| # M-HELP: Mental Health Help-Seeking Behavior Dataset | |
| ## 📖 Description | |
| M-HELP is the **first dataset** focused on identifying **help-seeking behavior** on social media. | |
| The dataset also includes **multi-label mental health disorder annotations**, enabling research not only in detecting whether a person is seeking help, but also in **classifying possible underlying mental health concerns**. | |
| This dataset was introduced in our EMNLP Findings 2025 paper: | |
| **"M-HELP: Using Social Media Data to Detect Mental Health Help-Seeking Signals"** | |
| --- | |
| ## 🧩 Key Features | |
| - **Novel Dataset for Help-Seeking Behavior** | |
| - Binary classification: posts labeled as *Help-Seeking (1)* or *Not Help-Seeking (0)*. | |
| - **Multi-Label Mental Health Disorder Classification** | |
| - Each post may be annotated with one or more disorders, covering: | |
| - MDD (Major Depressive Disorder) | |
| - OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) | |
| - BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) | |
| - GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) | |
| - SZD (Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder) | |
| - ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) | |
| - AND (Anorexia Nervosa Disorder) | |
| - SUD (Substance Use Disorder) | |
| - PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) | |
| --- | |
| ## 📊 Dataset Statistics | |
| | Split | Avg Words | Max Words | Help (1) | No Help (0) | MDD | OCD | BPD | GAD | SZD | ASD | AND | SUD | PTSD | | |
| |-------|-----------|-----------|----------|-------------|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|------| | |
| | Train | 265 | 3380 | 648 | 494 | 676 | 117 | 446 | 601 | 120 | 78 | 25 | 206 | 285 | | |
| | Val | 297 | 2337 | 191 | 161 | 225 | 40 | 149 | 196 | 40 | 28 | 7 | 67 | 97 | | |
| | Test | 274 | 2795 | 210 | 149 | 225 | 42 | 149 | 204 | 40 | 29 | 12 | 71 | 106 | | |
| | **Total** | - | - | 1049 | 804 | 1126| 199 | 744 | 1001| 200 | 135 | 44 | 344 | 488 | | |
| *Table: Statistics of the proposed dataset **M-HELP**. Label `1` represents the class **Require Help** in the Help-Seeking category.* | |
| --- | |
| ## 📥 Access | |
| - **Preprint:** [arXiv:2508.15440](https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15440) | |
| --- | |
| ## ⚖️ Ethical Considerations | |
| - The dataset is collected in compliance with **IRB protocols** and **Reddit’s public content policy**. | |
| - All posts are **anonymized** with no personally identifying information. | |
| - This resource is intended to support **voluntary outreach by mental health professionals** and **academic research**, not for automated surveillance or monitoring. | |
| --- | |
| ## 📝 Citation | |
| If you find this dataset useful in your research, please cite: | |
| ```bibtex | |
| @misc{sathvik2025mhelpusingsocialmedia, | |
| title={M-HELP: Using Social Media Data to Detect Mental Health Help-Seeking Signals}, | |
| author={MSVPJ Sathvik and Zuhair Hasan Shaik and Vivek Gupta}, | |
| year={2025}, | |
| eprint={2508.15440}, | |
| archivePrefix={arXiv}, | |
| primaryClass={cs.CL}, | |
| url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15440}, | |
| } | |