Out Of The Darkness : Nonsuicidal Self Injury Essay

Alesia is a 14-year-old Caucasian female. She resides with her mother and is an only child. Alesia does not have a relationship with her father as she indicated he is a sociopath and abusive. She has ½ brother and a ½ sister, but does not have any communication. She was observed to be healthy, clean, and no marks or bruises visible. Alesia denied being touched inappropriately. She takes Adderall 30 mg for ADHD, birth control to regular her period, and Melotin to sleep.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has a number of features. First of all, every disorder is identified using a name and a numerical code. In addition, the manual provides the criteria for diagnosing each disorder as well as establishes subtypes of a disorder and examples that would illustrate the disorder. The manual goes further by addressing the typical age of onset, culturally related information, gender-related information, prevalence of a disorder, typical clinical course of a disorder, typical predisposing factors of a disorder and genetic family patterns of a disease (Summers, 2009). The DSM-IV is a tool that is used by mental health practitioners and social service workers. As has been demonstrated

The categorisation of mental illness continues today with 2 main publications, the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) created by the World Health Organisation and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) published by American Psychiatric Association. This form of categorisation facilities the process of medical treatment of the patient, by standardising the referral process between medical practioners and the diagnostic labels are primarily used as a, “convenient shorthand” among professionals and not for lay use”.

I used to be a cutter… but shh, don’t tell. Society didn't allow me to express my pain that way…Today’s society refuses to acknowledge many problems that teens deal with. People would rather believe in ‘happily ever after’ than face the truth, children are suffering. While it may seem to others that the problems are made up, its very real to the one dealing with them everyday. This suffering can leave permanent scars, and damage (if not ruin) their future. By remaining ignorant, self harm becomes more and more common, but at what cost? If educators and medical personnel were to be more educated on self harm and how to deal with it, teens and young adults would be more comfortable asking for help. Getttig rid of the stereotypes that

The Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders fifth edition (DSM-5) uses the term non suicidal self-injury. Self-injury is defined as “intentional self inflicted damage to the surface of his or her body of a sort likely to induce bleeding, bruising, or pain, with the expectation that the injury will lead to only minor or moderate physical harm”(American psychiatric Association, 2013,p803). There must be an absence of suicidal intent; this is either stated by the patient, or determined by the fact that the method of harm is not likely to result in death. Although often misunderstood and seen as an attention seeking more

When discussing suicide in class, we also learned about NSSI which is nonsuicidal self-injury. This is when someone hurts themselves physically without purposely trying to kill themselves. There are multiple explanations as to why someone would do this. One of the reasons, is to get attention from other people or use it as manipulation. In addition, a person might also do this to distract themselves from the emotional pain they are feeling. The physical injury gives them a sense of validation for the pain that they are experiencing on the inside. Lastly, the physical pain somehow lets them release their emotions.

Self mutilation is defined by experts as the act of intentionally harming one's body for emotional relief. There’s different ways people self harm, for example, cutting their skin, biting themselves, head banging, burning of the skin, punching and hitting themselves, scratching or pinching and even hair pulling. Along with the ways, in 1989 there was a survey only involving 240 females self harming in the US.

One factor that might increase an adolescent’s risk of engaging in NSSI is to numb “emotional pain or emotionally painful event because they are feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes adolescents will do self-mutilating to bring themselves back to reality or alternatively to numb themselves.” (Laureate) in which case the may cut themselves using razor blades, erasers or even burning themselves by branding.

In The Cutting Edge: Non Suicidal Self Injury in Adolescence written by Janis Whitlock, shows a great point of view on this disease. Janis Whitlock PHD is the director of the Cornell Research Program on Self-Injurious Behavior in Adolescents and Young Adults, and a research scientist in the Family Life Development Center at Cornell University (Whitlock 2006). Whitlock explains the definition NSSI was developed by the National International Society of Self Injury. NSSI has various forms that can describe this addiction. Practices such as cutting, ripping, carving words or symbols into the wrists, arms, legs, torso, or other areas of the body are just a few ways to self- harm. There is also banging of the head or punching objects on oneself to the point of bruising or bleeding. Whitlock continues to state some bite to the point of bleeding, pulling out their own hair, eyelashes, or eyebrows with the overt intention of hurting oneself. Methods such as tattooing and piercings, are not viewed as part of NSSI. In addition, self -harm includes intentionally preventing wounds from healing or burning the

Deliberate and repeated self-injuries are so common among adolescents that researchers have come to treat this phenomenon as a disorder—one that originates during adolescence. The DSM-V classification lists it as an independent nosological entity which takes on the form of deliberate self-mutilating without suicidal intentions (Nonsuicidal Self-Injury, NNSI). To better characterize their specific nature, six criteria have been distinguished. Criterion A refers to a specific frequency of self-destructive behaviors—for the disorder to be diagnosed, an individual must have engaged in deliberate self-injury (without suicidal intentions) on at least five days over the past year. Criterion B catalogs several effects of self-injury, at least one of

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a behavioral problem that happens when a person intentionally harms themselves repeatably by damaging and mutilating skin by cutting, burning, or hitting, etc., without the purpose of committing suicide. NSSI was often viewed as a symptom of personality disorder, like borderline personality disorder since it involved self-injury behavior that would lead to suicide (Zetterqvist, 2015). However, in recent studies, people who did non-suicidal self-injury did not have borderline personality disorder (Zetterqvist, 2015). The issue revolving around NSSI is the fact that even though NSSI is done without the intentions of committing suicide, studies have shown that the behavioral problem is a possible risk factor

When I first learned self harm, my opinion was that it was bad, and why would anyone do that, except now I understand. I got older and began to cut as my depression worsens and later my friend began to self harm. After looking at the risks that I and my friend took, I was so relieved that i'm still alive. I am no longer self harming, but only music and one of my friends help me the most and now i’m no longer self harming.

The American Psychiatric Association publishes the DSM-IV for medical personal to refer to when diagnosing patients. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition consist of three major components; diagnostic classification, diagnostic criteria set, and the descriptive text, which covers all mental health disorders for both children and adults. Some of the information covered by the DSM-IV includes known causes of disorders, statistics in terms of gender, and age of onset, prognosis and research concerning the optimal treatments available. This medical book is referred to when those interacting with the patient are trying to understand them and their disorder. It is also available for the payees to understand the

Deliberate self-harm is a term that covers a wide range of behaviours some of which are directly related to suicide and some are not. This is a relatively common behaviour that is little understood. This essay provides an overview of the nature and extent of those most at risk of self-harm, including causes and risk factors. Examining some of the stereotyping that surrounds self -harm, and looking at ways in which self-harm can be prevented.

With the NHSI method, individuals are assessed on a basis of points corresponding with symptoms, with a max of thirteen points, and minimum of four points to be diagnosed with schizophrenia. At least one of the points has to correspond with either of these symptoms: delusions, hallucinations, or bizarre thinking. The NHSI has the broadest definition of schizophrenia, and so it is mostly used for screening purposes. Because this method has such a broad definition, it is reliable and valid in diagnoses made for large groups of people. However, on an individual level, it is not very reliable or valid, as it only diagnoses schizophrenia correctly in a small percentage of individuals. The Flexible System for Diagnosis of Schizophrenia is an empirically