Facebook as an arena for peer support?-Knowledge exchange and normative illness narratives about stroke

Experiencing a stroke disrupts the expected life course and can negatively impact cognitive, emotional, and physical functioning, making it a major source of disability globally. To support recovery, individuals can seek help by sharing their experiences in peer-to-peer support communities.

The objective of this study was to use discourse analysis to examine how members of a peer-to-peer online support community for stroke survivors construct their understanding of the condition and use narratives to reconstruct their identity into different subject positions.

The study context was a private Swedish peer-to-peer online support community created and administered by middle-aged people with lived experience of stroke. Data was collected through structured protocols that captured the content of posts and comments (n = 397). The analysis has followed the principles of Laclau and Mouffes discursive framework.

Our findings suggest that identity struggles revolve around looking ahead and negotiating normative expectations with oneself and others. We identified five subject positions: survivor, pathfinder, mentor, struggler, and outsider. These positions highlight the plurality and fluidity of post-stroke identity processes. Members often shifted between these roles based on changes in health, emotional state, or community interactions.

The diversity of subject positions demonstrates that stroke recovery is not a uniform process, emphasizing the importance of recognizing identity work as a core aspect of post-stroke adaptation. The findings highlight the need for more flexible, patient-centered services that accommodate diverse narratives, including those shaped by long-term disability, emotional trauma, and shifting life priorities.