Social Support and Unsolicited Advice in a Bipolar Disorder Online Forum
Open accessAbstract
How 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' replies 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 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.
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Users with bipolar disorder reported using online self-help forums to ask for help from others about their illness.
“while users with bipolar disorder reported using these forums to ask for help from others about their illness (Vayreda & Antaki, 2009).”
From Social Media and Mental Health: Benefits, Risks, and Opportunities for Research and Practice (2020) · cites this paper as Vayreda & Antaki, 2009
Cites
A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., & Jefferson, G. (1974) · Language · doi:10.2307/412243 · Cited by 11,350 · see citing works
Griffiths, F., Lindenmeyer, A., Powell, J., Lowe, P., & Thorogood, M. (2006) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.8.2.e10 · Cited by 820 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Overall, the forum bears striking resemblances to online self-help groups pioneered in the United States (as described by Griffiths et al., 2006).”
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Social Media and Mental Health: Benefits, Risks, and Opportunities for Research and Practice
Naslund, J. A., Bondre, A., Torous, J., & Aschbrenner, K. A. (2020) · Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science · doi:10.1007/s41347-020-00134-x · Cited by 746 · see citing works
What Do the Bereaved by Suicide Communicate in Online Support Groups?: A Content Analysis
Schotanus-Dijkstra, M., Havinga, P., van Ballegooijen, W., Delfosse, L., Mokkenstorm, J., & Boon, B. (2014) · Crisis · doi:10.1027/0227-5910/a000225 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
- Authors
- Vayreda, A., & Antaki, C.
- Affiliations
- Open University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain
- Loughborough University (GB)
- ORCID
- Antaki, Charles
- Venue
- Qualitative Health Research
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2009-06-25
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 931-942
- ISSN
- 1049-7323 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7557
- OpenAlex
- W2150262257
- Cited by
- 160
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 10.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- dspace.lboro.ac.uk
- Licence
- Locations
- Qualitative Health Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Loughborough University Institutional Repository (Loughborough University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Loughborough University Research Repository (Loughborough University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
- Keywords
- social support, unsolicited advice, bipolar disorder, online forums, turn-taking, online communication, meaning of illness
- MeSH terms
- Bipolar Disorder, Humans, Patient Participation, Self-Help Groups, Social Support, Patient Satisfaction, Internet
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