Computational analyses identify addiction help-seeking behaviors on the social networking website Reddit: Insights into online social interactions and addiction support communities

Abstract

Introduction Although social connection to others with lived addiction experiences is a strong predictor of long-term recovery from substance use disorders (SUD), the COVID-19 pandemic greatly altered global abilities to physically connect with other people. Evidence suggests online forums for people with SUD may serve as a sufficient proxy for social connection, however efficacy of online spaces as addiction treatment adjuncts remains empirically understudied. Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze a collection of Reddit posts germane to addiction and recovery collected between March-August 2022. Methods We collected (n = 9,066) Reddit posts (1) r/addiction; (2) r/DecidingToBeBetter, (3) r/SelfImprovement, (4) r/OpitatesRecovery, (5) r/StopSpeeding, (6) r/RedditorsInRecovery, and (7) r/StopSmoking subreddits. We applied several classes of natural language processing (NLP) methods to analyze and visualize our data including term frequency inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) calculations, k-means clustering, and principal components analysis (PCA). We also applied a Valence Aware Dictional and sEntiment [sic] Reasoner (VADER) sentiment analysis to determine affect in our data. Results Our analyses revealed three distinct clusters: (1) Personal addiction struggle, or sharing one’s recovery journey (n = 2,520), (2) Giving advice, or offering counseling based on first-hand experiences (n = 3,885), and (3) Seeking advice, or asking for support or advice related to addiction (n = 2,661). Discussion & conclusion Addiction, SUD, and recovery dialogue on Reddit is exceedingly robust. Much of the content mirrors tenets for established addiction-recovery programs, which suggests Reddit, and other social networking websites, may serve as efficient tools to promote social connection among people with SUD. Author summary Online forums dedicated to promoting recovery and substance use abstinence are increasingly relied upon by people to build social support systems for recovery. Several studies point to short, medium, and long-term success of these forums at both mitigating substance use while connecting people with shared lived experiences. Our study attempts to corroborate these findings by using data mining to analyze a large collection of posts collected from subreddits specific to addiction and recovery. Using several computer science and automation tools, we analyzed over five-thousand Reddit posts and identified several themes indicative of social support and shared lived experiences including, sharing narratives about addiction struggles, showcasing support for people dealing with addiction, and offering external resources to support someone’s recovery journey. Our findings indeed corroborate literature on this topic which suggests digital support services are sufficient proxies for in-person treatment when such options are unavailable. And, given myriad barriers that may impede people from seeking in-person treatment, such as financial, geographic, and others, our findings also support the broad use of these tools to promote recovery-related support.