“Recovery warriors”: The National Eating Disorders Association’s online community and rhetorical vision

Abstract

Mental health advocacy organizations play an important role in mitigating stigma and questioning the social norms that can create negative health outcomes. This essay explores how a U.S. advocacy organization attempted to facilitate shared meaning about a stigmatized health issue with its online community via rhetorical vision, or narrative that connects people in shared reality. Through the lens of symbolic convergence theory (SCT), a fantasy theme analysis of the National Eating Disorders Association’s (NEDA) social media messages and comments uncovered a recovery warrior metaphor that framed eating disorder recovery as a heroic journey. The analysis describes potential reasons why NEDA would attempt to foster a rhetorical vision informed by a warrior narrative, how it used warriors as a cue to facilitate vision, and the tensions within the community that expose the evolution and limitations of recovery warriors to constitute a rhetorical vision and community. Theoretical implications are offered at the intersections of public relations and SCT. These implications provide a roadmap for advocacy organizations attempting to build symbolic community and shared narratives online in the context of stigmatized health conditions while also interrogating organizational power to shape rhetorical visions.