Grimes claims mental illnesses can be "contagious" following autism and ADHD diagnosis

Grimes has shared she was diagnosed with ADHD and autism this year, but criticised mental health social media accounts for being "extreme infohazards".

In a lengthy Twitter post on Saturday (March 22), the Canadian musician claimed that it was likely that she also has dyslexia as she can't spell "at all" without using spellcheck.

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The alt-pop star added that if she'd known she had dyslexia as a child, she would have worked "so much less hard" and she probably would have "been drugged" too.

"So many of the weird obsessions and motivations I had would have been seen as pathological and I could have written off certain things that were very hard for me, but I'm glad I overcame them," she claimed.

In the post, Grimes on to allege that mental health illnesses can be "contagious" for school students and voiced concerns that people are "self-diagnosing", writing: "I think the nature of this uninformed social media mental health subculture is rly a big concern." She argued that a "huge percentage" of ADHD is simply an addiction to screens and "dopaminergic burnout".

The artist was responding to a post from the Twitter account ADHD Memes that shared a screengrab of another tweet that reads: "I saw a TikTok about how excessive reading in childhood is a sign of disassociation and I can't stop thinking about it."

Grimes criticised the account for "trying to pathologise" what she argued is a helpful tool for children with ADHD, saying that her symptoms were "infinitely worse" when she wasn't "an avid reader".

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Following a response to her post saying: "ADHD is underdiagnosed. It is not contagious", Grimes has since clarified that she was referring to symptoms.

She wrote: "I've def seen people get into lifestyle changes and adhd symptoms stop cuz they didn't have it, they had dopaminergic burn out, which essentially mimics the disorder."

Responding to another reply, she said: "I don't think this is to invalidate the experience of having the symptoms but yes, modern life can simply give ppl a lot of DSM checklist ADHD symptoms."

Henrietta Taylor is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow her on Twitter