“OMG, I Think You May Have Just Changed My Life”: Binge Eating Disorder Recovery in Instagram Comment Sections

<p>As the internet and social media have become a more ingrained part of everyday life, online eating disorder pro-recovery communities have become a common topic of examination in the psychological sciences. However, there has been little focus on online binge eating disorder (BED) pro-recovery communities specifically. Additionally, there has not been much exploration into the use of comment sections as a part of pro-recovery communities. The current study used codebook thematic analysis to code ten BED pro-recovery Instagram comment sections to examine the interactive data present within this recovery community. Four themes were developed during analysis: <em>detailed self-disclosure, sharing experiences and feeling seen, gratitude for account owner’s expertise, </em>and<em> diet culture and weight stigma as both ingrained and intentional</em>. This analysis painted a nuanced picture of how pro-recovery social media sites function and portray BED recovery and has implications for both clinical practice and future research.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Year

2023

Author dc:creator

• Roe, Caitlin

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lisa Brownstone
• Johnny Kim
• Keiko McCullough
• Amanda Greene

• Binge eating disorder
• Comment sections
• Instagram
• Pro-recovery social media
• Counseling Psychology
• Health Psychology
• Psychology
• Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Social Media

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

English (eng)

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/2315

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:etd-3305