Self-Injury Awareness Day, Options for Support
March 1st is officially Self-Injury Awareness Day, so I’m sharing resources for support on this important topic that often isn’t talked about enough.
Self-injury, also called self-harm, is the intentional infliction of injury onto oneself in an attempt to manage emotions, without the intent to cause death. While it is frequently associated with adolescent girls, people of any gender and age group can and do engage in self-harm.
People find self-harm helpful for a variety of reasons. When you harm yourself physically, endorphins (our feel-good chemicals) are released, leading to a very briefly improved mood. Some people also find it helpful to see their emotional pain expressed in a way that is physical and therefore more visible. Others feel extreme guilt or shame that is relieved by the feeling of self-punishment that they receive from self-harming. Most often, it is a combination of things that contributes to someone self-harming. It turns into a cycle, where someone feels a significant amount of overwhelm and then tries to cope with that overwhelm by self-harming. After the act of self-harm, there are often feelings of shame and guilt about what was done:
This cycle can often be very difficult to get out of, especially when the person self-harming feels alone in what is happening.
Self-harm is frequently misunderstood, and this leads to increased distress and loneliness for people who are already struggling. Understanding more about what self-harm is and is not can help you to support yourself and/or others who may be self-harming. Here are some common myths about self-harm, as well as some truths:
If you are struggling with self-harm, you deserve to have as much help and support as you need to find other coping strategies and work through the difficulties that led you to begin harming yourself originally. Finding a therapist is really important, as is support from others in your life. Below are some free resources that can be a good support, though not a replacement for therapy:
https://www.crisistextline.org/topics/self-harm/#what-is-self-harm-1
https://www.mhanational.org/find-support-groups
https://www.advocates.org/events/virtual-support-group-self-injury-virtual-support
What if it is not you who is self-harming, but a friend? While you can’t “solve” things for them, there is a lot that you an do to still be helpful. Below are some tips for supporting a friend, borrowed from the NHS in the UK:
Self-harm can feel really isolating, but it doesn’t have to be. If you or someone you know is struggling, reach out to a therapist or one of the above resources for support. It may not feel possible right now, but you can live a life without self-injury, and help from others can make that more possible.
