self injury myths

Self-injury mythsLifeSIGNS - Self-Injury Guidance & Network Support

www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS My name is Wedge

Who self-injures

Anyone can turn to self-injury

▸ Self-injury doesn’t discriminate

▸ All ages

▸ All genders

▸ What about different societies? Different cultures?

www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

What drives a person to self-injury

Stress and distress

▸ Low self-esteem

▸ Perfectionism and high achievement

▸ Poor body image

▸ Trauma and abuse

▸ Other mental health issues


Why self-injury ‘works’

Self-injury re-focuses the mind

▸ Release from overwhelming emotion

▸ Relief from cyclical thoughts

▸ Physical pain and self-care

▸ State change

▸ Anchoring

▸ Control


Myths

www.lifesigns.org.uk/self-injury-myths

Mostly, women self-injure.

Many people, including statisticians and the media

Self-injury myths


The majority of collected stats show women get more help

▸ It’s not correct to imagine that a ‘few’ men turn to self-injury.

▸ Our work, and large studies, shows that men can turn to self-injury in similar ways to women.

▸ Self-injury is a coping behaviour, something some people rely on when under stress or in difficult situations – it isn’t sex or gender based.

▸ But there are gendered differences in behaviour, owing to culture and up-bringing.

▸ See http://men.lifesigns.org.uk


But it’s mostly a teen white girl thing, yeah?

The media, including TV dramas

Self-injury myths


Young people are more likely to start self-injuring than older adults

▸ Young people of all ages (pre-teen to early adulthood) are more likely to turn to self-injury than older adults, but this includes boys, lads and men.

▸ A further concern is the lack of support available to adults who self-injure, and older adults who have been hurting themselves since childhood, or who begin to injure in later life.

▸ There are fewer statistics about people who self-injure in certain countries, and people within certain cultures within the UK. Evidence suggests that culture, not race, plays an important role in the way a person learns to cope with mental health concerns, emotional turbulence, stress, trauma and abuse. Repressive upbringing can influence a person to become secretive and emotionally repressed. As an example, some people within UK Asian cultures hurt themselves in specific ways in order to be certain to keep their self-injury hidden.

▸ See www.lifesigns.org.uk/adult-self-injury


Self-injury is attention seeking.

So many people

Self-injury myths


People need attention

▸Most people who self-injury keep it to themselves

▸Many feel shame

▸When a person is in need of attention, it’s bizarre to belittle them

▸ This myth is fuelled by some photos online. Sharing wounds and scars is complex behaviour - let’s discuss.


Self-injury is a suicide attempt; it’s parasuicide.

Some NHS statisticians

Self-injury myths


Self-injury is a coping mechanism

▸Habitual self-injury, as a way of coping, is separate from suicidal behaviour

▸Self-injury does not lead to suicide; despair does

▸Suicidal behaviour can co-present with self-injury


You have to be mentally ill to self-injure.

Logical people

Self-injury myths


You don’t need to be mentally ill to be suffering mental distress

▸ Self-injury is not a disorder; it might indicate a disorder or show that something is wrong

▸ Self-injury is a coping mechanism, a behaviour that some people rely on in times of stress, emotional distress, and / or traumatic events

▸ Low-self esteem is not, in itself, a mental illness

▸ People with many kinds of mental illness might turn to self-injury, as a coping mechanism and for other reasons


Self-injury is addictive.

Some people who self-injure

Self-injury myths


It may feel like the only thing that works

▸ Self-injury is a behaviour

▸ People can choose to change their behaviours (as opposed to what their bodies are physically reliant upon)

▸ People can become psychologically addicted to lots of things, but automatic enrolment in ‘addiction therapies’ is not often the best step

▸ Endorphins; cortisol; serotonin; dopamine; etc.

▸ Self-injury can become the automatic and relied upon coping mechanism


Self-injury is ‘cutting’.

The media, parents, and many health care providers

Self-injury myths


Self-injury and self-harm cover a wide range of behaviours

▸ Not everything leaves a scar. Not everything is obvious.

▸ Self-injury is a coping mechanism. An individual harms their physical self to deal with emotional pain, or to break feelings of numbness by arousing sensation.

▸ Self-harm is a bigger umbrella term.

▸ The method of hurting might be very important to the person, but is not our focus.

▸ We must address the underlying emotional drivers.


Only someone who does it can understand.

Some people who self-injure

Self-injury myths


Actually, it can be shocking to think about hurting yourself as a form of healing

▸ Self-injury is a difficult behaviour to sympathise with for some

▸ It should be easier to sympathise, and empathise, with a person in emotional distress

▸ Without self-injury, some people do worse things. Some people cannot function.

▸ New choices, new ways of thinking and new ways of behaving must be embedded before self-injury is reduced.


People who self-injure don’t feel the pain.

Amateur psychologists

Self-injury myths


Yeah no

▸ For many, the pain is a focus for the mind, bringing relief from chaos or numbness.

▸ For some, the pain is felt less, yet needed to focus.

▸ People who dissociate might not feel the pain in the same way as at other times.


The worse the damage, the bigger the problem.

Loads of people, including some people who self-injure :(

Self-injury myths


Severity does not indicate emotional pain

▸Destroy this myth

▸Destroy the need for ever deeper wounds to be taken seriously


•Once you’ve told someone, things automatically get better

• Self-injury is a trend

• Celebrities need ever more extreme activities

• Self-injury mostly affects the privileged

Suggested by Wadham College, Oxford

Self-injury myths


self injury myths

Healthcare