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monday is the most daunting day for people struggling with mental health issues, according to a new study that found posts to reddit’s suicide support forum peak during the early hours of the work week.
the research,
which appears in bmc psychiatry
, suggests there is variation in the behaviour of vulnerable people throughout the day and week that may be addressed through targeted support. “monday has often been identified as the day of the week which has the highest risk of someone taking their own life,”
said rina dutta
, the primary investigator of the study from the institute of psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience and king’s college london.
“from the data that we’ve studied, we can see a clear trend over weekly cycles that closely follows the suicide timing patterns reported in some earlier studies.”
researchers reviewed almost seven years of data from reddit’s
sucidewatch
forum — a trove encompassing 90,518 posts between december 2008 and august 2015 — and found activity to be at its highest level on monday mornings between 02:00 and 05:00. as the week wore on, however, posts to the forum billed as “peer support for anyone struggling with suicidal thoughts” gradually tapered off. the pattern was distinct from that observed in other reddit forums, such as
askreddit
, another popular destination where activity increases every day as the afternoon approaches.