Sense of failure: the scale of young people who self-harm.

In The Guardian, relating to a study by The Priory, published today, lots of lovely statistics :)

www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/

Although focusing on statistics has been useful to some extent in making the wider world realise that it so incredibly common, I am of the belief that such statistics are of very little to use to those of us that actually do self-harm. Nor do I believe that such articles go anywhere to help other people’s understanding of the behaviour. A recent article in the Metro described self-harm as being somewhat passe – I myself have a tendency to skim over articles, knowing that I have read the same things before i.e. more common than you think, not necessarily about suicide, alarming proportions of young girls etc etc and have some concern that people may feel that because they have already heard of it they think they already know about it.

What I would like to see in a national paper is an article that talks about why we do it, so that someone who reads it may go away understanding some of the feeling that can precede an act of self-harm, to have some idea of the incredible mental stress that is accompanied by a strong urge to self-harm, or to be aware that sometimes we hurt ourselves because we feel nothing at all.

Self-harm is complex, and I believe that the issue to be most concerned about is not the behaviour but these feelings that drive you to want to do such a thing. Statistics will not give you the information you need to help you understand, and be able to help, and they only serve to focus on the behaviour itself. Trying to stop self-harming is not something you can do until you replace the behaviour – which is in itself a coping mechanism – with something healthier, but statistics don’t tell you that.

And finally, this article refers to its addictive nature. While it may be something to do with these natural endorphins supposed to be released after an act of self-harm, it overlooks the other reason it can become such a compulsion – the fact that it works so well at making us feel better.