Some Facts on Self Infliction
To some people, self infliction sounds like a scary thing. Maybe you know somebody who deliberately hurts himself. It may be a relative, a friend, a member of your family, or it can even be yourself. A lot of people can’t understand why someone would purposely hurt himself. Sometimes even the self inflictor doesn’t know why he keeps doing it. All he knows is that it’s somewhat addicting in a psychotic kind of way. But it also seems like the only outlet he has from all the problems that bombards him. It seems unexplainable, but whenever he hurts himself the pain from within subsides and he feels a sense of relief in a way. I decided to research on this and here is what I came up with.
Self injury, self mutilation or self harm doesn’t necessarily mean that the person wants to die or commit suicide. In fact, These acts may be aimed at relieving otherwise unbearable emotions and sensations of unreality and numbness. It is a symptom of depressive disorders and is sometimes associated with mental illlness, a history of trauma and abuse including emotional abuse, sexual abuse, eating disorders, or mental traits such as low self esteem or perfectionism, but a statistical analysis is difficult, as many self-injurers conceal their injuries.
Wikipedia defines self infliction as "a common belief regarding self-injury is that it is an attention-seeking behavior." The source also adds "many self-injurers are very self-conscious of their wounds and scars and feel guilty about their behaviour leading them to go to great lengths to conceal their behaviour from others. The person who self-injures is not usually seeking to end his or her own life; it has been suggested instead that he or she is using self-injury as a coping mechanism to relieve emotional pain or discomfort."
Self harm is not to be taken for granted. If you know someone who hurts himself, do not ignore him. Talk to the person and comfort him. Let him know people love and care about him. Assure the person that hurting oneself is not the answer to his problems and that time will heal everything. Further research on the matter will also help widen your knowledge in regards to this matter.
