2026-09-25T03:01:53Zhttps://cora.ucc.ie/server/oai/request

oai:cora.ucc.ie:10468/27012023-04-04T07:04:28Zcom_10468_386com_10468_4com_10468_1com_10468_82col_10468_387col_10468_140col_10468_893

Not applicable No embargo required No No embargo required No Embargo Required Gijbels, Harry O'Connell, Rhona O'Mahony, James 2016-06-07T11:59:27Z 2016-06-07T11:59:27Z 2015 2015 Numerous epidemiological findings suggest that we live in an era that can only be described as the “age of melancholy” in that more and more individuals are diagnosed with depression every year. The aim of this study was to gain a phenomenological understanding of how individuals who experienced depression understood and made sense of their experience of depression through a methodology of interpretative phenomenological analysis. In-depth semi-structured interviews explored the lived experience of depression for eight individuals and identified how social discourses contributed to their understanding. Following rigorous analysis of twelve interview transcripts, data was broken down into four recurrent superordinate themes which related directly to how individuals made sense of their experience of depression; The Descent; The Worlds Conversations and Me - Engagement with Social Discourses; Broken Self - Transforming the Self; Embracing myself and my Mind - Transformation of the Self. Further interrogative analysis identified how some social discourses communicated by healthcare professionals, the media and academia, contributed to individuals experiencing an additional layer of distress, namely meta-distress which in essence is distress about distress. Not peer reviewed Accepted Version application/pdf O'Mahony, J. 2015. A phenomenological study to explore individuals’ experience of depression. PhD Thesis, University College Cork. 340 https://hdl.handle.net/10468/2701 en University College Cork © 2015, James O'Mahony. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Depression Phenomenology IPA Social discourses false A phenomenological study to explore individuals’ experience of depression Doctoral thesis Doctoral PhD (Medicine and Health) h.gijbels@ucc.ieinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess