Table 1.

MyDepressionLooksLike themes and descriptions.

Theme	Description	Sample tweet	Number of tweets
Dysfunctional thoughts	Thoughts about self that are negative, hopelessness, feeling invisible, and unlovable	feeling eternally unloveable and hopeless	498
Lifestyle challenges	Difficulty with eating, sleeping, motivation, and daily tasks	staying in bed at all times because I’ve lost all motivation to do anything	416
Social struggles	Struggling in social relationships, isolation, loneliness, and feeling like a burden to others	isolating myself, then getting upset over being lonely. Constantly feeling like I’m annoying or a burden to everyone	433
Hiding behind a mask	Pretending to be okay in front of others to hide the reality of one’s depression	a big smile that I wear everyday to hide the sad thoughts inside my head	236
Apathy and sadness	Expressions of sadness and emptiness	crying for no reason	149
Suicidal thoughts and behaviors	Descriptions of self-harm and thoughts of death	No interest in being awake. There is nothing in me that enjoys being alive. If given an option I’d choose death.	110
Seeking relief	Both positive and negative means to alleviate the depression; descriptions of self-care as well as coping mechanisms such as alcohol and drugs	Smiling big & drinking & smoking my problems away to feel numb to the pain something I manage with therapy, medication, good habits, and exercise. You can too.	136