“To those on the outside looking in, slicing your own arm with a razor blade is the stuff of horror movies,” writes Michelle Galley in Student Self-Harm: Silent School Crisis. People that self harm do it to help ease the pain of all the bad things going on in their lives. But, why do people choose to hurt themselves? People who self harm are rarely just looking for attention, as many people seem to believe. Self harmers cut places on their bodies that no one will see such as their thighs, stomachs, ankles, and even the underside of their breasts. “…they may be more ashamed and disgusted by themselves,” Miller says in The Urge to Injure. Almost every person who self harms would be devastated if anyone ever found out the horrific things they are doing to themselves and would probably feel the urge to cut/harm themselves more out of guilt and self hatred. When someone gets an injury, their body releases endorphins with affects much like those of morphine. This is why self harm, in most cases, provides a form of pain relief. “You don’t feel like you’re hurting yourself when you’re cu...
Self-harm, or self-mutilation, is the intentional action of harming oneself, generally without the intent to kill. It is estimated that over two million people self-harm in the United States alone (Pomere). When involved with depression, self-harm is generally used as a method of coping with stress and various feelings that they may be having. If depression manifests with feelings of inadequacies, one could feel like they deserve to be injured (Bartha). Over time, the act of self-injury could become an addiction. It could become an obsession (Pomere).
They believe that there is no solution and the only way to get rid of the pain they feel is to take their own lives. They can also feel embarrassed because their own parents or family members do not accept what they are going through. Letting them down can also cause them to commit suicide because they think that if their own family members do not understand, no one will.
Self-harm is not a crazy, attention seeking, or shameful act. It only is a way of coping with stress and pressure in life that one has. To some people, it is a way to keep them living. They release their emotional pain by causing physical pain on their body. Kendra cuts to run away from her fear. Demi Lovato stopped eating and started cutting because she get judged on her appearance and weakness. However, self-harm is just a bandage to a wound that needs stitches. It may bring temporary relieve yet worse long term effects. Having wrong conceptions and making self-harm an embarrassing topic when discuss only push people in deeper pain. People deserve to feel better and they definitely can get there without hurting themselves.
Murphy, E., Kapur, N., Webb, R., & Cooper, J. (2011). Risk assessment following self-harm: comparison of mental health nurses and psychiatrists. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 67(1), 127-139. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2010.05484.x
Most often, the cause of people self harming is depression, PTSD, or others serious medical conditions. These people feel like they are going nowhere in life and that they cannot find any relief, so they cut them self. Cutting may seem pointless to some, but to these people who self harm, its not, its what keeps them alive. They are add...
Imagine waking up every day tired, and drowsy. Having to go to school every day being pushed around and having other children make you feel like you’re worthless but you are actually feeling worthless, hopeless, and careless. You have no place where you can go and just be peaceful nowhere to go to just be free. At home there are problems, At school there are problems, everywhere u go u have that feeling of sadness, worthlessness, and hopelessness. Having those feeling of harming yourself to take the inside pain away and having thoughts about taking you life away. Suicidal teen’s feelings, what caused them to become suicidal, and how they overcome the feelings?
Have you ever, coincidentally, walked passed somebody with deep, open cuts on his/her wrist and wondered what happened? Maybe, you thought it was a simple, harmless scratch caused by obnoxious pets at home. Or maybe, you considered it as mild accidents, preferably caused by doing arts and crafts at home or school. But, have you ever pondered thoroughly and have the idea that those sad scarring were actually made by him/herself? Creating scars on your skin is actually the action of self-harm; the intentional hurting of one’s self, direct to the body tissue, with or without the intention of suicide. There are several types of self-harm, such as hair pulling, banging body parts, scratching, burning, ingestion of toxin, and the most frequent one, self-cutting. Apparently, self-harm has been a serious, heart-rending issue, popular among teenagers nowadays.
The percent of people self-harming themselves in the world is increasing tremendously. Research provided by “Dr. Paul Moran of King’s College London, Institute of Psychiatry and George C. Patton, professor at the Center for Adolescent Health at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia” (Willingham), found out of 1,802 adolescents, eight percent of the adolescents were cutting, ten percent were girls, and 6 percent were boys. Age 15 to 24 year old girls are the ones that are most likely injuring themselves. In Dr. Moran and Dr. Patton’s studies they found “teens who experienced depression or anxiety were about six times more likely to self-harm in young adulthood than adolescents who did not suffer from these illnesses” (Willingham), leading to the doctors results of the percentage data.
It can often be used as a distraction from emotional distress and a way to release feelings the person has help in for so long. They often feel relief and a sense of calmness after performing the act. This is known as cutting or self-mutilation. Some forms of self-mutilation are cutting, burning, hair-pulling, pinching, scratching, picking at scars, and head-banging. People who self-mutilate often have a history of abuse, whether it be sexual, emotional, or physical. Self-mutilation often piggy backs onto other mental health problems such as eating disorders, substance abuse, schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and many other mental illnesses. Most people who self-harm often have low self-esteem and are perfectionists. They are often very impulsive and have poor problem-solving
Styer, Denise M. "An Understanding of Self-Injury and Suicide." Prevention Researcher Integrated Research Services, Inc., Vol. 13, Supplement. Dec. 2006: 10-12. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. .
Let us look into basic and generalized knowledge of self injury. Self injury (self harm or S.I.) is the act of harming yourself as a way of coping with emotional pain, frustration, and anger. Some view it as a suicide attempt or a precursor to a suicide attempt, but it is not a suicide attempt at all. Rather, it is a serious cry for help. When an individual turns to self injury, they look for an emotional release which gives them momentary calmness. “While self-injury may bring a momentary sense of calm and a release of tension, it's usually followed by guilt and shame and the return of painful emotions” (Self Injury 1). Self injury can also result in serious or even fatal injuries (1).
...ss (“Dancing In The Darkness, Self Injury”). Anybody can self harm, no matter where you’re from, what you look like, or what you do. Anybody could be a self harmer.
Committing suicide probably sounds like a foreign idea to most people, but to the people who think about it, they deal with it every day. More importantly, the question is what leads people to kill themselves? In general, most people do not want to actually kill themselves, even though many people joke about it on a daily basis. Being a human, we all have a certain amount of will to live. Depression is the major cause for suicidal thoughts and ideas. After a long enough period of time, people become worn down and become less and less happy.
Often times when I heard the word "suicidal" I was curiously caused the person to do it. Growing up, I heard that people decided to commit suicide was because they "wanted attention, they wanted the easy way out, they were weak, they couldn't handle life, etc." Personally, I have significant people in my life that have felt like they wanted to commit suicide. So, this topic honestly is a difficult, yet, emotional one to discuss.