#Radicalpermission: An Exploratory Thematic Content Analysis of Self-Permission Tweets in the Pandemic Era

Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated global mental health challenges by limiting access to in-person social support. In response, many turned to digital platforms, particularly social media, to maintain connection and find wellness support. While digital environments pose risks to mental health, they can also offer protective, identity-affirming, and community-driven benefits. This study explores #RadicalPermission, a social media-based wellness initiative launched during the pandemic that invited participants to write and share "permission slips"—affirmative declarations of self-care intentions—to promote personal and collective well-being. Grounded in a mutual aid model, Radical Permission expands upon self-permission concepts popularized by Brené Brown, emphasizing the influence of on individuals’ capacity for self-permission. Using content analysis of tweets from June 2020 to December 2022, this study identifies key themes within the #RadicalPermission community. It examines how they reflected broader social contexts, including racial injustice and political unrest. Findings offer insight into how digital communities may function as mental health interventions during crises and highlight the importance of designing context-sensitive, supportive online spaces. Results may assist mental health professionals and researchers develop effective, socially informed digital wellness strategies.

Methods:

This study employed an exploratory thematic qualitative content analysis based on Hsieh and Shannon’s (2005) framework, which supports interpreting and categorizing textual data, primarily when little is known about a phenomenon. The first author secured academic access to X’s API to retrieve publicly available tweets containing “#RadicalPermission” from June 29, 2020 to December 31, 2022. Using academictwitterR, relevant tweets were identified based on a priori criteria informed and filtered by two coders. Tweets were thematically analyzed in MAXQDA using inductive methods. The codebook was developed with process and in vivo coding. A second coder validated codes; discrepancies were resolved collaboratively. Categories were refined into subthemes and themes. Researchers employed peer debriefing, an audit trail, and analytic memos. Researcher bias was minimized through regular team review and systematic documentation of all analytic decisions.

Results: A total of 829 tweets met the criteria to be included in the thematic content analysis, (excluding the first author’s tweets). All tweets collected responded to the first author’s prompt (i.e., what do you give yourself permission to do today?). These tweets were completed by 373 unique X users, with the number of tweets completed by each user ranging from 1 to 34, with an average of 2.25 tweets per user and a median of 1 tweet per user. From these tweets, 9 themes emerged (e.g., Permission to ‘Be,’ Permission to Move Towards, Permission to Accept the External with 32 subthemes.

Conclusions and Implications: The present study of the #RadicalPermission illustrates that many people know what they need from themselves to be well. This study provides a typology of wellness domains that may aid people in wellness despite distressing internal and external circumstances. Findings indicate that self-permission is a valuable and versatile practice for promoting well-being that remains under-researched. Further examination and development of self-permission interventions and practices may have numerous applications across individuals and communities, offline and online.