Pronouns produced a similar distributional pattern as absolutist words across the forums , but the effect was smaller . By contrast , negative emotion words were paradoxically less prevalent in suicidal ideation forums than in anxiety and depression forums .
Our research also included
recovery forums , where members who feel they have recovered from a depressive episode write positive and encouraging posts about their recovery . Here we found that negative emotion words were used at comparable levels to control forums , while positive emotion words were elevated by approximately 70 %. Nevertheless , the prevalence of absolutist words remained significantly greater than that of controls , but slightly lower than in anxiety and depression forums .
Crucially , those who have previously had depressive symptoms are more likely to have them again . Therefore , their greater tendency for absolutist thinking , even when there are currently no symptoms of depression , is a sign that it may play a role in causing depressive episodes . The same effect is seen in use of pronouns , but not for negative emotion words .
Practical implications
Understanding the language of depression can help us understand the way those with symptoms of depression think , but it also has practical implications . Researchers are combining automated text analysis with machine learning ( computers that can learn from experience without being programmed ) to classify a variety of mental health conditions , from natural language text samples such as blog posts .
Language analysis can help diagnose depression .
Dmytro Zinkevych / Shutterstock Such classification is already outperforming that made by trained therapists . Importantly , machine learning classification will only improve as more data is provided and more sophisticated algorithms are developed . This goes beyond looking at the broad patterns of absolutism , negativity and pronouns already discussed . Work has begun on using computers to accurately identify increasingly specific subcategories of mental health problems – such as perfectionism , self-esteem problems and social anxiety .