A Focus on Self-Harm

An article focus on self-harm and the reasons behind it. Based on personal experience.

Mental health continues to be one of the greatest challenges facing generations in our society today and should be a concern on everyone’s minds as it affects us all. The most common types of mental health issues are suicide, self-harm and depression, with the UK having one of the highest self-harm rates in Europe, at 400 per 100,000 population.* Having had personal experience with self-harm, I will try to establish whether self-harm is a symptom of depression, an addiction or a requirement for attention.

 

Depression

The term ‘depression’ is often used to describe a variety of mental health related symptoms such as mood swings, fatique and lack of interest in life. Many people who suffer from depression don’t realise that they are ill; under the illusion that their moods are punishment for appearance or events out of their control. It is known that those who suffer from depressive episodes, are diagnosed once they have experienced a minimum of two core symptoms in a single day, but can this be solely related to self-harm? I don’t believe so. When you suffer from severe depressive episodes, suicidal thoughts can enter your mind. What a lot of people don’t understand is that self-harm is not always associated with the need to commit suicide but has a deeper motive. 

 

Living with tragedy

Growing up, there was a girl in my year group who religiously cut her arms and showed other pupils. This was the first time I had ever encountered such actions and I became intrigued to understand that meaning behind it. The particular pupil never committed suicide, nor did she attempt to. The idea was, from where I was standing, was that she couldn’t find a release for her feelings, whether they be anger, hurt, frustration or sadness, and so she found release in a way she had seen others do the same. A year or so later, a friend of mine attempted suicide. The difference between the girls was that the one who tried to take her own life was the quiet one, the one who didn’t moan about her problems or drag attention to her personal difficulties. She didn’t even tell anyone when she tried, and thankfully failed, to take her life. It was the scars behind her scarf that set her secret free. 

 

Having grown up in the midst of such troubles, I was shocked almost on a daily basis to see people resort to dramatic actions as a release, so it is without disbelief that I read the tragic stories of so many teenage suicides in Britain. 

 

But why self-harm? 

This question has a different answer for every self-harmer. Some people use it as a reason to get attention and those are usually the ones who harm maybe once or twice in their lives and tell everyone about it. Having known self-harm victims very closely, I believe self-harm is an addiction. When an alcoholic becomes an alcoholic, their problems are blurred by the intake of alcohol. When times get tough, they turn to drink. A drug addict does the same; finding comfort in substances that numb the pain and stop them from dealing with the worries of their world. A self-harmer does the same. 

 

What links self-harm to depression and other mental health issues is that it occurs when times are rough, but what about on a good day? If you ask a self-harm victim to list the amount of times they have taken an object to their skin, I doubt they will be able to tell you truthfully. Most people don’t realise when someone has self-harmed, as with any other addiction, the addicted person finds new ways of hiding the scars; long-sleeved tops, scarves, coats, make-up, plasters, excuses. 

 

One victim I know has tried to commit suicide on three occasions, each of which were thankfully failed attempts, and self-harms on a regular basis. The motive for self-harm is not always clear. She tells me that she has once cut her face, even on a good day, because she missed the feeling of release that it gave her. She goes on to say “seeing your skin bleed is a strange feeling. The first few cuts always hurt. Then you stop feeling it and you can’t stop.” After further discussions, I found out that she had only attempted suicide when times were really tough, unsurprisingly, during her time in secondary school. After undergoing weekly therapy to remove the suicidal thoughts and help her deal with the issues causing them, she tells me that she hasn’t felt suicidal since. Nevertheless, she continues to inflict harm onto herself. 

 

What this tells me, is that suicide and self-harm are not directly linked. Those who commit or attempt suicide, do so for far deeper, more traumatic reasons than those who self-harm. Inflicting pain causes a rush of adrenaline, which many people associated with the psychology term ‘fight or flight’. The victim gets so used to the high it causes, that it becomes normal to inflict pain on one’s self therefore I strongly believe that self-harm should be treated as an addiction rather than a sympton of something bigger.

 

 

 

*Self-poisoning and self-injury in adults, Clinical Medicine, 2002