Introduction¶
Table of contents:¶
The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely and disproportionately impacted people suffering from mental health issues and substance use problems[APBT20]. Fear and unpredictability coupled with widespread unemployment and social isolation has escalated anxiety and impacted the mental health of millions around the world[GHSS21]. Additionally, the social stigma associated with mental health and substance abuse has lead to reluctancy in sharing struggles and seeking help [ASL+21]. Many have turned to social media as a medium for people to talk about their experiences and their struggles. Reddit, ranked the 9th most popular social media app in the US, is a platform that provides focused forums (subreddits) where users can subscribe and post anonymously.
We aim to find the impact of COVID-19 on mental health support groups by looking at Reddit data before and after the pandemic. Specifically, we aim to focus the question:
Has frequency of explicit description of substance abuse in mental-health-oriented subreddits changed over the pandemic.
This report will introduce the data set and take the reader through the data pre-processing, analysis and statistical tests in order to answer the question of interest. Each section of this report will detail the analysis and methods used, and additionally reference the required software libraries. The results can be found under the results section with key findings discussed further in the conclusion.