What is Self-Injury and Who Self-Injures

WHAT IS SELF-INJURY?

To self-injure or self-harm is to perform acts of physical abuse to oneself.  “The term ‘self-injury’ refers to a broad range of behaviors that result in the damage of body tissue inside or outside of the body”.  Most often, self-harm is used as a coping mechanism to deal with a deeper issue. So a person rather feels the physical pain than the emotional pain.  However, cutting oneself can lead to more emotional issues, such as shame for cutting oneself, and despite that shame, self-harming becomes addictive and further self-harming continues.

Self-harm takes on many forms. The following list are ways that one may self-harm.  Please note this is not a complete list of all self-harm types.

·                               Severely scratching or pinching skin to bleed

·                               Cutting, ripping, or carving words or symbols to various parts of the body

·                               Banging or punching objects to bruise or bleed

·                               Biting to the point of bleeding

·                               Pulling out hair, eyelashes, or eyebrows

·                               Intentionally preventing wounds from healing

·                               Burning the skin

·                               Embedding objects into the skin

Where one may think that self-harm is an attempt to end one’s life, that isn’t always the case.  As mentioned earlier, self-harm can be done as coping mechanism - this is known as Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI).  Although, one may not want to commit suicide, some self-harm acts can mistakenly lead to loss of life.

(Whitlock, 2009)

“Whats” of Self-Harm:

Aviva Laye-Gindhu is a Doctoral student in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at the University of British Columbia.  Kimberly A. Schonert-Reich is Associate Professor in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at the University of British Columbia. Laye-Gindhu and Schonert-Reich, were both interested in the area of self harm, and both wanted to expand their knowledge by researching further, the reasons teens self harm. 

 As they began to look at past research studies, they stumbled upon a problem; there was little to no consistency on what was classified as being self-harm. This sparked the question to the two researchers, of what actual adolescents considered self harm and what means they used. These were the questions that sparked their study, Nonsuicidal Self-Harm Among Community Adolescents: Understanding the “Whats” and “Whys” of Self-Harm.

They used the surveys of both self-harmers and non-self-harmers to find out what teens actually view as being self-harm. A list of nonexclusive categories was created including:

·                     Cutting (Most common 43% of self-harmers surveryed)

·                     Hitting/biting

·                     Abusing pills

·                     Eating disorders

·                     Reckless behavior

·                     Falling and jumping  

(Laye-Gindhu, A., & Schonert-Reichl, K.A. (2005)

Additional Forms of Self-Harm:

·                     Breaking bones

·                     Piercing the skin with sharp objects

·                     Head banging 

 (Harms, 2012)

The Different Names of Self-Harm:

Self-harm has different names. Some of these include: self-injury, self-mutilation, self-inflicted violence, parasuicide (a suicidal gesture in which the aim is not death,) self-abuse, and non-suicidal self-injurious behavior. One way of defining self-harm is when someone deliberately hurts themselves without wanting to kill themselves. Cutting is most commonly associated with self harming, but there are lots of behaviors associated with self-harm. Self-harm is a common health problem for young people. Between 1 to 4% of young males and 1 to 10% of young females will self harm. If you are not sure whether you are self-harming or if you are worried about someone else’s behavior, here are some questions you might want to ask: Do you deliberately hurt yourself in a way which breaks the skin, leaves marks that last for a while or scars you? Do you deliberately do things to yourself which require you to seek medical attention? Do you hurt yourself as a way of getting rid of horrible feelings, dealing with difficult situations, or because you feel numb? 

(Strickland, 2006)

Complications and Consequences of Self-Harm:

-Accidentally or deliberately go too far and cause severe, possibly fatal injury or accidentally committing suicide, especially if you harm yourself while under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs.

-Permanent scars or disfigurement: most people don’t understand self harm and may treat you differently when they see your scars. This can make it difficult to make friends, get a job, have a boyfriend/girlfriend or wear certain clothing without people seeing your injuries. Having said this, those people who only judge you by your scars don’t know the real you.

-People who self harm usually keep it a secret: this can be a really lonely experience.

-Dealing with your feelings in this way means you are probably not sharing your pain or getting the support you need.

-You may be avoiding the issues that lead to you self harming: expressing yourself in this way might not allow you to see the causes of your pain.

-Underlying issues and disorders may worsen if not adequately treated.

-You may have to lie to keep it a secret: this can be difficult and stressful. As a result of lying you may think, “Do they believe me?”, “What do they think of me?”

-Worsening feelings of guilt, shame and low self-esteem: young people who self harm often feel guilty about it. This means that they hide their behavior and get down on themselves. This creates more stress and hurt which leads to more self harm to cope.

(Harms, 2012; Strickland, 2006)

Who Self-Harms? Warning signs that someone self harms:

·                                 Scars, such as from burns or cuts

·                                 Fresh cuts, scratches, bruises or other wounds

·                                 Broken bones

·                                 Keeping sharp objects on hand

·                                 Wearing long sleeves or long pants, even in hot weather

·                                 Claiming to have frequent accidents or mishaps

·                                 Spending a great deal of time alone

·                                 Pervasive difficulties in interpersonal relationships

·                                 Persistent questions about personal identity, such as "Who am I?" "What am I doing

here?"

·                                 Behavioral and emotional instability, impulsivity and unpredictability

·                                 Statements of helplessness, hopelessness or worthlessness

Who Self-Harms? Risk Factors for Self-Harm:

·                                 Being female. Females are at greater risk of self-injuring than males are.

·                                 Age. Most people who self-injure are teenagers and young adults, although those in other age groups also self-injure. Self-injury often starts in the early teen years, when emotions are more volatile and teens face increasing peer pressure, loneliness, and conflicts with parents or other authority figures.

·                                 Having friends who self-injure. People who have friends who intentionally harm themselves are more likely to begin self-injuring.

·                                 Life issues. Some people who injure themselves were neglected, or sexually, physically or emotionally abused, or experienced other traumatic events. They may have grown up and still remain in an unstable family environment, or they may be young people questioning their personal identity or sexuality.

·                                 Mental health issues. People who self-injure are more likely to be impulsive, explosive and highly self-critical, and be poor problem-solvers. In addition, self-injury is commonly associated with certain mental disorders, such as borderline personality disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and eating disorders.

·                                 Excessive alcohol or drug use. People who harm themselves often do so while under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs.

       (Harms, 2012)

Prediction of Risk:

A study performed by The University of Queensland found that knowing a friend who self-injured, negative life events, psychological distress and thoughts of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) predicted onset of NSSI within the study period. Having a self-injuring friend did not relate to severity of NSSI, but having a self-injuring friend appeared to be a risk factor for self-injury among youth experiencing high levels of distress.

(Hasking, 2013)