Things You Should Know About Self-Harm

The term self-harm is used to describe a wide range of behaviors and intentions including attempted hanging, impulsive self-poisoning, and superficial cutting in response to intolerable tension. As with suicide, rates of self-harm vary between countries. One cross-national study of 17 countries found that an average of 2.7% of people reported a previous episode of self-harm, but with considerable variation between 0.5% in Italy and 5% in the US.

Self-harm is more common among young people between the ages of 15 and 19 years in females and 20 and 24 years in males. Self-harm occurs in all parts of the population but is more common among people who are disadvantaged in socioeconomic terms, who are single or divorced, live alone or have a severe lack of social support.

There Is No Clear Understanding of Self-Harm
The International Classification of Diseases states that self-harm is any behavior in which a person deliberately injures himself. This includes cuts, burns, bumps, refusal of food, an obsessive desire to pull out hair and scratch the skin, as well as oxycontin addiction.

At the same time, the British National Institute of Health proposes to narrow the scope of auto-aggressive behavior and remove overeating from the list. According to experts, performing these actions, a person usually sets other goals and only faces harm as a side effect. For the same reason, psychologists refused to see body modifications, such as tattooing and piercing as self-harm, believing that this is not related to a desire to hurt yourself.

Self-harm behavior can be divided into three types:

- large: rare, but crippling episodes when a person deprives himself of a body part
- stereotypical: a rhythmic action like beating against a wall. It is typically seen in people with mental abnormalities
- simple: it occurs in the vast majority of cases. This includes skin cuts, burning, and piercing with needles

Self-Harm Is Invisible
There is a stigma associated with self-harm, as well as other unpleasant topics because of stereotypes that have no real basis but still exist in society. There is the opinion that the main goal of people who harm themselves is to attract the attention of others. But in fact, auto-aggressors carefully hide traces of damage.

Each episode of self-harm relieves stress and anxiety, but just for a while. Relief is quickly replaced by awareness and shame so the aggressor experiences, even more, stress, which creates the prerequisites for the next self-harm episode. If the real causes have not disappeared, the likelihood of self-harming behavior increases.

Usually, people who are prone to self-harm, contrary to popular belief, do not think about suicide, although among them there is an increased risk of suicide in the future. Those who are faced with several factors at once fall into the risk group for suicide: with a large number of episodes (more than 20), constant pressure from relatives, mental trauma or disorders in the past, and the presence of mental illness.

Self-Harm Concerns Everyone
According to studies by the International Journal of Ecological Research and Public Health, teenagers often than others resort to self-harm. At least 10% of young people in the world have reported self-harm, although recently researchers note that this number reaches 30%. But both preschool children and representatives of adulthood can injure themselves.

At the same time, women injure themselves often than men, choosing cuts, scratching wounds or pulling hair. Young men usually resort to blows against the wall with their whole bodies. It should be noted that homo- or bisexuality hidden from society increases the risk of self-harm.

The main reasons why people do harm to themselves are the desire to punish themselves for their behavior, feeling unworthy, or the desire to cope with emotions that cannot be approached.