Self-Harm

Its not as rare as people believe. We hide it, we keep it a secret from the world. Most of the time because we are ashamed of what we do and why we do it. Here are some statistics:

* The group with the highest rates of self-harm are young women aged 15-19 years. In all age groups, females are more likely to self-harm than males.
* Self-harm can involve different degrees of risk to life, ranging from a wish to die through to self-harm being used as a coping strategy which allows the person to carry on living. The acts can range from high degree of seriousness resulting in coma, irreversible damage, need for intensive care, through to physical injuries which do not require medical attention.
* Acts of self-harm, particularly habitual self-injury such as self-cutting, are often seen by others as manipulative or attention-seeking. However those who do self-harm have usually lived through very difficult and painful experiences and describe their behaviour as a way of coping with overwhelming feelings and gaining a sense of control.
* Several studies have shown that approximately one out of every 100 people who are seen at hospital for self-harm will die by suicide within a year of the self-harm. This is a suicide risk approximately 100 times that of the general population.
* Rates of self-harm in the UK are among the highest in Europe at 400 per 100,000 per year. self-harm rose dramatically from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, then decreased in the early 1980s but rose again by the end of the decade.
* Women are more likely than men to self-harm, however whereas women once showed two or three times the male rate, recent increases in self-harm by men have changed the female to male ratio to 1.6:1.
* Self Harm is not the same as Self Injury. The former includes minor drug overdoses and parasuicide (attempted suicide) where as the latter does not
* Depression is the most common psychiatric disorder in deliberate self-harm patients.
* The death of a major public figure can influence rates of self-harm, although there is not enough research to understand exactly what factors are involved.
* Approximately 1 in 10 teenagers self injure

Self-harm is a way of expressing very deep distress. Often, people don't know why they self-harm. It's a means of communicating what can't be put into words or even into thoughts and has been described as an inner scream. Afterwards, people feel better able to cope with life again, for a while.

People who harm themselves generally have

1. Issues or traumas that they have not accepted or resolved or
2. Intense emotional pain/ feelings

Types of intense emotional pain or feelings can be: Anger

* Self-Hatred – Often people who self harm feel bad about themselves, which may result in low self-esteem and lack of confidence.

* Despair

* Fear or Anxiety

* Guilt

* Sadness

* Emptiness

* Feeling unreal- This can happen when a person feels so out of touch with everything that they feel numb and alone but by harming themselves they feel more alive

Self-injurers come from all walks of life and all economic brackets. People who harm themselves can be male or female; gay, straight, or bi; Ph.D.s or high-school dropouts; rich or poor; from any country in the world.

all info taken from http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Self-Harm_Information#Statistics

I self harm. I do it because it makes me know that this is all real. Its also a way I can punish myself for the abuse. I hate myself, am very angry, i have high anxiety - i am always comparing myself to others, i suffer from paranoia, i am always lonely, i feel guilty, i feel empty too.

I want to stop but right now there is nothing else... i'm not ready to stop