Askew, Charlotte / CA (2020) Ask me anything: Learning from the lived experiences of suicide attempt survivors. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Content Advisory
- Contains culturally sensitive content
- Contains traumatic content
- Contains explicit content
Abstract
Suicide is a global phenomenon that touches many lives. Despite preventative efforts,
suicide rates have not declined appreciably. Current research is dominated by identifying
risk-factors, with skewed focus toward suicidal ideation, often overlooking suicide attempt
survivors. This study aimed to address this gap by explicating how survivors present and
make sense of their attempts in online spaces. Adopting a discursive psychological approach,
33 threads from Reddit, authored by individuals who claimed having attempted suicide, were
analysed. Suicide attempt presentations performed one of three social actions: advice
seeking, celebration, and inviting. Analysis focused on inviting threads, where authors
positioned themselves as inviter and other Reddit users as invitees. Recipients understood the
invitation to be an interview with the author about their experience as a suicide attempt
survivor. Through a question and answer format, asking and making sense of the attempt
was able to be constructed without fear of reprisal or shame, or the attempter and attempt
being framed within a psychopathological framework. This allowed for suicide attempts to
be discussed in genuine, non-judgmental ways that are often absent in face-to-face
interactions. Study limitations include data being drawn from one website with findings
possibly unique to Reddit. Additional research involving other forums is required to build
confidence in these findings.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Andrea Lamont-Mills |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Jun 2025 23:28 |
| Last Modified: | 19 Jun 2025 23:28 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Attempted suicide; lived experience; online forums; discursive psychology. |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52127 |
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