Mental Health Pandemic during the COVID-19 Outbreak: Calls for Help on Social Media

Heightened social isolation during the COVID-19 outbreak puts individuals at greater risks of loneliness (Bu et al., 2020) where elevated levels of loneliness are closely associated with depression (Killgore et al., 2020; Palgi et al., 2020; Weeks et al., 1980). Prior research has suggested that lonely individuals are more likely to seek mental health help from an online social platform (e.g., Reddit), a perceived comfortable environment for lonely people to seek mental health support through anonymous communication with a broad social network (Andy, 2021; Bonetti et al., 2010; Morahan-Martin et al., 2003). Therefore, this study aims to identify and analyze depression-related dialogues on loneliness subreddits during the COVID-19 outbreak, with the impact on depression-related infoveillance during the pandemic. With the collected data using Reddit API, our study utilized logistic regression and topic modeling to classify and examine depression related discussions on loneliness subreddits during the outbreak. Our results reveal that lonely individuals engaging in depression-related discussions are likely to be experiencing elevated risks of mental health problems and domestic issues, higher level of relationship seeking, and heightened need of social support. Furthermore, the results suggest an increase in dog adoption as a coping behavior and challenges in the online learning environment. Finally, returning users disclose and seek information on triggering factors of mental health problems, indicating the significance of peer-to-peer mental health support on loneliness subreddits. Our future work will clinically validate the current approach, which has implications on designing surveillance system during the crisis.