The objectives of the study were to investigate what individuals posting narratives on four online forums dedicated to the issue of panic attacks wanted to discuss and how they made meaning of their experiences related to panic. A narrative approach was used to analyze 208 posts sampled randomly. Online discussions were centered around attempts to uncover, and make sense of, the hidden meaning of panic attacks occurring unpredictably by linking events and experiences from the past and the present with emotional reactions. The onset of panic tended to be related to life transitions that interacted with relational issues of emotional commitment as well as with expectations of increased independence or with separation and loss. Dysfunctional attachments in childhood may impair the integration of affective and cognitive information leading to problems with the recognition and expression of affects. Online forums provide fresh avenues for exploring narration of sensitive topics from an inside perspective. © 2020,  2020 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Contemporary parents turn to social media to discuss parental issues. The aim of the present study was to analyze 198 posts on online discussion forums posted by parents whose adolescents had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or who suspected that their adolescent would meet the diagnostic criteria for an ADHD diagnose. Narrative thematic method was used to explore whether parents used a medical discourse for making meaning of their adolescents' behaviors.

The results showed that parental narratives were predominantly influenced by the medical discourse where adherence to the neurobiological framework provided a sense of coherence that guided parents' meaning-making of adolescent hardship. Parents used an ADHD diagnosis to reconstruct the personal narrative of the adolescent into a more socially accepted identity. Additionally, parents envisioned a dark future if ADHD went undetected, leading parents to engage in intense battles to obtain diagnoses. Narrators in the present study viewed a responsible parent as a parent who would fight for the right to an ADHD diagnosis and medication on behalf of the adolescent. Social workers should be aware of that parents may on online discussion forums encourage each other to interpret adolescent development within a medical framework.

Background: The challenges facing people with chronic tinnitus include finding relief and rebuilding quality of life. However, previous traumatic episodes may influence adjustment and prolong suffering. Recovery implies reducing aggravating reactions and improving social roles, relationships and interests. Self-narratives about living with tinnitus have not yet received the attention they deserve in the research literature. Thus, the main goal of the present study was to illustrate how tinnitus suffering interacts with the participants’ unique life histories. Method: Four women and one man (ages 52–58) took part in the study after consulting a special hearing clinic for annoying tinnitus. Criteria for inclusion were that tinnitus was regarded as a problem with negative consequences for quality of life. The participants should be willing to share how the experience of tinnitus suffering interacts with their previous life story. Narrative methodology was employed in order to achieve the goals of the study. We used unstructured interviews with free conversation, which allowed for rich narratives with full contextual meaning. Results: The findings, based on the narrative analysis, revealed that three out of five participants presented a regressive form of narrative indicating ongoing struggles beyond tinnitus itself, which they were unable to bring to closure. For them, valued goals were continuously thwarted by frustrating circumstances in their lives, either past events or current unresolved issues. Progressive and stable narratives, as identified in the other two participants, demonstrated values that rely on others’ attitude and understanding toward their suffering, in sharp contrast to the regressive narratives. We suggest that a central issue in tinnitus rehabilitation should be to help suffering patients to overcome unresolved conflicts and thereby extend their ability for a fuller commitment in life. Conclusion: Considering enduring tinnitus as a chronic condition, whose course is likely to vary depending on the patient’s general health status, an alteration of progressive and stable narratives is likely to occur during the lifespan. A progressive narrative shows similarities to the core construct of the salutogenesis model of health promotion (1). In conclusion, a narrative approach in tinnitus rehabilitation can be health promoting by offering the patient the opportunity to engage in storytelling, which in turn can increase comprehensibility and a sense of coherence. © Copyright © 2020 Erlandsson, Lundin and Dauman.

Self-harm has become a prevalent problem among young people. Research reveals that people who self-harm tends to avoid seeking health care due to fear of being judged or dismissed and instead prefer support from peers on online forums. These online forums are ideal tools for gaining access to the often-hidden world of self-harmers and can be used as sources of research data. In the present study the research objective was thus to gain insights into how individuals narrate meaning of their experiences related to self-harm. As research tool the narrative psychological approach was adopted for the analysis of 648 online narratives. The main findings in the present study were that online narratives tended to reflect narrative fragmentation, incoherence and confusion. The narrators expressed difficulties understanding their own needs behind the acts of selfharm but tended to perceive these acts as coping strategies for regulating emotional distress and built up pressure. The development of self-destructive coping mechanisms was sometimes described as stemming from adverse childhood experiences. The online narratives were discussed and interpreted within an attachment based theoretical narrative framework conceptualizing how attachment needs in childhood can be associated with pain and suffering if these needs have consistently been dismissed or met with hostility. Although the narratives in the present study may not generalize to all individuals who self-harm, clinicians can benefit from understanding the phenomenon of self-harm from an inside perspective.

In the present study the research objective was to gain insights into parental communication on an open Internet forum where parents had the opportunity to discuss issues related to ADHD. In order for clinicians to help troubled children brought to the health clinic it may be important to learn more about the life situations of these troubled families as treatment options can require complex interventions for the whole family. Our aim was thus to go beyond the neurobiological medical model of ADHD, which does not take into account contextual factors. In today’s society specialized online discussion forums are available for parents who seek support for various difficulties that arise in the family. The online forums are sources of research data. As research tools we used the narrative psychological approach for the analysis of 72 online naratives. These narratives provided support for that the parents embraced medical explanations for the difficulties experienced when raising children, despite obvious challenging life circumstances, such as for example being a single parent without social support. Even very young children had been given serious psychiatric medical diagnoses such as ADHD, Bipolar disorder, Mood disorders and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Some of them had been diagnosed with more than one of these disorders. The complexity of the parental nnarratives in the present study indicates that the neurobiological model is not sufficient enough to form the basis of a personalized and comprehensive care for vulnerable families.

