Self Injury

Self Injury - definition, why people self-injure? treatment.

Self-injury, also known as "Deliberate Self-Harm Syndrome," is the act of attempting to alter a mood state by inflicting deliberate, repetitive, impulsive but non-lethal physical harm serious enough to cause tissue damage to one's body. Approximately 1 % (an estimated 2 to 3 million) of the United States population uses self-injury as a way of dealing with overwhelming feelings or situations. In general, persons seeking treatment are from a middle to upper-class background, of average to high intelligence, and have low self-esteem. Nearly fifty percent report physical and/or sexual abuse during his or her childhood. Many report (as high as 90%) that they were discouraged from expressing emotions, particularly anger and sadness. The surprisingly young age of onset is between 10-16 years, and most self-injurers are women.

Self-injurers commonly report that they feel empty inside, over or under stimulated, unable to express their feelings, lonely, not understood by others and fearful of intimate relationships and adult responsibilities. Self injury is their way to cope with or relieve painful or hard-to-express feelings and is generally not a suicide attempt. Self injury is usually kept secret, and the injurer often feels deep shame and guilt from this ritual.

Self Injury Includes:

cutting (shallow wounds inflicted on arms, legs, or torso)
scratching
picking scabs or interfering with wound healing
burning/abrasions
punching or hitting self or objects
head-banging
carving, branding, or marking one's skin
bruising one's skin
biting
infecting oneself
inserting objects in body openings
bruising or breaking bones
some forms of skin and hair pulling

Why people self-injure?

They find it soothing

to feel pain on the outside instead of the inside
to cope with feelings
to express anger towards themselves
to feel alive and real

A way of communicating what they can't say with words

to tell people they need help
to get people's attention
to tell people they should be hospitalized

An attempt to get people to react to their actions

to get people to care for them
to make other people feel guilty
to drive people away
to get away from stress and responsibility
to manipulate situations or people

Treatment

The diagnosis for someone who self-injures can only be determined by a licensed psychiatric professional. Self-harm behavior can be a symptom of several psychiatric illnesses: Personality Disorders, Bipolar Disorder, Major Depression, Anxiety Disorders, as well as psychoses such as Schizophrenia. Thus the effective treatment is most often a combination of medication, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Interpersonal Therapy. Medication is often useful in the management of depression (Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, etc.), anxiety (Diazepam and Lorazepam), obsessive-compulsive behaviors (Prozac, Luvox, Paxil Zoloft), and the racing thoughts that may accompany self-injury. Sometimes it is necessary to send an adolescent to a Residential Treatment Center for long-time care.