Metaphors to understand depression and tackle patients' needs
"You have to win the battle against depression", "what counts is not surrendering" and "this is not a short road" are examples of conceptual metaphors typically used to describe experiences and issues associated with disorders like depression. The study of metaphors can help access and understand the thinking, beliefs and feelings of individuals with mental disorders. The conceptual metaphors of depression found in 23 blogs written by people with major depressive disorders were analysed by a multidisciplinary UOC team composed of Marta Coll-Florit and Salvador Climent Roca – professors from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, both members of the GRIAL-UOC group – and Eulàlia Hernández, a professor from the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences and researcher in the PSiNET group. Recently published open-access in Metaphor and Symbol, the article is the first of its kind to analyse Catalan texts and is also one of the few studies that focuses on content written spontaneously online. The results signal the importance of social factors, the surroundings and especially medical practice; they also point to the usefulness of blogs as an outlet for expressing and understanding the experiences of people with depression. The research is part of the MOMENT project on mental disorder metaphors, in which linguists, psychologists, medical anthropologists, social educators and engineers are working together to study conceptual metaphors from the mental health field. As explained by the researchers: "The mental disorder experience is difficult to communicate given the associated abstractness, but studying cognitive metaphors can enhance understanding of mental health, contribute to more accurate and respectful public discourses and facilitate communication between professionals and patients." Metaphors do not depend on specific languages The research involved an exhaustive and quantified analysis of the main types of metaphors used by people affected by depression. Findings were then compared with previous studies with a view to identifying differences in expression in a new textual genre and a different language. The results confirm those of studies carried out in other languages – mainly English – showing, according to the researchers, "that, significantly, the metaphors are conceptual and intercultural, that is, they do not depend on a specific language." Among the more common expressions used to speak of depression and the associated emotions, the authors highlight the notions of fall, containment and darkness, of life with depression as a fight against obstacles and of the disorder itself as a malignant agent. Medical practice as the enemy The researchers have identified new metaphors , mostly corresponding to social, communicational and medical factors. They say that expressions referring to being "locked" in a diagnosis, describing prejudice as a "stone slab" and the appointment with the psychiatrist as an "interrogation" point to key factors that worsen the experience of living with depression. They further underlined how "these metaphors reflect a rejection of various social and environmental conditions, such as those associated with stigma, non-communication and medical professionals, often considered more an enemy than an ally." Read the full press release here: https://www.uoc.edu/portal/en/news/actualitat/2021/071-research-depression-methapors.html