A discourse analysis was performed based on an online document under the headline: "What is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD, ADD)?" published by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), USA. Three parts of the document were analysed: (1) The introductory part, as this sets the tone of the whole text. (2) Parts of the text that were specifically addressed to parents. (3) Etiology and pathology of "ADHD" with reference to a number of different symptoms and behaviors. Inattention and hyperactivity are presented in the document as a floating spectrum of symptoms caused by "ADHD." Other factors of importance for children's development, that is, early attachment, close relationships, previous experiences, culture, and contexts are ignored. Children who are perceived as inattentive and hyperactive are portrayed as having inherent difficulties with no reference to their emotions or efforts to communicate. The child is viewed as suffering from a lifelong disorder that might not be cured but controlled by a diagnosis and subsequent medication. Parents are advised to control their child's behavior and to strive for early diagnosis in order to receive treatment provided by experts. Those who are presented as experts rely on a biomedical model, and in the document, detailed descriptions of medication to correct the undesired behaviors are provided. The value of judgment in the assessment of different symptoms and behaviors that signifies "ADHD" is absent, rather taken-for-granted beliefs were identified throughout the document. A heterogeneous set of behaviors is solely described as a disorder and hereafter it is stressed that the same behaviors are caused by the disorder. In this manner, cause and effects of "ADHD" are intertwined through circular argumentation.

AbstractPurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate how young women and men perceive the Internet as a phenomenon and what role and meaning they ascribe to the Internet as an arena for defining themselves and for shaping their identity.Methodology/approachThe empirical data consist of narratives written by Swedish adolescents. Using content analysis the analysis was carried out in three steps: (1) finding categories and themes, (2) calculation of statistical differences in category frequencies, (3) a theoretically informed interpretation of central themes, using Bourdieu's concept of different forms of capital, and Giddens' concept of "pure relations."FindingsThe narratives exemplify how computer literacy and technological competence can be converted into social, cultural, and symbolic capital. Gender differences occur both in statistical differences between category frequencies in girls' and boys' narratives and in the interpretation of central themes. But there are also several examples that show more complex and contradictory tendencies, exceeding or transformative of gender differences and hierarchy.Originality/valueThis study considers adolescents' own perspectives on an arena of great importance. The analyses have been performed both qualitatively and quantitatively, which gives a nuanced picture of young people's self-defining experiences on the Internet.

Most tinnitus studies have attempted to compare groups of individuals, thus revealing inter-individuals differences, i.e., variations between compared subjects. For methodological reasons, inter-individual studies cannot take into account the variability of tinnitus experience, which has been known for decades to be relevant in daily practice with tinnitus patients. The concept of intra-individual variability has been promoted in the research literature, in order to shed light on this aspect of individual perception. In previous studies, unrelated to hearing, the concept of intra-individual variability implied inclusion of the environment (i.e., physical and social interactions) as a factor of individual performance. In tinnitus research, we believe that the concept of variability (within a person) could find a place beside the concept of variation (between groups of subjects). In this paper, four perspectives of tinnitus experiences from the clinical and research fields are described: (1) ENT consultation; (2) short-term group psychotherapy; (3) psychodynamic psychotherapy; and (4) clinical psychological research. Intra-individual variability stresses the importance of defining tinnitus in a dynamic way, contrary to the current definition of tinnitus as the perception of sound(s). In clinical practice, it is useful to embrace the perspective of the perceiverof tinnitus, and to include social and cultural circumstances as well as audiological/physical changes.

Kapitlet fokuserar på internet som en kontext för identitetsskapande där ungdomar tillåts experimentera med och kommunicera delar av sin identitet både i grupp och individuellt.

Objectives

Alleviating tinnitus is a challenging project for professionals within audiology and related fields. Meeting a suffering patient can be challenging as it demands a special interest for the patient as a complex living system. One perspective that risks being placed in the background, is the experience of the patient – the inside perspective.

Focus of the present study was to describe tinnitus through the eyes of the sufferer reflecting two aspects: Why is tinnitus accompanied by a psychological suffering? Can the personal life history contribute in making the relationship between tinnitus and the experienced suffering more comprehensible?

Methods

The unique meaning structure of patients’ reflections on their life with tinnitus was explored by the use of the narrative psychological approach. Participants were women and men in the age between 40-60 years and for whom tinnitus was experienced as a major problem. Individual, tape-recorded, deep interviews (3 – 4 for each patient) took place over a period of 3 to 4 months. The ethical committee in the West region of Sweden approved the study.

Results

In resemblance with how people suffering from a severe illness construct their stories (Gergen & Gergen, 1983) the analysis of the study samples’ narratives emanated from three plot dimensions: stability, progression and regression. Patients who in their passed had been faced with several serious challenges seemed to have a particularly pessimistic undertone. This may reflect how the construction of life stories interacts with previous experiences and interpretations. Tinnitus may thus pose a particularly great challenge for individuals who have experienced accumulative trauma in their past.

Conclusion

By allowing different voices to be heard increased understanding can be gained about how tinnitus interacts with unique life histories.