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2016 Summer. ; Includes bibliographical references. ; The current study used an emergent research design that employed qualitative content analysis to understand how individuals with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) communicate with their peers in an online support forum (psychforum.com/body-dysmorphic-disorder). The purpose was to explore (a) the communication activities on the forum, (b) the personal experiences with BDD disclosed by participants, (c) the categories of social support sought and shared, and (d) the social support provided and roles performed by the most frequent posters to the forum. The data sample consisted of 911 messages posted by 225 participants during 2012. The primary communication activities on the forum were asking about other members’ personal experiences and seeking support, disclosing personal experiences and providing support, engaging in conversations, and storytelling. Personal disclosures included appearance concerns (feeling ugly, depressed, guilty, ashamed, angry, and suicidal), compulsive behaviors (plastic surgery, mirror/photograph checking, and social comparison), the impact on one’s personal life, and recovery from BDD (treatment, diagnosis, coping, and overcoming symptoms). Social support sought and shared included informational, emotional, and social network support. Informational support topics included diagnosis, treatment, overcoming symptoms, and recovery. Emotional support took the form of empathy, caring/concern, gratitude, encouragement, sympathy, compliments, and validation. Social network support reinforced that people who understand the disorder were present on the forum and could provide companionship. Although not common, unsupportive comments (disagreement, disapproval, criticism/sarcasm, and flaming) were also present. The five most frequent posters were emergent leaders whose supportive roles supplemented those of the two forum moderators. The most frequent poster was a male who played a lead role in providing informational and social network support, ... |