SELF-HARM

The term self-harm is used to describe what people do when they deliberately hurt or injure themselves, often as a way to cope with painful or intensely difficult feelings. Self-harm can include a range of self-injurious behaviours like cutting, burning or punching the body.

There are many reasons why young people harm themselves and for some young people it may be difficult to put the reasons into words. These actions may provide temporary relief but they do not help to solve the problem underlying your distress.

Sometimes it can feel like life is just too hard and problems can seem overwhelming. Thoughts of self-harm are not uncommon but there are other things that you can do to cope with really distressing times. It’s important to sort out the underlying problem – whether it is anxiety, depression or something else. If you are hurting yourself or thinking about suicide you need to let someone know, and get some help to cope.

Some young people have described self-harm as a way to:

• express something that is hard to put into words
• turn invisible thoughts or feelings into something visible
• change emotional pain into physical pain
• reduce overwhelming emotional feelings or thoughts
• have a sense of being in control
• escape traumatic memories
• have something in life that they can rely on
• punish themselves for their feelings and experiences
• stop feeling numb, disconnected or dissociated
• create a reason to physically care for themselves
• express suicidal feelings and thoughts without taking their own life.

After self-harming you may feel a short-term sense of release, but the cause of your distress is unlikely to have gone away. Self-harm can also bring up very difficult emotions and could make you feel worse.