| Self harm |
| What is it? |
| Support for family, friends etc. of self harmers |
| Well, I suppose there are a million and one ways to define self harm, but I'm gonna give the official text book definition, which I guess is about right, but because every individual is totally different, I guess it's a pretty 'general' view. Every person that self harms has their own way of doing it, reason for doing it and so on and so forth.... (oooh posh phrases!!) So here we are with the 'professionals' definition: |
| WHAT IS IT? |
| Now I'm gonna give a wider view of what self harm actually is, along with a few examples, this may also help if there's anyone out there that isn't exactly sure if what they do is classed as 'self harm' But please remember, as we are not professionals, don't take every word we say to be 100% correct, everything we know comes from secondary sources, so please don't sue our asses for being wrong :( ~ Deliberately causing physical harm to yourself to the extent of causing tissue damage (breaking the skin, bruising, leaving marks that last for more than an hour) ~ Causing this harm to yourself as a way of dealing with unpleasant or overwhelming emotions, thoughts, or situations (including dissociation) The way you choose to hurt yourself could be cutting, hitting, burning, scratching, skin-picking, banging your head, breaking bones, not letting wounds heal, pulling out hair, biting, among others. Possibly more than one of these. |
| This page is to educate, inform and to try to help those who hurt themselves and people around them understand that Self Harmers are not nut cases, freaks, weirdo's or Satanists. They're people - with a lot of repressed pain, who have developed a coping mechanism that, while maladaptive in terms of the "normal" world, works for them. |
| Excellent resources - this page is an absolute must if you want to know more |
| Real life - find out the truth behind the scars |