Online support groups are considered highly valuable in addition to traditional health care services, but we know very little about how people actually join such a group. This book offers a microanalysis of an online support group on eating disorders, specifically the communication through textual messages between newcomers and regular members and members' nicknames. The study uses an ethnomethodological and conversation analytical approach to show that members of online support groups treat the group as a community in which their illness-identity is highly relevant. It appears that members invoke community norms regarding legitimacy for newcomers: Newcomers are expected to admit that they are ill, but this is a very difficult step for those who have not yet fully adopted the "sick role" (Parsons, 1951). In the field of eating disorders, it is particularly difficult for people that tend to pro-ana, i.e. the glamorization of eating disorders. The insecurity and anxiety that newcomers display as they enter the online group could probably be relieved when a special entry subforum would be installed in which they can take time and space to actually recognize that they are ill.

The Routledge Handbook of Language and Health Communication consists of forty chapters that provide a broad, comprehensive, and systematic overview of the role that linguistics plays within health communication research and its applications. The Handbook is divided into three sections: Individuals’ everyday health communication Health professionals’ communicative practices Patient-provider communication in interaction Special attention is given to cross-cutting themes, including the role of technology in health communication, narrative, and observations of authentic, naturally-occurring contexts. The chapters are written by international authorities representing a wide range of perspectives and approaches. Building on established work with cutting-edge studies on the changing health communication landscape, this volume will be an essential reference for all those involved in health communication and applied linguistics research and practice.

**Shortlisted for the 2021 BAAL Book Prize for an outstanding book in the field of Applied Linguistics** Situated at the interface of corpus linguistics and health communication, Corpus, Discourse and Mental Health provides insights into the linguistic practices of members of three online support communities as they describe their experiences of living with and managing different mental health problems, including anorexia nervosa, depression and diabulimia. In examining contemporary health communication data, the book combines quantitative corpus linguistic methods with qualitative discourse analysis that draws upon recent theoretical insights from critical health sociology. Using this mixed-methods approach, the analysis identifies patterns and consistencies in the language used by people experiencing psychological distress and their role in realising varying representations of mental illness, diagnosis and treatment. Far from being neutral accounts of suffering and treating illness, corpus analysis illustrates that these interactions are suffused with moral and ideological tensions sufferers seek to collectively negotiate responsibility for the onset and treatment of recalcitrant mental health problems. Integrating corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis and health sociology, this book showcases the capacity of linguistic analysis for understanding mental health discourse as well as critically exploring the potential of corpus linguistics to offer an evidence-based approach to health communication research.

This edited book showcases original research in the study of healthcare and health communication, while also providing a detailed overview of contemporary methods of discourse analysis. Discourse approaches remain under-represented in the field of health communication, despite their potential for affording detailed understanding of health-related text and talk across an array of contexts, for example in face-to-face and digital healthcare encounters, health promotion, and patients’ accounts of illness experiences. This book aims to address this gap in the literature by offering the first book-length treatment of different approaches to discourse analysis in health(care) and illness contexts, and it will appeal both to linguists and to researchers in nursing and health sciences, sociology and anthropology.

With the advent of new media and Web 2.0 technologies, language and discourse have taken on new meaning, and the implications of this evolution on the nature of interpersonal communication must be addressed. Innovative Methods and Technologies for Electronic Discourse Analysis highlights research, applications, frameworks, and theories of online communication to explore recent advances in the manipulation and shaping of meaning in electronic discourse. This essential research collection will appeal to academic, research, and professional audiences engaged in the design, development, and distribution of effective communications technologies in educational, social, and linguistic contexts.

Do you think that you or someone you love may suffer from and eating disorder? Eating Disorders For Dummies gives you the straight facts you need to make sense of what’s happening inside you and offers a simple step-by-step procedure for developing a safe and health plan for recovery. This practical, reassuring, and gentle guide explains anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder in plain English, as well as other disorders such as bigorexia and compulsive exercising. Informative checklists help you determine whether you are suffering form an eating disorder and, if so, what impact the disorder is having or may soon have on your health. You’ll also get plenty of help in finding the right therapist, evaluating the latest treatments, and learning how to support recovery on a day-by-day basis. Discover how to: Identify eating disorder warning signs Set yourself on a sound and successful path to recovery Recognize companion disorders and addictions Handle anxiety and emotional eating Survive setbacks Approach someone about getting treatment Treat eating disorders in men, children, and the elderly Help a sibling, friend, or partner with and eating disorder Benefit from recovery in ways you never imagined Complete with helpful lists of recovery dos and don’ts, Eating Disorders For Dummies is an immensely important resource for anyone who wants to recover — or help a loved one recover — from one of these disabling conditions and regain a healthy and energetic life.

Control binge eating and get on the path to recovery Overcoming Binge Eating for Dummies provides trusted information, resources, tools, and activities to help you and your loved ones understand your binge eating — and gain control over it. Written with compassion and authority, it uses stories and examples from the authors' work with clients they've helped to overcome this complicated disorder. In Overcoming Binge Eating For Dummies, you'll find information and insight on identifying the symptoms of binge eating disorder, overcoming eating as an addiction, ways to overcome the urge to binge, how to institute a healthy eating pattern, ways to deal with anxiety and emotional eating, and much more. Provides professional resources for seeking additional help for binge eating Includes advice on talking with loved ones about binge eating Offers tips and guidance to establish a safe and healthy recovery plan Overcoming Binge Eating For Dummies is for those currently suffering or recovering from BED, as well as families and friends looking for a comprehensive and expert resource to this widespread but largely misunderstood disorder.

This book uniquely combines cutting-edge medical, psychological, and sociocultural topics pertinent to eating disorders. In the medical realm, the book focuses on Eating Disorders’ newly investigated associations with ADHD and sleep disorders, and on innovative treatments of osteoporosis in anorexia nervosa. Novel contributions in the psychological realm address families’ trans-generational transmission of Eating Disorders-related difficulties and novel internet-based treatments for such families. Lastly, in the sociocultural realm, the book discusses social contagion and Pro-Ana websites as increasing risk for disordered eating in young women around the globe. This volume provides readers with more holistic perspectives of each realm and their interplay, to promote Eating Disorders’ understanding, treatment, prevention, and research. It provides various professionals including mental health providers, physicians, nutritionists, and graduate students in these professions.

Providing an accessible gateway to the wealth of health information available on the Internet, this book shows the reader, through examples, how to find health information specific to their needs.