a person does something enjoyable, creating the urge to do it again — will begin to plummet, according to Dr. Victoria Dunckley, author of “Reset Your Child’s Brain.”

With every mind-numbing scroll, users are bombarded with a relentless stream of short videos ranging from dance challenges and make-up tutorials to melodramatic confessionals and absurd stunts.

Desperate TikTokers have been flooding the platform with tearful posts and dramatic pleas – with one user wailing about their “life falling apart.”

“It’s really not fair that, like, they’re banning TikTok, and I know that’s dramatic as hell that I’m crying,” a TikToker named Inzlay said in a Thursday video with tears streaming down her face. “I know it sounds dramatic to say I don’t know what I’m gonna do without TikTok, but like, bro, I really don’t know...

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: banned; experts; tiktok; withdrawal
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Sweaty palms, nausea, dizziness, confusion. All symptoms once FR goes down for an hour. Been there, done that. Addicted? Maybe. Probably. Don't need no experts for that diagnosis.
1 posted on 01/19/2025 2:29:35 AM PST by Libloather
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To: Libloather
We've reached an unsolvable problem. DC wants a social media product they can control and the public wants a social media product DC can't control.

2 posted on 01/19/2025 2:33:36 AM PST by Right_Wing_Madman
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To: Libloather

Who needs dopamine when there are so many other ‘enhancements’ out there?


3 posted on 01/19/2025 2:34:17 AM PST by ComputerGuy
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TikTok goes dark for 170M US users as app counts on Trump to work on solution

https://nypost.com/2025/01/18/business/tiktok-to-go-dark-for-170m-us-users-after-app-announces-services-will-be-temporarily-unavailable/


4 posted on 01/19/2025 2:34:41 AM PST by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: Libloather

mind crack. Social media is why we have a nation of self righteous pricks with an over inflated value of self worth.


5 posted on 01/19/2025 2:39:22 AM PST by BigFreakinToad (All she is, is cackles in the wind.)
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To: Libloather

Never used tik-tok. I get my fix with youtube shorts. Addicted to omgitswicks and Richard Sales Official. Wicks is just funny Fla stuff and Sales has weird shorts covering asmr to scary rides and oceans...and he’s a tad on the naughty but not nasty comments which are funny. Fix your fix there...lol


6 posted on 01/19/2025 2:44:22 AM PST by BamaBelle (Psa 143:8 - ...cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.)
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To: Libloather

You’re right. And if they can take away TikTok, they can take away FR. Slowly but surely, our government is working to destroy free speech.


7 posted on 01/19/2025 2:49:26 AM PST by AmericanMermaid
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To: Libloather

Tiktok is down now:

“Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now

A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.

We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!

In the meantime, you can still log in to download your data.”


8 posted on 01/19/2025 2:50:43 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (As we know, guilt or innocence is determined by relative light reflectivity.)
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To: BigFreakinToad
This is your brain on Tik-Tok

9 posted on 01/19/2025 2:52:44 AM PST by linMcHlp
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To: Libloather

I’m not on Tic Toc and don’t really understand what all of the hoopla is about. Can’t stupid little narcissistic vids be posted anywhere?

In any case, if people do go into withdrawal, I hope that a lesson is derived from that. It is horrendous what these devices are doing to our youth.


10 posted on 01/19/2025 2:55:33 AM PST by JudyinCanada
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To: BigFreakinToad

“mind crack. Social media is why we have a nation of self righteous pricks with an over inflated value of self worth.”

And you think the Free Republic is exempt from the legal definition of social media?

Wrong...

“Social Media: Definition

Social media is digital technology that allows the sharing of ideas and information, including text and visuals, through virtual networks and communities.

Social media typically features user-generated content that lends itself to engagement via likes, shares, comments, and discussion.”

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-media.asp

But you are right about one thing since the FR is factually also “social Media” by true definition... “is why we have a nation of self righteous pricks with an over inflated value of self worth.”


11 posted on 01/19/2025 2:57:37 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: JudyinCanada

“Can’t stupid little narcissistic vids be posted anywhere?”

That’s what I’ve been wondering. Isn’t X a platform for that? And YouTube?


12 posted on 01/19/2025 2:59:52 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: linMcHlp; Chode
This is your brain on Tik-Tok:


13 posted on 01/19/2025 3:02:29 AM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: AmericanMermaid

“You’re right. And if they can take away TikTok, they can take away FR. Slowly but surely, our government is working to destroy free speech.”

Why is this so hard to comprehend? The lack of understanding how this truly works is absolutely perplexing...

It is not rocket science. It is extremely simple.


14 posted on 01/19/2025 3:02:47 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: MayflowerMadam

“That’s what I’ve been wondering. Isn’t X a platform for that? And YouTube?”

They are both heavily censored and biased. And that is why they had to get rid of TikTok. It is not censored or biased and that is why it is popular.


15 posted on 01/19/2025 3:09:12 AM PST by Openurmind
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To: Libloather

>> Sweaty palms, nausea, dizziness, confusion. All symptoms once FR goes down for an hour.

Well yeah, but it’s no different when FR is up. LOL


16 posted on 01/19/2025 3:22:25 AM PST by Nervous Tick (Hope, as a righteous product of properly aligned Faith, IS in fact a strategy.)
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To: Libloather

Yikes. This TT ban is getting serious! We’re all gonna die!


17 posted on 01/19/2025 3:36:07 AM PST by dennisw (DËMÔNràts - Truth is hate to people who hate truth.)
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To: Libloather

“ With every mind-numbing scroll, users are bombarded with a relentless stream of short videos ranging from dance challenges and make-up tutorials to melodramatic confessionals and absurd stunts.”

And thoughtful inspirational thinking, memorable 5-10 minutes of sermons, interesting recipes, pointed and concise commentary on politics, creative home projects, good music, extended discussions of classical music, history of Ancient Greek, Roman and other civilizations, more modern history, heartwarming animal videos. Mockery is always fun, but the DC occupation government assholes took away a very good thing, took away an income source for about a million Americans and an enjoyable pastime for about a 170 million Americans.

And it had nothing to do with protecting America.

Enjoy the mockery, but only a fool would think it ends here. DC will only squeeze harder as it tightens it’s authoritarian coils.


18 posted on 01/19/2025 3:36:29 AM PST by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2025... RETURN OF THE JEDI..Exactly.)
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To: Libloather

If these youngsters were not so inflexible and subject to monomania, they COULD switch to X, Facebook, or Truth Social, and pick up almost seamlessly from where they are now.

Not the end of the world. Just the end of feeding huge amounts of personal data to the CCP data banks.

It may be cautionary that the Rednote alternative is also a CCP enterprise.


19 posted on 01/19/2025 3:43:53 AM PST by alloysteel (This is yet another test. There are no right or wrong answers, only the correct response for you.)
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To: Libloather

This is ridiculous. the whole Internet went down. Sure, I could see it.


20 posted on 01/19/2025 3:52:46 AM PST by roving (Deplorable MAGA Garbage )
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