To fall through the cracks : An ethnological study about discrepant experiences of mental illness

This thesis purpose is to highlight young adults with perceived mental illnesses, and who have experiences of being or not being included by Swedish welfare through a phenomenological perspective. The empirical material of the study is built upon six interviews with women who experience psychological problems and have been on sick leave for some time. In order to contextualize the narratives of the informant’s observations have been made in two Facebook groups. The empirical chapters are built on the following main questions: In what ways do the informants experience their psychological problems that have been confirmed by the health care system? In what ways do the informants communicate their illnesses? And how are the informant’s everyday lives shaped by their psychological problems? The main conclusion of the study is that medicalization has made it more complex when trying to understand human health, since the labels that are provided by medical sciences are insufficient when trying to evaluate an individual's actual well-being