Table 3 Reasons given for the respective answer: contact helpful yes/no.

Contact to other affected persons …
Category	Typical comment (original text)
Was helpful because:
Feeling of not being alone	“You find out that you are not alone with the diagnosis”
Similar experience/more understanding	“You have someone who has gone through the same things as you have yourself. That is incredibly helpful.”
Exchange of experience/information	“Was able to find out about surgery from them”
Psychological support	“I felt/feel it to be a place where someone is there for me on bad days.”
Changed the way of dealing with the diagnosis	“Thanks to the forum I can now talk more openly about it”
Able to show weakness	“You realise that you can sometimes allow yourself to show weakness”
Was not helpful because:
The focus was on negative aspects	“However, I feel one should not only occupy oneself with the diagnosis and the problems. At one stage this ʼcontinual rehashing of problemsʼ with other affected persons got to be too much for me.”
Contact is stressful	“At the moment it is more stressful, because I experience it as very inflexible and it does not help me progress further”
Had other expectations	“I was too unrealistic”
Practical reasons	“Unfortunately because of the distance, benefit only limited”