Self-Harm Awareness Month
This month is all about compassion. Understanding self-harm is invaluable. For individuals who struggle with self-harm, it’s vital to have support. About 17 percent of American youth struggle with self-harm. This coping behavior is often misunderstood and not talked about. Let’s raise awareness about this important topic and spread as much compassion as possible this month!
What Is Self-Harm?
Self-harm or self-injury is when an individual is hurting themselves intentionally. The injuries sustained can be minor or major. Self-harm is not considered a mental disorder, but many individuals who struggle with a mental disorder cope with self-harm. This behavior is complex and it is imperative to address this behavior with empathy.
Examples of self-harm:
- Cutting yourself (such as using a razor blade, knife, or other sharp object to cut your skin)
- Punching yourself or punching things (like a wall)
- Burning yourself with cigarettes, matches, or candles
- Pulling out your hair
- Poking objects through body openings
- Breaking your bones or bruising yourself
- Intentionally preventing wounds from healing
- Swallowing poisonous substances or inappropriate objects
Why Would Someone Self-Harm?
Harming oneself is a complex coping mechanism and usually happens because someone is dealing with deep distress and/or emotional pain. The why is different for everyone, but it becomes a way to deal with overwhelming moments or environments.
Reasons someone may self-harm:
- Cope with feelings like sadness, self-loathing, emptiness, guilt, and rage
- Express feelings you can’t put into words or release the pain and tension you feel inside
- Feel in control, relieve guilt, or punish yourself
- Distract yourself from overwhelming emotions or difficult life circumstances
- Make you feel alive, or simply feel something, instead of feeling numb
Who’s at risk:
- Were abused or went through a trauma as children
- Have mental disorders, such as
- Misuse drugs or alcohol
- Have friends who self-harm
- Have low self-esteem
The Aftermath of Self-Harm
Self-harm has real consequences and can often make life more overwhelming. The relief that individuals feel after self-harm is often short lived. While educating ourselves on self-harm it is significant, we have conversations of the aftermath of self-harm. How do individuals feel after self-harm? Do they feel better and for how long do they feel better? Do they feel worse or guilty? Does it cause feelings of loneliness?
The aftermath:
- Relief from cutting or self-harm is short lived, and is quickly followed by other feelings like shame and guilt.
- Keeping the secret of self-harm is difficult and lonely. Maybe you feel ashamed or maybe you just think that no one would understand. But hiding who you are and what you feel is a heavy burden. Ultimately, the secrecy and guilt affects your relationships with friends and family members and how you feel about yourself.
- You can hurt yourself badly, even if you don’t mean to. It’s easy to end up with an infected wound or misjudge the depth of a cut, especially if you’re also using drugs or alcohol.
- You’re at risk for bigger problems down the line. Can increase risk of major depression, drug and alcohol addiction, and suicide.
- Self-harm can become addictive. It may start off as an impulse or something you do to feel more in control, but soon it feels like the cutting or self-harming is controlling you. It often turns into a compulsive behavior that seems impossible to stop.
It’s difficult for someone to open up about why they harm themselves, so it is critical to create an environment for people to speak openly about their struggle with self-harm. Judgement can prevent someone from seeking help or opening up. Listening with an open heart can only help.
Break the Myth
Misconceptions is common when talking about self-harm. Let’s begin to breakdown those misconceptions and myths this month! Empower yourself with knowledge that could help you be a better support system for someone struggling with self-harm.
Myth 1: People who cut and self-injure are trying to get attention.
Fact: The painful truth is that people who self-harm generally hurt themselves in secret. They aren’t trying to manipulate others or draw attention to themselves. In fact, shame and fear can make it very difficult to come forward and ask for help.
Myth 2: People who self-injure are crazy and/or dangerous.
Fact: It is true that many people who self-harm suffer from anxiety, depression, eating disorders, or a previous trauma—just like millions of others in the general population. But that doesn’t make them crazy or dangerous. Self-injury is how they cope. Sticking a label like “crazy” or “dangerous” on a person isn’t accurate or helpful.
Myth 3: People who self-injure want to die.
Fact: When people self-harm, they are usually not trying to kill themselves—they are trying to cope with their problems and pain. In fact, self-injury may be a way of helping themselves go on living. However, there is always the risk of a more severe injury than intended and, in the long-term, people who self-injure have a much higher risk of suicide, which is why it’s so important to seek help.
Myth 4: If the wounds aren’t bad, it’s not that serious.
Fact: The severity of a person’s wounds has very little to do with how much they may be suffering. Don’t assume that because the wounds or injuries are minor, there’s nothing to worry about.
Treatment and Support
When reaching out to someone who self-harms, it is important to meet them with empathy and kindness. Someone who harms themselves often keeps it hidden due to feelings of shame and guilt. Listening is key in supporting someone who self-harms.
Tips to help someone:
- Don’t judge. Listen. Let them know you are there to help.
- Relate to them as a whole person, not just their self-harm.
- Try to have empathy and understanding about what they are doing.
- Let them be in control of their decisions.
- Offer to help them find support.
- Remind them of their positive qualities and things they do well.
- Try to have honest communication, where you take responsibility for any fears you have.
- Take care of yourself. What you see and what you learn may be upsetting. You might need some help and support yourself and, if you are a young person, you too may want to talk to a trusted adult.
- Be supportive. Let them know you care.
- Help them get medical help for injuries that are serious.
Places to find help:
March Recommendations
Please, be wary that this month’s recommendations deal with topics that can be triggering. The topics can vary from self-harm, depression, and eating disorders. It is important to bring awareness to these topics, but it is also important to know one’s limitations and boundaries. Please, be safe and take caution in reading and watching these materials.
Wintergirls
Written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton
Trigger Warnings: eating disorders, self-harm, underage drinking, death, mental disorders, drug mention, and swearing
In her most powerfully moving novel since Speak, award-winning author, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s struggle, her painful path to recovery, and her desperate attempts to hold on to the most important thing of all—hope.
Finish This Book
Written by Keri Smith
One dark and stormy night, author Keri Smith found some strange scattered pages abandoned in a park. She collected and assembled them, trying to solve the mystery of this unexpected discovery, and now she’s passing the task on to you, her readers.
Your mission is to become the new author of this work. You will continue the research and provide the content. In order to complete the task, you will have to undergo some secret intelligence training, which is included in this volume. Since no one knows what lies ahead, please proceed with caution, but know…this book does not exist without you.
