Masterprojekt Depression og hverdagsliv af Dorte Nygaard Mark

12. Summary
Depression and everyday life
The aim of this thesis is to explore what patients with depression experience as essential
in everyday life the first weeks after discharge from hospital.
During the last decade the direction in psychiatric care has gone towards less
hospitalization and more outpatient treatment. Politicians and professionals largely
agree that this is a positive direction, but what do patients experience?
With an interpretive-phenomenological approach, inspired by Max van Manen, two
participants were interviewed about their experiences. The analysis found three
subthemes: to be in transit, anxiety for relapse and to balance demands and resources,
and one main theme: when you get home, you are recovered.
The study indicates that patients expect to be ready to continue their usual activities and
responsibilities right after discharge. However, the study also indicates that it takes an
effort to find the routines of everyday life and to reawaken relations, that the patients
lacked strategies to bridle anxiety and therefore needed support, that they also needed
support to find capacity for self care, and that fatigue could have an impact on this.
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