Social Support and Unsolicited Advice in a Bipolar Disorder Online Forum

Abstract

Abstr act 2How does a newly-diagnosed user get inducted into a forum dedicated to people suffering from bipolar disorder? Is their opening message "matched" by the forum's reply? We add to the literature on social support online by using Conversation Analysis (CA) to explore an apparent contradiction between a new user's first post and forum members' reply with ostensibly unsolicited advice. CA reveals the intimate relation between turns in sequence, an aspect of online communication largely ignored in existing work on social support. Seen from this perspective, giving unsolicited advice, although apparently a "mismatch", turns out to be a consequence of the open design of the new user's initial posting. We go on to speculate that such unsolicited advice might function at the ideological level to induct the new user into the mores of the group, not only in the kind of support it countenances giving, but into the very meaning of "bipolarity" itself.

Men’s depression talk online: A qualitative analysis of accountability and authenticity in help-seeking and support formulations.

“…As noted by prior studies (Giles & Newbold, 2011;Stommel & Meijman, 2011;Vayreda & Antaki, 2009) this onward referral to formal support positions diagnosis as the preferred 'entry-ticket' for forum support. If selfdiagnosis was tolerated, then anyone could claim to be genuinely depressed, and so all posts and replies would have to be treated as equally serious and credible.…”

“…Whilst previous studies (Giles & Newbold, 2011;Stommel & Meijman, 2011;Vayreda & Antaki, 2009) do indeed note the significance of formal diagnosis in overcoming online forum entry-barriers, and the prevalence of 'mirroring' within responses, our analysis casts light on the key issue of accountability with a men's health context, and how it requires very careful attention in both first and response posts. In addition, previous work has not considered that forum support can conversely act to overcome the entry-barriers of formal support, thereby forming a reciprocal relationship (our analysis indicates that responders often propose a visit to the doctor).…”

“…Research on online support groups has developed greatly in the last ten years or so, focusing on how such 'communities of practice' function to monitor group membership and identity, and how support is designed, delivered and received -including online forums concerning mental health issues and depression (e.g. Giles & Newbold, 2013;Horne & Wiggins, 2009;Lamerichs & te Molder, 2003;Vayreda & Antaki, 2009). In particular, the issue of accountability has been examined i.e.…”

Orienting to Emotion in Computer-Mediated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

“…People experiencing mental distress can now use the internet to gather information (Eysenbach, Powell, Kuss, & Sa, 2002), seek advocacy (White & Dorman, 2002), obtain peer support (Vayreda & Antaki, 2009), access selfhelp programs (Barrazzone, Cavanagh, & Richards, 2012), or interact with health care professionals (Beattie, Shaw, Kaur, & Kessler, 2009;Yuen, Goetter, Herbert, & Forman, 2012).…”

Dialogizität und sequenzielle Verdichtung in der Forenkommunikation: Editieren als kommunikatives Verfahren

“…11 Vgl. aber Mondada (1999), Antaki et al (2006), Gibson (2009aGibson ( , 2009b, Vayreda/Antaki (2009 Zusammenfassend lässt sich feststellen, dass durch diese Variante der dialogischen Fremdeditierung eine Verlagerung der dialogischen Organisation der Forenkommunikation von der Ebene des Threads auf die Ebene des Postings stattfindet: Eine dialogische Episode, die sich in einem Forum typischerweise über zwei oder mehr Beiträge erstreckt, wird in diesem Beispiel von den Teilnehmerinnen in einem einzigen Posting zusammengeführt. Somit findet eine Verdichtung statt, die sowohl auf thematischer als auch auf sequenzieller Ebene zu konstatieren ist: Thematisch wird der Gegenstand (hier: der Ablauf der Videoaufnahmen) kompakt innerhalb eines einzigen Beitrags abgehandelt und nicht über mehrere verteilt; sequenziell werden die Zugzwänge, die Ch.…”