249
Views
0
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Article

Views of self in the context of self-injury recovery: a thematic analysis

, & ORCID Icon
Pages 173-191 | Received 12 Sep 2022, Accepted 18 Mar 2023, Published online: 21 Mar 2023
 

ABSTRACT

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has emerged as a central mental health concern, with growing attention been paid to understanding NSSI recovery. Recently, much of this research has placed emphasis on people’s lived experience. Efforts in this regard highlight that many individuals report positive changes and develop strengths over the course of their recovery journeys. However, given the nascent stage of research in this area, how individuals come to see themselves in a positive manner within the context of recovery remains unclear. Thus, the present study investigated how individuals with lived experience of NSSI describe positive self-perceptions within their individual recovery contexts. Inductive thematic analysis was used to examine 80 positive recovery stories posted by individuals with lived NSSI experience on a popular online NSSI discussion forum. Our findings fell into four broad themes: Growth Requires Loss, There’s Light at the End of the Tunnel, Belief in One’s Capacity, and Cultivating Self-Worth. The present findings demonstrate that people with lived NSSI experience have positive self-perceptions in recovery that are grounded in growth, strength, and hope. Findings point to an array of implications for researchers, clinicians, and online outreach efforts that are conducive to fostering positive self-perceptions among people who self-injure.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. To maximize the privacy and respect of community members, we are intentionally not including the name of the website used in the present study. This website was recently used at the time of the present study in March 2022 and contained 5,483,543 posts from 91,641 members.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.