| Self Harm... |
| People who self harm come from all walks of life. People learn that hurting themselves brings them relief from some kinds of distress and turn to it as a primary coping mechanism. Is it another way to describe a failed suicide attempt?? NO. People who inflict physical harm on themselves are often doing it in an attempt to maintain psychological integrity -- it's a way to keep from killing themselves. They release unbearable feelings and pressures through self-harm, and that eases their urge toward suicide. And although some people who self-injure do later attempt suicide, they almost always use a method different from their preferred method of self-harm. Self-injury is a maladaptive coping mechanism, a way to stay alive. Unfortunately, some people don't understand this and think that involuntary commitment is the only way to deal with a person who self-harms. Hospitalization, especially forced, can do more harm than good. there is evidence that people who harm themselves do so because it quickly and dramatically calms the body when faced with strong emotions or overwhelming situations. For survivors of abuse, some possible motivations may also include continuing abusive patterns and punishing oneself for being "bad", an addiction to crisis behavior resulting from repeated traumatization as a child, escaping numbness (a common problem for survivors), or grounding in reality to ward off feelings of depersonalization or dissociation. |
| "You have so much pain inside yourself that you try and hurt yourself on the outside because you want help,"Princess Diana Diana's story |
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