About r/depression
In its own words:
Peer support for anyone struggling with a depressive disorder
Community guide
r/depression (#852, about 1.2 million subscribers) is oriented around: Peer support for anyone struggling with a depressive disorder Recent activity samples show 262 posts/day in recent samples (~100% text). Public rules we collected include: Posts must request personal support for depressive disorders in yourself, or someone close to you; All replies must be personal, empathetic, and responsive to OP. No tough love or debate.; Offer help ONLY via public comments. No "I'm here to help" posts or PM/chat requests.
What belongs here
Stay inside the room’s stated scope rather than adjacent off-topic dumps. Self-promotion and ads are limited—read those rules before linking your own work. Match posts to: Posts must request personal support for depressive disorders in yourself, or someone close to you; All replies must be personal, empathetic, and responsive to OP. No tough love or debate.; Offer help ONLY via public comments. No "I'm here to help" posts or PM/chat requests; No low-content posts or responses.
How it differs from lookalikes
Prefer this room when your post matches its description and rules—not merely a larger sibling community. Skim the full public rule list once rather than assuming defaults from similar subs.
Practical pointers
Read the live sidebar/rules before posting; collected snapshots can lag. Volume is high—clear titles help.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on Jan 1, 2009, which makes it 17 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 2,052 subscribers (+0.17%). It sits just behind r/SpyxFamily (#851) and ahead of r/ImaginaryArchitecture (#853) in our ranking.
What sets r/depression apart
r/depression is far more text-driven than most big subreddits: 100% of its recent posts are text posts, against a median of 34% across the Top 100. r/depression is more of a browsing community than a debating one: 3.4 comments per post on average, well under the Top 100 median of 13.0. For its size it is unusually busy: about 211.5 new posts a day per million members, more than 99% of the Top 100. It is also one of the faster-growing big communities: its 1.17% gain since Sep 19, 2026 beats 95% of the Top 100.
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/depression climbed from 1,222,777 to 1,237,090 subscribers (+14.3K, +1.17%). That is about 325 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
What r/depression talks about
Looking at the titles of 699 recent posts (Oct 29–Nov 5), the words that come up most are “life”, “feel”, “anymore”, “depressed” and “feeling”. Other frequent themes are help, end, die, tired, friends and struggling. Recurring phrases include “depressive disorder”, “life ahead”, “life anymore” and “mental illness”. By format, 100% are text posts.
Activity and best time to post
r/depression gets about 260 new posts a day. The public archive holds 2,022,407 posts and 6,948,850 comments in total, about 3.4 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Sunday (300 posts) and the quietest was Thursday (253). Posting peaks around 19:00 UTC and is lowest around 08:00 UTC.
Rules of r/depression
The moderators of r/depression list 12 rules. In short:
- Posts must request personal support for depressive disorders in yourself, or someone close to you
- All replies must be personal, empathetic, and responsive to OP. No tough love or debate.
- Offer help ONLY via public comments. No "I'm here to help" posts or PM/chat requests
- No low-content posts or responses
- Don't role-model or act as an authority. No achievement/advice posts or AMAs
- No general uplifting content of any kind, including "it gets better" or other unkeepable promises
- Do not give or request clinical advice or advocate for or against treatments & self-help strategies
- NO methods for any type of self-harm, or validating self-destructive intent
- Don't encourage rule-breaking or off-topic content
- No activism, debate or unapproved surveys including casual survey- or DAE-style questions
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/depression and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many subscribers does r/depression have?
r/depression has 1,237,090 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #852 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 14,313 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
How old is r/depression?
r/depression was created on Jan 1, 2009, so it has been around for 17 years.
How active is r/depression?
Very active: r/depression gets about 260 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 2,022,407 posts and 6,948,850 comments. In a sample of 699 recent posts we counted 640 different authors.
When is r/depression most active?
Based on post counts from Oct 29, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026, the busiest day was Sunday and the quietest Thursday, and most posts arrive around 19:00 UTC, with the fewest around 08:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What is r/depression about?
The community describes itself as: “Peer support for anyone struggling with a depressive disorder” Recent post titles often mention life, feel, anymore, depressed and feeling. Most posts are text posts (100%).
Is r/depression safe for work?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/depression as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
How do I post on r/depression?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/depression accepts text posts only. It has 12 posted rules, starting with: “Posts must request personal support for depressive disorders in yourself, or someone close to you”; “All replies must be personal, empathetic, and responsive to OP. No tough love or debate.”; “Offer help ONLY via public comments. No "I'm here to help" posts or PM/chat requests”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
Which communities are like r/depression?
Communities with similar topics include r/PerfectTiming (1.6M), r/harrypotter (3.8M), r/YouShouldKnow (5.6M), r/offmychest (3.5M) and r/DeepIntoYouTube (3M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 2, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 6, 2026). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/depression.