| 1. What self injurers say SI do for them |
| ~ Escape from emptiness, depression and feelings of unreality ~ To ease tension ~ Relief: when intense feelings build,self-injurers are overwhelmed and unable to cope. By causing pain, they reduce the level of emotional and physiological arousal to an unbearable one ~ Expression of emotional pain ~ Escaping numbness: many of those who self-injure say they do it in order to feel something something , to know that they are still alive ~ Obtaining a feeling of euphoria ~ Continuing abusive patterns: self-injurers tend to be abused as children. Sometimes self-mutilation is a way of punishing oneself for being 'bad' ~ Relief of anger: many self-injurers have an enormous amounts of rage within. Afraid to express it outwardly, they injure themselves as a way of venting these feelings ~ Biochemical relief: there is some thought that who were repeatedly traumatized as children have a hard time returning to 'notmal' baseline level of arousal and in some sense, addicted to crisis behaviour ~ Obtaining or maintaining influence over the behaviour of others ~ Exerting a sense of control over one's body ~ Grounding in reality, as a way of dealing with feelings of depersonalization and dissociation ~ Maintaining a sense of security or feeling of uniqueness ~ Expressing or repressing sexuality ~ Expressing or coping with feeling of alienisation |
| 2. Types of self-injurous behaviours |
| Cutting: 72% Burning: 35% Self hitting: 30% Interference with wound healing: 22% Hair pulling:10% Bone breaking: 8% Multiple methods: 78% |
| 3. Psychological characteristics common in self-injurers |
| ~ stronly dislike/invalidate themselves ~ are hypersensitive to rejection ~ are chronically angry, usually at themselves ~ tend to suppress their anger ~ have high levels of agressive feelings, which they disapprove of strongly and often supress or direct inward ~ are more impulsive and more lacking in impulse control ~ tend to act in accordance with their mood of the moment ~ tend not to plan for the future ~ are depressed and suicidal/self-destructive ~ suffer chronic anxiety ~ tend towards irritabilty ~ do not see themselves as skilled at coping ~ do not have a flexible repertoire of coping skills ~ do not think they have much control over how/whether they cope with life ~ tend to be avoidant ~ do not see themselves as empowered |