School of Nursing

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https://hdl.handle.net/2440/84545
This collection contains Honours, Masters and Ph.D by coursework theses from University of Adelaide postgraduate students within the School of Nursing. The material has been approved as making a significant contribution to knowledge.

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Browsing School of Nursing by Author "Fisher, Katie Louise"

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    Exploring the meaning of low self-esteem that is inherent in depression, an interpretive phenomenological study.
    (2014) Fisher, Katie Louise; Wilson, Anne; Crouch, Rosanne; Foley, David C.; Green, Cheryl; School of Nursing
    The purpose of this research was to explore the lived experience of low self esteem inherent in depression for participants who directly accessed mental health care in a rural mental health service in the South East Region of South Australia. Five participants were interviewed. Data was collected from interviews in which participants reflected on the connection of low self esteem often inherent in depression in nine domains of life and how this had impacted on the participant’s day to day life. Data was collected using a phenomenological methodology, and the data was analysed using Colaizzi’s7 step method. Meaning was aggregated into themes using the structure of cognitive behavioural therapy to explore the interaction of cognition, behaviour, physiology and affect. Results illustrated a significant negative experience of low self esteem in depression with associated thoughts and behaviours. These thoughts and behaviours maintained suffering and distress in all domains of life except spirituality and to a lesser degree citizenship. Participant’s experience of the mental health service was generally viewed as worthwhile. This research confirms the value of psychological interventions by skilled health professionals. The subjective experience of low self esteem appeared to have become a part of life, not dissimilar to an addiction whereby people do not know how to live without it. The experience of low self esteem in depression for the participants was a long battle and gaining new insights through contact with mental health services may be viewed as too little too late. The research demonstrated the long term benefits of a co-ordinated approach to early interventions within the primary and secondary education system. With the estimated rates of depression on the rise there is a challenge for mental health professionals at the grass roots level to disseminate vital information to young people about the complexity of the mind. Understanding the experience of low self esteem in depression during our formative years may abort these negative experiences before they become entrenched and gain a psychological hold, which may develop into the formation of unhelpful habitual thoughts and unhelpful habitual behaviours, and loss of life through suicide.