Lifestyle

The Most Dangerous TikTok Challenges

Published

6 years ago

May 5, 2020

TikTok has been a popular video-sharing application. Based on the lines of the app Vines by Snapchat, TikTok has captured millions of global audiences. Especially after Snapchat suspended the services of Vine, TikTok was a hot favorite among the young fans of this app. It has been the second- most downloaded app in the year 2019 only after Whatsapp. The popularity of TikTok among youngsters has been so much that over 40% of TikTok users consist of teenagers and young adults. In such a situation, some dangerous trends have alarmed adults and authorities.

Why the need for dangerous trends?

TikTok is all about getting more views for the videos one uploads. In the quest of getting more people to view and follow their videos, many people start posting very dangerous content that has a potential risk to their lives and can cause personal injury. In many cases, these become popular trends and soon more youngsters are replicating this act for heroism and keeping up with the trend.

This herd mentality or struggle to be a part of the group has affected the young community often. Lives have been lost and serious injuries have been caused while trying to pull off these following TikTok challenges. If you are an adult, you must ensure supervision so that the young ones are not getting themselves into such dangerous acts for the mere purpose of getting more views.

Some harmful TikTok Challenges:

Skullbreaker Challenge: The name of the challenge is enough to understand the painstaking consequences of this challenge. It involves three individuals standing side by side. Once the person in the middle jumps, the other two kick his legs out resulting in an uncontrolled fall. This has resulted in multiple cases of skull injuries besides injuries to other parts of the body. Even deaths have been caused by this challenge being performed by youngsters. All these videos of the Skullbreaker Challenge have been taken off by TikTok.
Throw It in the Air Challenge: What do you think about a challenge the goal of which is to cause a concussion? As dangerous as it sounds, Throw It in the Air Challenge has attracted a lot of serious injuries. To perform this challenge, a group of people stand in a circle and throw an object high in the air. They do not shift until one of them is hit by the falling object. This object can be a small ball and can also be a heavy object having the potential to cause a serious head or neck injury.
The Cha-Cha Slide Challenge: This was a challenge involving driving cars to particular music and resulted in numerous accidents. Finally, TikTok pulled down all the videos of the same and it was regarded as a dangerous TikTok challenge which could potentially be life-threatening.
The Cereal Challenge: For the Cereal Challenge, someone’s mouth is used as a bowl for cereal as he lies down. Cereal and milk are poured into his mouth and consumed with a spoon by another. Besides being gross, the challenge had the potential to choke an individual, and in many cases that happened.
The Pass Out Challenge: The objective of this TikTok Challenge is to somehow manage to pass out through some actions. For instance, one could pass out after swaying their head to and fro multiple times or by holding their breath. As can be understood, this had the risk of serious threats to young lives and was pulled down by TikTok.

Not All TikTok Challenges are Bad:

There are many TikTok Challenges which are great fun and can be a cause for great entertainment. The Renegade Challenge, Yeehaw Challenge, Flip the Switch Challenge, and many such other challenges have no safety concerns and can be safely performed. The Renegade Challenge, for instance, is a dancing challenge where the user has to perform the particular dance steps.

It should be the priority of concerned authorities that instead of dangerous and life-threatening challenges, users are into these fun and harmless challenges. The key thus lies in controlling the trend rather than stopping it altogether.

Conclusion:

These challenges and many others have prompted authorities to ban TikTok in many places temporarily. Despite having a young audience base, TikTok has also been accused of letting vulgar content slip through the scrutiny. The solution is, however, not in stopping TikTok altogether. It is already too big to go down and thus there are supposed to be safety nets to ensure that the young users are kept safe. Dangerous trends can be pulled down before they go viral and a healthy vigilance from the adults can ensure that such unfortunate incidents do not endanger the lives of the youth.

Lifestyle

When Seasons Shift: Dr. Leeshe Grimes on Grief, Loneliness, and Finding Light Again

Published

16 mins ago

February 22, 2026

Michelle Langton

Some emotional storms arrive without warning. A sudden change in weather, a holiday approaching, or even a bright sunny day can stir feelings that don’t match the world outside. For many people, the hardest seasons are not defined by temperature; they are defined by what’s happening inside, where grief and loneliness often move quietly.

This is the emotional terrain where Dr. Leeshe Grimes has spent her career doing some of her most meaningful work. As a psychotherapist, registered play therapist, retired U.S. Army combat veteran, and founder of Elevated Minds in the DMV area, she understands how deeply seasonal shifts and unresolved grief can affect people. Her upcoming books explore this very space, guiding readers through the emotional weight that can appear during different times of the year.

What sets Dr. Grimes apart is her ability to see clearly what many people overlook. Seasonal depression, for example, is usually tied to winter months. But she often sees it appear during warm, bright seasons, the times when the world seems happiest. For someone already grieving or feeling disconnected, watching others travel, celebrate, or gather can create its own kind of heaviness. Sunshine doesn’t always lift the mood; sometimes it highlights what feels missing.

The same misunderstanding surrounds grief. Society often treats it as a short-term experience with predictable phases and a clean ending. But in her practice, Dr. Grimes sees how grief keeps evolving. It doesn’t disappear on a timeline. It weaves itself into routines, memories, and milestones. People learn to carry it differently, but they rarely leave it behind completely. And that’s not failure, it’s human.

Her approach to mental health centers on truth rather than pressure. She encourages clients to acknowledge the emotions they try to hide: sadness that lingers longer than expected, moments of joy that feel out of place, and the waves of loneliness that return even when life seems stable. Instead of pushing for quick recovery, she focuses on helping people understand how emotions shift and how to care for themselves through those changes.

Much of her insight comes from her military years, where she witnessed the emotional toll of loss, transition, and constant survival. She saw how people continued functioning while carrying pain that had nowhere to go. That experience shaped her belief that healing requires space, space to feel, to speak, and to move through emotions without judgment.

In her clinical work today at Elevated Minds, she encourages people to build small, steady habits that anchor them during difficult seasons. Journaling helps them recognize patterns and name what feels heavy. Community support breaks the cycle of isolation. Therapy creates a place where emotions don’t have to be minimized or explained away. And intentional routines, daily sunlight, mindful breaks, and calm evenings help rebuild emotional balance.

Her upcoming books expand on these ideas, offering practical guidance for navigating both grief and seasonal depression. She focuses on helping readers understand that healing is not about escaping pain. It’s about learning how to live with it in a healthier way, honoring memories, acknowledging loneliness, and still allowing room for moments of light.

What makes Dr. Leeshe Grimes a compelling voice in mental health is her ability to bring language to experiences that many struggle to explain. She reminds people that emotional seasons don’t always match the weather and that there is no single path through grief. But within those shifts, she believes there is always a way forward.

The seasons will continue to change. And with the right tools, compassion, and support, people can change with them, finding steadiness, softness, and light again, one step at a time.