”Orkar inte mer, vet inte vart jag ska vända mig” : En kvalitativ innehållsanalys av hur hjälpsökande bemöts på internetforum

Sammanfattning: “Cannot cope anymore, don’t know where to turn” – A qualitative content analysis of how help-seeking is met on internet forums The purpose of this study was to explore what individuals were met by when seeking help and support for depression on internet forums. More precisely the aim of this study was to describe and analyze the response given to individuals who profess depression on internet forums. With a netnographic method we gathered posts from the three forums Mind, Flashback and Familjeliv. We have used a social constructivist theory with the help of concepts of proto-professionalism and legitimation to analyze the posts. We formulated two questions to more specifically describe the purpose of the study. • How are help-seeking individuals that has depressive problems met on internet forums? • How are positive and negative response expressed towards help-seeking individuals on internet forums? • Can we identify any potential risks and/or possibilities with help-seeking on internet forums? We used a qualitative content analysis to answer these two questions. The analyze was based on the two overall describing themes - positive and negative. These headlines contained ideal types created by the work with our material. Our results points at several differences and similarities on how people are met on the different forums. The study shows different attitudes against the individuals expressing depression. To discuss these attitudes further we have used possibilities and risks as themes in our discussion.