IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v9y2019i1p2158244018822371.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Losing and Regaining Grip: Depression and Everyday Life

Author

Listed:
  • Vilma Hänninen
  • Jukka Valkonen

Abstract

Despite increased interest and research into personal accounts of depression, it has seldom been studied specifically from the point of view everyday life. Our aim is to highlight how depression progresses in relation to everyday activities, and to interpret the process using a theory of everyday life. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 55 persons (31 women, 24 men) in their 40s who self-identified as having been depressed. Depression typically progressed as follows: It originated in a difficult life situation, which was coped with by trying to manage or by escaping to drinking. Eventually, it was not possible to carry out everyday duties. Seeking treatment and sick leave signified a disconnection from everyday obligations. Leisure activities as well as support from close people helped in coping, and gradually a new, more meaningful and enjoyable everyday life developed. Disconnection, rest, reflection, reorientation, and reorganization of life seemed to build a pathway out of depression. Thus, a depressive episode could be interpreted as a process in which the person first disengaged from the unreflected everyday and then reflectively re-engaged to it.

Suggested Citation

  • Vilma Hänninen & Jukka Valkonen, 2019. "Losing and Regaining Grip: Depression and Everyday Life," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440188, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:9:y:2019:i:1:p:2158244018822371
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244018822371
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244018822371
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2158244018822371?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Biyun Zhang & Jingyao Chen & Xiaoyan Huang & Wenhao Xu, 2021. "Chinese Flower and Bird Painting: A New Form of Art Therapy for Depression," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:9:y:2019:i:1:p:2158244018822371. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.