a Department of Psychiatry , Washington University School of Medicine , St. Louis , Missouri , USA.
Subst Abus. 2017 Oct-Dec;38(4):477-482. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2017.1354956. Epub 2017 Jul 13.
Online communities can provide social support to those in need and can foster personal empowerment for individuals experiencing distress. This study examines the content of a Reddit community dedicated to the support of people trying to quit using cannabis, in order to develop an understanding of the type of social networking occurring on this subreddit (e.g., community).
A total of 100 Reddit posts and their replies (i.e., comments) were collected from the subreddit on June 12, 2015. Posts were qualitatively coded for expression of DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition) symptoms of cannabis use disorder (CUD) as well as other prominently featured themes. Comments on posts where individuals were seeking support/advice were also coded.
Ninety-one people posted the 100 Reddit posts, and of those 35 (38%) people described enough symptoms to be classified as mild disorder severity, 15 (16%) moderate, and 11 (12%) severe, as outlined in the diagnostic criteria for CUD. Over half of posts (n = 51) were seeking advice and/or support from members of the community. There were 174 comments made by 108 unique people on the advice/support seeking posts. Most were supportive/encouraging in nature (140, 80%) and gave advice to the post author (126, 72%).
This exploratory research highlights the potential of online communities as tools for individuals coping with addiction recovery, and future research should investigate if involvement in such communities would be a beneficial supplement to more traditional recovery practices.
在线社区可为有需要的人提供社会支持，并为正在经历困境的个人提供个人赋权。本研究旨在探讨一个专门为试图戒除大麻的人提供支持的 Reddit 社区的内容，以了解该子版块（例如，社区）上发生的社交网络类型。
本研究于 2015 年 6 月 12 日从该子版块上共收集了 100 个 Reddit 帖子及其回复（即评论）。帖子的内容是按照《精神障碍诊断与统计手册》第五版（DSM-5）中大麻使用障碍（CUD）的症状表现进行定性编码的，同时也对其他突出主题进行了编码。帖子中寻求支持/建议的评论也进行了编码。
共有 91 人发布了这 100 个 Reddit 帖子，其中 35 人（38%）描述的症状足以被归类为轻度障碍严重程度，15 人（16%）为中度，11 人（12%）为重度，这些都是 CUD 诊断标准中规定的。超过一半的帖子（n = 51）是在向社区成员寻求建议和/或支持。在寻求建议/支持的帖子上，有 108 位不同的人发表了 174 条评论。大多数评论是支持/鼓励性质的（140，80%），并为帖子作者提供了建议（126，72%）。
这项探索性研究强调了在线社区作为帮助个人应对成瘾康复的工具的潜力，未来的研究应该调查参与此类社区是否会对更传统的康复实践有益。
