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Princess Diana, Courtney Love, Shirley Manson, Angelina Jolie, Christina Ricci and Johnny Depp are all people with a common link. It�s not their fame but their pasts as ex-self harmers, mostly from during their teens. Recent surveys showed that around 1 in 7 young people deliberately hurt themselves, which means that you probably know a few, even if they�ve never told you about it. Everyone knows it�s a big problem and social taboo (mental health charities for example recieve less celebrity help because people are afraid they'll be wrongly linked to 'madness') but according to the many self harm charities there are still myths about it which add to self harmer�s pain. Here are a few which aren�t true:
- Cutting (eg. scissors, razors, compasses)
- Burning (eg. cigarettes, lighters)
- Scratching deliberately to harm
- Picking skin or pulling hair
- Banging your body or head
- Bruising yourself
- Overdosing/poison
But also excessive drinking, sex with strangers, drug use or risk taking can also be seen as self harming behaviour.
Self harming is attention seeking: Most self harmers are notoriously secretive about their activities, and will wear plasters or long sleeves to hide their scars. Most feel shame about what they do and are definitely not attention seeking. If you think people harm because they think it�s cool or see someone with scars in a pattern or symbol this also isn�t attention seeking. Some self harmers cut themselves in patterns ritualistically, sometimes in order to �feel clean� like the behaviour of people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
You have to have a mental illness to self harm: Some people who harm do, some don�t. Perfectly sane people do or have self harmed and although there is a link with mental
People who self harm don�t feel the pain: Some people believe this because some self harmers talk about �feeling numb�. Some people say they hurt themselves in order to stop this feeling of emotional numbness with physical hurt. They still do feel pain, but might be willing to bear it because of the emotional distress they�re in.
Only teenagers self harm/You grow out of it: This isn�t true as many sad elderly people also self harm, and you can start or stop at any stage of your life. It�s true that a higher number of self harmers are teens but for some this behaviour continues for years or decades, whilst others find the reasons for harming eventually stop.
Usually a number of factors lead to a person self harming, but these are sometimes the most commonly given reasons:
- For control. If someone feels their life is out of their control (common in abuse victims) then controlling the pain they feel brings back a degree of control, which links to eating disorder behaviour.
- Turning emotional pain into physical pain to make it easier to cope with.
- To take out frustration or aggression, like when you bang something after you�ve made a mistake.
- Self punishment because the person internalises problems they have and lay blame on themselves
- To give relief from emotions by focusing on physical pain for a short while if they�ve been feeling emotionally numb or distant.
National Self Harm Network
Recover Your Life
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