Absolutist Words

Want to learn more about the power of monitoring what words you are using?

Here’s a LinkedIn post from Tyler on “Absolutist Words”. These words convey absolute magnitudes or probabilities, such as “always”, “nothing” or “completely”.

For mental health, communication, and many of our use cases, we’re continuing to identify and classify words that have significant meaning. This enables our users to get access to early and even real-time signals to help them improve their understanding of themselves and others.

Mohammed Al-Mosaiwi and Tom Johnstone from the Department of Psychology at the University of Reading conducted a big data text analysis of 64 different online mental health forums, examining over 6,400 members.

Absolutist Word List

1. Absolutely

2. All

3. Always

4. Complete

5. Completely

6. Constant

7. Constantly

8. Definitely

9. Entire

10. Ever

11. Every

12. Everyone

13. Everything

14. Full

15. Must

16. Never

17. Nothing

18. Totally

19. Whole

“Absolutist words”—which convey absolute magnitudes or probabilities, such as “always”, “nothing” or “completely”—were found to be better markers for mental health forums than either pronouns or negative emotion words. The elevated use of absolutist words is a marker specific to anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. Absolutist thinking is considered a cognitive distortion by most cognitive therapies for anxiety and depression.

We believe if done correctly, that our system will become a leader in technology for therapy, research, self-analysis and self-healing.