Varulvsvals med flodhästar - En uppsats om medberoende som en sjukdom och/eller ett stigma förmedlat genom bloggar

Sammanfattning: Author: Hannah Christensen & Sara Lundahl Title: Varulvsvals med flodhästar (Translated title: Werewolfwaltz with hippos) Supervisor: Mikael Sandgren Codependency is what it is called when family members who live with or near addicts, develop the same kind of addiction behavior patterns. The purpose of this paper was to examine how family members define themselves as codependent, how they establish codependency as a disease and as a stigma through their blogs. The survey was conducted with a discourse analysis of blogs written by family members. The blogs were analyzed according to what the family members perceived about their codependency in terms of it being a disease and a stigma. The blogs were coded by different themes: how the family members use blogs as a forum, the symptoms and descriptions of codependency as a disease, shame and quilt. The empirical data was then analyzed using Goffman’s theory of stigma as a way to understand codependency from the family member’s point of view. The results of the study show that the family members are using blogs as a forum to reach out to others in the same situation, spreading hope and in the purpose and proves it through descriptions of both physical and psychological consequences. Codependency as a stigmatizing identity is shown trough the way the family members describe the experiences of shame and guilt, two significant signs of stigma, that comes with being codependent.