No one who engages in self-harm actually wants you to notice.
For example, work or school pressures, bullying, low self-esteem, financial difficulties, abuse (physical, emotional, sexual), bereavement, homophobia or transphobia, relationship difficulties, loss of a job, stress etc.įact: While the area of self-injury may be visible to others, the act itself causes a lot of shame and embarrassment, so no it’s not attention-seeking.
There are a number of difficult experiences that can result in a person using self-injury to manage their emotional distress.
YOUR WORDS CUT DEEPER THAN A KNIFE PROFESSIONAL
It’s important for them to have someone they can turn to because then next time, maybe they won’t need to engage in self-harm to release the pain, maybe they can speak to someone to address what is at the core of the need to hurt themselves, or to get professional help. Ultimately whether it is to feel control, to communicate emotion, to punish or to feel something, we need to help them feel seen, and understood. Whatever the reason for a person wanting to harm themselves, we need to validate these feelings, and learn what is the reason for self-injury, and understand what is causing them to engage in this behaviour. Another reason can be a way for people to punish themselves. It’s also a way for them to feel in control of out-of-control life circumstances. Other reasons are for a person to distract themselves from challenging life circumstances, or to prevent themselves from doing something that is more damaging. Sometimes, this is an act to feel something, anything, when the person is struggling with emotional numbness, or is feeling derealization (which is a feeling disconnected from the world), or feelings of dissociation (feeling disconnected from themself). Related to this, people engage in self-harm to express feelings that cannot be put into words or to release pain or tension. One of the most common reasons for engaging in self-injury is deal with difficult emotions like guilt, self-hatred or emptiness. And because there is a lot of shame and guilt and embarrassment in the act of self-injury, the person might not be able to open up at all about the behaviour out of fear of judgement or angering or disappointing family and friends, but in fact they may need to so that they can get the help they need. Self-injury isn’t in and of itself a mental illness, but it is usually a behaviour resulting from depression, anxiety, or trauma, which would need professional help. Any act, in fact that causes some sort of physical harm, it can even include the misuse of alcohol and drugs and unsafe sexual behaviour, or overeating and undereating. The type of act varies, and it can be cutting themselves, scratching at skin, burning skin, preventing an old injury from healing, hitting themselves against walls, pulling hair, getting into fights knowing they’ll get hurt, or any manner of causing harm to themselves. In moments of deep distress or emotional pain, some people engage in an act of self-injury.
0 kommentar(er)
