TigerConfessions has served as a space for Princeton students to discuss stress and mental health. The moderator does not post submissions containing suicidal content. With that in mind, we tracked the usage of several words commonly used in mental health discussions.
Peaks in the number of posts containing “stressed” tend to occur in a regular pattern: near midterms (October and March) and final exams (December and May).
The number of posts containing the word “depressed” hit an all-time high in April of 2020, during the initial COVID lockdown. Overall, the fraction of posts containing the word “depressed” remained constant.
Mentions of the word “anxious” peaked during 2020 Fall Term final exams. 8.5 percent of the 165 posts containing the word “anxious” also contain the word “depressed”, 7.3 percent contain the word “school”, 17.6 percent contain the word “friends”, and 14.3 percent contain some variation of the word “work” including “schoolwork”, “working” or “worked.”
The raw number of posts containing the word “scared” was highest during Spring of 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic and initial lockdown. Posting was generally higher during this time though — the frequency the word “scared” has remained at around 1.2 percent.
Frequency/Counts
Every September, the fraction of posts containing the word “lonely” peaks when students return back to campus after the summer. A similar spike occurred in January 2021, when some Princeton students optionally returned to campus for a virtual semester.
Mentions of Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS), Princeton’s primary mental health provider peaked in January 2022. Of the 12 posts mentioning CPS that month, seven referenced negative experiences or reluctance to use CPS.