Manifestations of Depression on Social Media: a Content Analysis of Twitter Posts

Depression is one of the most common mental health concerns in the USA. Critical to the treatment of depression is the identification of depressive symptoms by individuals and the professionals from whom individuals seek treatment. Symptom identification is made challenging by the diversity of depression symptoms experienced by those who struggle with the disease. The purpose of this study was to examine manifestations of depression as presented in a naturalistic textual forum, Twitter. By using the hashtag “#depressionsucks,” the authors examined the things that posters tweeted about that were relevant to experiences of depression in a sample of 169 unique tweets collected over a 4-week period using nCapture. The results of this study demonstrate the nuanced lived experience of Twitter users who experience depression and their public discussion of their depressive symptoms and experiences. The symptoms ranged from acute depression to a mindset of wanting to get better and to support others. These results show the wide range of manifestations of depression and give further insight into how social media can be used to understand lived experiences of those struggling with mental health.