I have been writing about my walks, Time to Talk day and about self-kindness, and now on Self Injury Awareness Day I will talk about an issue particularly close to my heart.
As a teenager I used to self injure. Most people around me knew about it, I wasn’t really able to think about hiding it at the time. People reacted in many different ways, and some were helpful, and some were not. I can imagine it would have been a hard thing to see, and hard to know how to react. And by raising awareness of this issue I hope that if you notice that someone self injures or if they tell you about this, that you show them compassion, support, and understanding.
For me, the simplest way to explain my self-injury, is that I was in so much distress, pain and anxiety that I couldn’t understand this myself, let alone reach out and express this to someone to get support. Self-injury was something tangible, and meant I was able to see that my pain was real. I also felt that it was my fault I felt the way I did, I felt I deserved the pain more than the support.
I remember a PE teacher spoke to me at the end of one of my classes, and she simply told me that she had noticed the injuries, and if I wanted to talk to someone she was there. I wasn’t ready to talk at that time and didn’t know her well, but this was such a supportive thing to be told.
I was able to overcome everything I was going through with the help of counselling and cognitive behaviour therapy, but the first thing my therapist talked about with me was my safety while I was continuing to self-injure. It’s important to realise that the reasons behind self-injury may take a long time to address, so safety is important first.
If you are concerned about someone, bear in mind that this is a coping mechanism, and be kind.
If you want to know more about self-injury and how you can help, here are some fact sheets for friends, family, teachers, and healthcare professionals as well as for people who self-injure
http://www.lifesigns.org.uk/fact-sheets/
threepeaksformind 