| Well, I figure that a lot of people don't know anything about self injury. Some may not even know that it exists. Well, it does exist, and it is a bigger problem than some would like to believe. I wanted to include this info section, because I know that most people don't know much. So, I'm gonna give you the basic four questions..... Who does it? This is the question to which most people will probably not believe the answer. It could literally be anyone, from your best friend, to your crush, to even a sibling or cousin. There is no set "group" of people who self injure. There are statistics, but I don't know them. I can however tell you some statistics based off of polls on Bodies Under Seige. There was one poll that asked how old people were. Remember, these results are of people who have gone out to look for a support network and are considering, if not attempting, to quit self injuring. The age poll show that people between the ages of 16 and 19 make up the highest percentage of self injurers. Twenty to twenty-three had the next highest percentage; then 13 to 15 years old. From twenty-four on up the percentages got smaller, but there were still people in the 55+ group. Age has no limit when it comes to self injuring. Granted, most people start in adolescence, but there is always something that goes against the statistics. As for gender, several polls have been done, and the general concensis is that, on BUS, it is 85% female, and 15% male. In the outside world, I know that the statistics run similar to that but I do not know the actual statistics. What is Self Injury? In my belief, self injury is a delberate act of harming oneself using a preferred tecnique (ie. burning, cutting, hitting, head-banging, etc.) in such a way that it leaves a mark for longer that an hour. (This definition was created when reading Secret Shame, and uses some of there wording.) Why do people Self Injure? This varies from person to person. There are, however, common answers that many different people have given. to deal with guilt to deal with anger to deal with anxiety to deal with depression to deal with mania to deal with self hate to deal with suicidal thoughts to deal with feeling numb Others use self injury as a form of punishing themselves, or to take care of themselves, by caring for the wounds. I have done it many times to become numb. It creates an eerie sense of calm, and relief, and makes everything in our heads quiet. Some even SI to make pain visible or to have a feeling of control over their bodies. |
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| Some of this info was taken from Bodies Under Seige, some from Secret Shame, and some from other, less known sites. |
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