The aim of this study was to provide a cross-cultural exploration of how young adults with depression use metaphors to describe their illness experiences. Data were collected in semi-structured interviews, designed to capture rich and detailed descriptions of participants’ firsthand narrative experiences of depression and how they make sense of depression. Thirty-three participant interview data were analyzed, using a combination of deductive and inductive approaches. The analysis resulted in extracting five major themes with sub-themes, which detail the diversity and vividness of metaphorical expressions embedded in participants’ accounts and produce insights and a richer picture of the depression experience. Metaphors play a pivotal role in providing a rich resource that young adults rely on, to construct meaningful accounts about their illness. This highlights the importance of a metaphor-enriched perspective in research as well as in clinical practice, particularly in a multicultural health care setting.

本研究的目的是对患有抑郁症的年轻人如何使用隐喻来描述他们的疾病经历进行跨文化探索。数据是在半结构化访谈中收集的，旨在捕捉参与者对抑郁症的第一手叙述经历以及他们如何理解抑郁症的丰富而详细的描述。使用演绎和归纳方法的组合分析了 33 名参与者访谈数据。分析结果提取了五个带有子主题的主要主题，这些主题详细说明了嵌入在参与者叙述中的隐喻表达的多样性和生动性，并产生了对抑郁经历的见解和更丰富的画面。隐喻在提供年轻人所依赖的丰富资源以构建关于他们的疾病的有意义的描述方面发挥着关键作用。