Did you know that suicide is the second highest cause of death among 10 to 24 year-olds in the US in 2016? This shocking statistic alone shows how important it is to recognise the signs of depression.
Studies show that perhaps unsurprisingly, those suffering from depression use more negative adjectives and adverbs. For example, words like ‘sad’, ‘lonely’ and ‘miserable’. It is believed that as depressed people are automatically thinking negative thoughts, these words will naturally show up in their speech.
In addition, what’s more surprising, however, is how depressed people use pronouns. Those with depression used a significantly higher rate of first person singular pronouns.
For instance, when talking or writing they would express themselves as ‘I’, ‘me’, or ‘myself’. They would tend to steer clear from second and third person pronouns such as ‘they’, ‘him’, ‘she’, or ‘them’. This suggests that a depressed person is fixated on themselves.