Exploring mental health and violence narratives on X: insights from social media data

Social media platforms offer a dynamic space for monitoring public discourse on societal issues, including mental health and violence (MHV). The purpose of this study is to examine how MHV is framed in public conversations on X in the Norwegian context over a ten-year period. We collected 5,468 unique Norwegian-language tweets from 2,500 authors using 103 search terms related to MHV (January 2015–May 2024). Tweets were retrieved with twarc, and BERTopic was used to generate topic embeddings, identifying 21 topics. To increase keyword diversity, maximal marginal relevance and KeyBERT was used to identify extract representative terms. Topics were grouped and interpreted through qualitative thematic analysis. The analyses revealed that 33% of tweets explicitly discussed the association between MHV. These discussions were predominantly event-driven, with activity spiking following high-profile incidents involving individuals with mental health conditions. A small group of highly active users dominated, emphasizing systemic failures over individual blame and maintaining a constructive tone. Stigmatizing language appeared in political contexts, where MHV terms served to delegitimize opponents. This study highlights discourse on MHV and underscores the need for advocacy groups to use platforms like X to counter stigma, provide accurate information, and promote nuanced conversations.