People with depression speak in a different way, using particular words and speech patterns, according to new research.
In the study, published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science, researchers analysed large amounts of text taken from diary entries, personal essays and speech to work out whether communication is affected by depression.
Writing about the study for The Conversation, lead author Dr Mohammed Al-Mosaiwi from the University of Reading explained that he and his team identified several key differences in both content and style, compared to people who are not suffering from mental illness.
- An excessive amount of words conveying negative emotions, including ‘lonely’, ‘sad’ or ‘miserable’
- Significantly more first person pronouns, including ‘me’, ‘myself’ and ‘I’
- Significantly fewer second or third person pronouns, including ‘they’, ‘them’ or ‘she’
- More ‘all or nothing’ (aka absolutist) vocabulary, including ‘always’, ‘nothing’ or ‘completely’
Of course, before you start panicking about your constant use of the word ‘always’, Dr Al-Mosaiwi warned that it’s ‘possible to use language associated with depression without actually being depressed’.
He added: ‘Ultimately, it is how you feel over time that determines whether you are suffering.’
