youth and self-injury
Youth and Self-Injury
Self-Harm
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Self-injury is often a way to continue living and cope with whatever is
going on in their life without having to
attempt suicide.
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).
“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.”
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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,
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| Illinois Spring/Summer 2013 | abusemagazine.org
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--Iris by Goo Goo Dolls
“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, it is difficult to create a profile
of those that self injure. Because most
research is done in a clinical setting, selfinjury has been linked to childhood abuse
or trauma, especially childhood sexual
abuse, eating disorders, substance use,
post-traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, depression and
anxiety (Yates, 2004).
Even though the intent of self-injurers
is typically not suicide, there are many
dangers of this behavior. It can become
desperate and lack of self-control. It
has an addictive-like nature to it as the
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