# 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"**  

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## 🧩 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)  

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## 📊 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.*  

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## 📥 Access  
- **Preprint:** [arXiv:2508.15440](https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15440)  

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## ⚖️ 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.  

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## 📝 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}, 
}