Studying Differential Mental Health Expressions in India

Psychosocial stressors and the symptomatology of mental disorders are known to vary with socio-cultural environment. Mental health expressions on social media, however, are primarily informed by studies in the WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, and Democratic) contexts. In this paper, we analyze mental health posts on Reddit made by individuals in India, to identify variations in online depression language specific to the Indian context compared to users from the Rest of the World (ROW). Unlike in Western samples, mental health discussions in India additionally express sadness, use negation, are present-focused, and are related to work and achievement. {Illness} is exclusively correlated to India, reaffirming the link between somatic symptoms and mental disorders in Indian patients. Two clinical psychologists validated the findings from social media posts and found 95\% of the top-20 topics associated with mental health discussions as {prevalent} in Indians. Significant linguistic variations in online mental health-related language in India compared to ROW, highlight the need for precision culturally-aware mental health models. These findings have important implications for designing culturally appropriate interventions to reduce the growing diagnosis and treatment gap for mental disorders in India.