Depression and anxiety are two of the most common psychological disorders, and they are detected early and their symptoms measured using everyday language. Research has shown that the frequency of using negatively evaluated words can reveal psychological states.

According to a study published in the journal "Cognition & Emotion," frequently using negative words in everyday conversations was found to worsen symptoms of depression and anxiety over time regardless of mental health status.

 

Researchers at Poland's SKA University investigated the use of positive and negative language among participants with clinically diagnosed depression and those without depression. The study focused on 40 participants aged 22 to 44 who had recently experienced significant negative life events (22 women and 18 men). Each participant was classified into either a depressed or non-depressed group using the SCID-I diagnostic module.

The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was also used to measure the severity of depression and anxiety symptoms. Participants recorded descriptions of three significant life events per year, with each session lasting about one hour. These sessions were spaced according to key stages of emotional adjustment: the initial shock period (within two months after the event), the internal crisis period (about five months later), and the reconstruction stage (more than eight months after the event).

 

In each session, participants described their experiences. The descriptions were recorded, transcribed, and later analyzed using an emotion dictionary designed for Polish. Through sentiment analysis focusing on the use of positive or negative words, the researchers were able to track changes in participants' emotions over time and across different levels of depression and anxiety symptoms.

 

Participants who generally used more negative words in their language in the research results exhibited higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms, and this tendency was clearly observed in both the clinically depressed and non-depressed groups. The association between negative word usage and symptom severity was strong, and consistently using negatively evaluated language could indicate more serious mental health issues. On the other hand, positive language use was associated with slightly lower levels of depression and anxiety, but this correlation was weaker compared to negative language.

 

The researchers explained, "The changes in the frequency of positive or negative word usage over time did not align with changes in depression or anxiety symptoms," and added, "This suggests that more stable language usage patterns may be a more reliable indicator of mental health status than short-term fluctuations in word sentiment."

 

Research author Isabella Kazmierczak said, "The research results show that negative language patterns can be used as indicators to assess the severity of depression and anxiety."

 

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Just by using negative thoughts and words

Uu symptoms may occur or may develop.

You think it's there, right??