Self-harm is a way of dealing with deep emotional pain. Hurting myself made me feel better when it was the only way I knew how to cope with feelings like anxiety, sadness, self-loathing, emptiness, guilt and rage. It’s an outward expression of inner pain—pain that often has its roots in early life.

It may start as an impulsive reaction. It may start simply out of curiosity.

Self-harm behavior can occur at any age, including the elderly population. The risk of serious injury and suicide is higher in older people who self-harm.

Self-harm includes anything you do to intentionally injure yourself. 80% of self-harm involves cutting the skin with a sharp object. Some of the other ways include:

• Hitting yourself or banging your head, punching things
• Binge drinking and taking too many drugs
• Intentionally picking scabs, interfering with wound healing (dermatillomania)
• Hair pulling (trichotillomania)

The relief is short lived, and is quickly followed by other feelings like shame and guilt. The painful truth is that people who self-harm generally do so in secret. Keeping the secret from friends and family members is difficult and lonely.

It causes far more problems than it solves:

• You can hurt yourself badly, even if you don’t mean to. It’s easy to misjudge the depth of a cut or end up with an infected wound.
• If you don’t learn other ways to deal with emotional pain, it puts you at risk for bigger problems down the line, including major depression, drug and alcohol addiction and suicide.
• Self-harm can become addictive. It often turns into a compulsive behavior that seems impossible to stop.

If you’re ready to get help for self-harm, the first step is to confide in another person. Ask yourself who in your life makes you feel accepted and supported. It could be a friend, teacher, religious leader, counselor or relative.

Understanding why you cut or self-harm is a vital first step toward your recovery. What feelings make you want to cut or hurt yourself? Sadness? Anger? Shame? Loneliness? Guilt? Emptiness? For me, it is mostly anxiety and stress that causes me most to self-harm.

Self-harm is a way of dealing with feelings and difficult situations. So, if you’re going to stop, you need to have alternative ways of coping in place so you can respond differently when you start to feel like cutting or hurting yourself. Here are a few suggestions:

• Paint, draw or scribble, express your feelings in a journal, compose a poem or song.
• Write down any negative feelings and then rip the paper up.
• Pet or cuddle with a dog or cat; call a friend.
• Squeeze a stress ball or squish Play-Doh or clay.
• Put rubber bands on wrists and snap them instead of cutting or hitting.

If you want professional help, seek a counselor - someone that specializes in self-harm. The patient has to want to do it or it will never happen. It'll be okay, coming from a former victim.

For more information, go to: http://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/self-injury/10-w...