Anyone could be a self injurer. People of both genders, all shapes, sizes, races, and age groups self injure. Mostly it is teenage girls and women between the ages of 11 and 45. About 1 in every 200 people in the U.S. self injure. People say that they usually started to SI between the ages of eleven and their early teens.
Usually there has been some form of neglet or abuse in the persons childhood, or at some point in their life; whether it is physical, verbal, sexual, or emotional. Often self injurers have an untreated mental disorder such as depression, MPD, PTS, or someother mental illness. (Most people who SI have some form of depression.) With professional help the above can be treated, and so can SI.
Anyone could be a self injurer, your friend, a co-worker, a parent, a teacher, a student, a spouse, a neighbor, a member of your church, or a sibling. If someone you know is a self injurer, offer to help them get the professional help they need, but do not force them into it unless it is severe and you feel their life is threatened. It has to be their own choice, or no good will come of it. People can only be helped if they want to be. |
