YOUTH & SELF-INJURY
“ And you cant fight the tears that ain ’ t coming , Or the moment of the truth in your lies . When everything feels like the movies , Yeah you bleed just to know you ’ re alive .”
--Iris by Goo Goo Dolls
This popular song lyric gives a glimpse of a growing and difficult problem that many youth are faced with today , self-injury . Self-injury is a behavior that is often misunderstood for not only those who struggle with it , but for those who are connected with them . Self-injury has been reported as the fastest growing adolescent problem . With this said , it is important to note that the actual prevalence of self-injury is hard to determine because statistics are often done in a clinical setting where those who are self-injuring are being seen for something else . There is a general consensus , however , that this phenomenon is becoming increasing popular ( Whitlock , Purington , & Gershkovich , 2009 ).
So what is self-injury ? Self-injury is intentional carving or cutting of the skin and subdermal tissue , scratching , burning , ripping or pulling skin or hair , bruising or breaking of bones ( Purington & Whitlock , 2004 ). Cutting is the most common of the self-injurious behaviors but a majority use multiple methods as found by Favazza & Conterio ( 1989 ).
There are many reasons why people self-injure . Common triggers include overwhelming emotion or emotional numbness . Some rather feel physical pain rather than the emotional pain or self-injure as away of feeling something . Other reasons include to feel control over one ’ s body and mind , express feelings , distract from other problems , to communicate needs , create visible and noticeable wounds , to purify oneself , re-enact trauma in an attempt to resolve it , and to protect others from one ’ s emotional pain ( DiLazzero , 2003 ).
“ My main goal in self-injury has just been to feel something … anything .”
– Jenny ( Ray , 2008 )
Self-injury is most commonly a private behavior with a significant amount of shame and guilt attached to it . Due to this ,
46 | Iowa Fall / Winter 2013-2014 | abusemagazine . org
Source : Andrew Eastwood