People self harm for different reasons and may change over time. To deal with strong emotions like anger or sadness. To punish yourself for things you’ve done wrong. Make yourself feel normal. To distract or get relief from feelings. Being overwhelmed by Strong is a common reason such as sadness, guilt and hopelessness. Finding it difficult to put your feelings into words and may find your emotions physically uncomfortable. Or be aware of how you are feeling but find the emotions are unmanageable or unacceptable. Physical pain can distract you when you’re in emotional pain. It releases, brings relief and helps relieve pressure
To communicate and show others how you feel. A commen misconception is that its attention seeking most people try and hide it
A way of feeling in control of your body or environment. A person may dissociate, hence feel real when a person feels like they are detached from yourself from realty. This will more clearly explained and more in depth when we look at stress and anxiety. A method to stay in control of your daily life
A way of punishing yourself for feelings that you think are your fault. Even if a person did nothing wrong they may feel like they hate themselves. A person may not understand why they feel like this or be able to link their feelings to something that happened.
Displaced anger. May be angry towards a person or situation. But a person is unable to tell the person how they are feeling or sort the situation out
Many people self harm to deal with distress and can become a normal way to deal with life’s difficulties. Due to only bringing temporary relief the underlying issue is still there
People who self harm don’t usually want to die but can increase the risk of suicide as a person may unintentionally end their life