Dr Philip Tam, leading child psychiatrist, joins Luke Grants to discuss the alarming rise in children using Google to self-diagnose mental conditions to compete with peers in the school ground and online over who is worse off.

This disturbing trend sees Dr Tam warning of an ­“impending crisis” fuelled by ­social media which has caused children to be disconnected from their parents.

“Kids are posting their diagnoses on social media, or tweeting, saying they’re cutting themselves so their friends know about it ­before their parents. Social media is poisoning a whole generation of people,” says Dr Tam.

“The internet is bombarding them with messages the teenage brain is not equipped to handle, it’s creating this badge of honour among teenagers competing for mental health illnesses.”

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