Studying Differential Mental Health Expressions in India
Abstract: Psychosocial stressors and the symptomatology of mental disorders vary across cultures. However, current understandings of mental health expressions on social media are predominantly derived from studies in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) contexts. In this paper, we analyze mental health posts on Reddit made by individuals in India, to identify variations in online depression language specific to the Indian context compared to users from the Rest of the World (ROW). Unlike in Western samples, we observe that mental health discussions in India additionally express sadness, use negation, are present-focused, and are related to work and achievement. Illness is uniquely correlated to India, indicating the association between depression and physical health in Indian patients. Two clinical psychologists validated the findings from social media posts and found 95% of the top 20 topics associated with mental health discussions as prevalent in Indians. Significant linguistic variations in online mental health-related language in India compared to ROW, emphasize the importance of developing precision-targeted interventions that are culturally appropriate.
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