Self-harm
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The article looks at the different sorts of self-harm and why someone might do it. It discusses:
- some of the help available
- what you can do to help yourself
- what friends or family can do to help.
What is self-harm?
Self-harm happens when you hurt or harm yourself. You may:
- take too many tablets – an overdose
- cut yourself
- burn yourself
- bang your head or throw yourself against something hard
- punch yourself
- stick things in your body
- swallow things.
It can feel to other people that these things are done calmly and deliberately – almost cynically. But we know that someone who self-harms is usually in a state of high emotion, distress and unbearable inner turmoil. Some people plan it in advance; for others, it happens on the spur of the moment. Some people self-harm only once or twice, but others do it regularly – it can be hard to stop.
Some of us harm ourselves in less obvious, but still serious, ways. We may behave in ways that suggest we don’t care whether we liv...
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