Self-harm is an unhealthy way of diliberatley harming your own body to cope with emotional pains, intense angers, and/or frustrations. Self-harm is not only caused by emotions, it can be also caused by difficult or painful experiences. The person self harming themselves may also not be receiving the support and/or emotional outlet they need and are lacking. Neglection, bullying, and handling intolerable pressures can also be the cause of self harm. Since most of these causes are not physically seen by others, you may not know who is actually self harming if you want to take action and help. There are many signs/symptoms a person gives that can prove they are self-harming themselves. Some are:

SIGNS:

-cutting/burning scars

-banging head on objects/hitting our head

-putting yourself in danger

-having unsafe/unprotected sex

SYMPTOMS

-unexplained wounds/scars

-sharp objects/cutting instruments

-frequent “accidents”

-covering up

-needing to be alone for long periods of time

-isolation and irritability.

Self-harm hurts you physically, mentally, and emotionally. It hurts you physically because you’re injuring your body in an unhealthy way. Mentally, because you have so many thoughts and feelings that you don’t know how to deal with. Lastly, emotionally because you’re in pain, you know it but you keep doing it because your emotions keep getting in the way of you thinking clearly.

When you self-harm you’re not only hurting yourself, you’re also hurting your family and friends. You make your family and friends worry which makes them suffer. They end up feeling guilty that they weren’t able to stop you from hurting yourself on purpose.  Some family/friends end up feeling ashamed of you because they think it is a sign of weakness.

A lot of people find it disrespectful when someone is cutting or hurting and others call them “emo”.  It is very disrespectful because you make yourself seem very rude. “Emo” is just a stereotype that the majority of people have against others who dress rocker-like. Emo is actually a style of rock music. You shouldn’t call someone that because they will find it offensive. Some people don’t know that “emo” means emotional, so they use the term in a wrong way. Everyone has feelings so therefore everyone is emotional so people shouldn’t be referring to only certain people like that just by what they think they are doing to themselves, but are not actually sure about.

Many people who self-harm have in mind that they cannot receive any help because they feel like no one understands them, when there is actually a big amount of people who experienced the same situation or even worse, but they over came it. They are many ways that you can actually help a person who you believe is self harming themselves. For example,

-Calling the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to (800)273-8255.

-Confide on someone else you know can help, can be just a friend or a professional.

-Try to figure out why you harm yourself

-Work on your self esteem. Just know it NOT your fault.

-Individual and family therapy for a supportive enviroment.

-Text “CTL” to 741741 for supportive help and advice

Your can also visit the websites below for additional help:

us.reachout.com

helpguide.com