Upload
lifesigns
View
1.193
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Self-injury mythsLifeSIGNS - Self-Injury Guidance & Network Support
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS My name is Wedge
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
Stress and distress
▸ Low self-esteem
▸ Perfectionism and high achievement
▸ Poor body image
▸ Trauma and abuse
▸ Other mental health issues
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
Self-injury re-focuses the mind
▸ Release from overwhelming emotion
▸ Relief from cyclical thoughts
▸ Physical pain and self-care
▸ State change
▸ Anchoring
▸ Control
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
Mostly, women self-injure.
Many people, including statisticians and the media
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
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
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
But it’s mostly a teen white girl thing, yeah?
The media, including TV dramas
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
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
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
Self-injury is attention seeking.
So many people
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
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.
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
Self-injury is a suicide attempt; it’s parasuicide.
Some NHS statisticians
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
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
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
You have to be mentally ill to self-injure.
Logical people
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
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
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
Self-injury is addictive.
Some people who self-injure
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
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
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
Self-injury is ‘cutting’.
The media, parents, and many health care providers
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
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.
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
Only someone who does it can understand.
Some people who self-injure
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
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.
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
People who self-injure don’t feel the pain.
Amateur psychologists
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
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.
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
The worse the damage, the bigger the problem.
Loads of people, including some people who self-injure :(
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS
Severity does not indicate emotional pain
▸Destroy this myth
▸Destroy the need for ever deeper wounds to be taken seriously
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS