Self Injury In Adolescents

“Why Teenagers Cut, and How to Help,” by Jessica Lahey was quite an interesting article to read. This article talked about many things associated with teenagers cutting themselves and how parents, teachers and other adults could help prevent teens from causing self-injuries such as cuts to the body. It first started with the author talking about a girl named Sarah that she met. Sarah was a 15-year-old teenager who was at the age of twelve causing self-injuries by cutting herself which she felt made her feel better do to one of her parents abusing her. The author used Sarah’s story to understand what causes teens to make self-injuries by asking “Dr. Michael Hollander who is the director of Training and Consultations of 3East Dialectical Behavioral Therapy program. This program is at the McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. As a matter of fact, he also is the author of “Helping Teens Who Cut: Understanding and Ending Self-Injury” ().

Many people think that self-harm is no big deal. “It’s just for attention,” they say “they’re not really hurting themselves… right?” Wrong. Self-harm is a HUGE deal. In fact, it is 40-100 times more common than suicide. Suicide has been around for ages, while self-harm is a new trend that has been growing since the mid 1990’s, and the numbers are still skyrocketing. Self-harm was three times more common in 2011 than in 2007. Now, tell me that you think that that isn’t a big deal. Statistics show that 1% of the United States self-harms. So imagine you are in a room with 200 other people. It is likely that two of these people hurt themselves. Sometimes it is daily, other times it may just be occasional. Two people may not seem like a lot, but in reality it is.

The guideline chosen for this discussion is the: Self-harm in over 8s: long-term management. This guideline discusses the long-term psychological treatment and management of single and recurrent episodes of self-harm. This guideline is a follow-up to a clinical guideline entitled Self-harm: the short-term physical and psychological management and secondary prevention of self-harm in primary and secondary care. This guideline was concerned with the treatment of self-harm within the first 48 hours of the incident. Both guidelines were developed with the help of multidisciplinary health professionals, individuals who self-harm and their families to help clinicians provide and plan the highest quality of care to people over the age of 8 years old whom self-harm (National Institute for Health and Care

Teens and young adults resort to various outlets with hopes of coping with the pressures they face. Some stress-relieving activities involve eating comforting food or watching TV. For some, however, these activities do not provide adequate stress relief, so they attempt to escape their anxieties through a recently recognized self-mutilating disorder called “cutting.” While gaining more attention in recent years, cutting is still not a well-known practice, yet an estimated 700 out of every 100,000 individuals self-mutilate (Froeschle). Even celebrities like Angelina Jolie have admitted to cutting (Mann). The best way to discourage the practice of cutting is to learn more about

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

“For youth between the ages of 10 and 24, suicide is the third leading cause of death, approximately 4600 lives lost each year. Of the reported suicides in the 10 to 24 age group, 81% of the deaths were males and 19% were females. The top three methods used in suicides of young people include firearm (45%), suffocation (40%), and poisoning (8%)” (CDC, 2015). The school is not an easy step to take, and a lot of students suffer from anxiety attacks caused by stress and depression. Sadly, these students usually don’t seek help or maybe they just simply don’t know where to go for the help. “The costs of suicidal behaviors and the savings that can result from preventing these behaviors can help convince policymakers and other stakeholders that suicide prevention is an investment that will save dollars as well as lives” (SPRC, 2015).

As the time goes by more and more psycologist and sociologists are concerned about the inclination of children and teenagers to harm themeselves. Self-harm which is the intentional self-poisoning or self-injury, with or without suicidal intent) in children and adolescents has been identified as a major problem in several countries. Much recent information on self-harm in young people has been based on surveys, usually in schools [3,4]. This has highlighted the extent of the problem at the community level. Most individuals who gain access to clinical care, however, have presented to hospital following-harm. However, only a minority of individuals who self-harm in the community present to hospital or any health facility .

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

Each day, 95 people in the United States die by suicide. No one is immune to this tragic act regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender, geographic location, and socioeconomic status. Suicide is especially prevalent in the adolescent and young adult populations, and is the third leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10 and 24 (Borges et al., 2010). Within the group of 10- to 14 year-olds, most deaths by suicide occur in children and adolescents ages 12-14, with the rate of suicide deaths increasing dramatically in the late teen years. The rate of suicidal behavior continues to increase until the early twenties, at which points it drops off until late

There is a danger that comes with self injury cutting that can cause mental damage. The act of cutting yourself leaves deep emotional scars that go way beyond the physical cutting. Cutting when used as a way to respond to a stress that you may be facing can cause your brain to remember to choose this form of relief whenever stressed or depressed.

The main reason why I decided to enroll in this class was because I want to become more familiar with self-harming behaviors as a future social worker in order to best serve my clients. I hoped to gain knowledge of the reasons for self-harm, how to recognize symptoms or risk factors for self-harm, and how to best assist individuals who engage in self-harming behaviors. Already I have learned the four reasons a person self-harms; emotion regulation, anti-numbness, anti-suicide, and self-punishment. It is important to validate the client and their reason why they self-harm, but not excuse the behavior. Self-injury is a prevalent behavior, especially among adolescents, therefore it is vital to be knowledgeable in this subject as a future social worker.

A useful definition of self-harm is from Professor Keith Hawton (Hawton et al., 2006. p29). An act with a non-fatal outcome in which an individual deliberately did one or more of the following;

Self-harm amongst the Australian adolescent population, is a confronting public health issue due to both the immediate and potentially long-term physical and psychological

The study provides evidence that several of the hypothesized risk factors for self-harm (sexual abuse, child separation, etc.) warrant further consideration. Most researchers have examined the relationship between childhood trauma and self-harm behavior, concluding that early trauma is a factor within the development of self-harm. It is said discussing info regarding frequency, age, areas of the body injured and degrees of relief are crucial to discuss. Predictors of self-harm are said to be: insecure attachment, childhood separation, emotional neglect, sexual abuse, and dissociation. 133 undergraduate students were included in this study, 67% being female and the rest male. The study involved multiple self-report questionnaires such as the deliberate self-harm inventory to assess various aspects of DSH as well as abuse frequency.

The peer reviewed and academic articles we used were derived from the studies of developed parts of the world such as the U.S or the U.K. Due to this, we can’t formulate or report on trends and incidence rates among all populations of adolescents’ in school settings. This leads to another gap because a majority of the studies that relate to self- harming in school settings were based in the U.S or the U.K as opposed to Australia. This is an important gap to fill because their protocols and reviews would presumably differ from our own.