Understanding Teens Who Self Injure Essay

There are many possible reasons why a person may engage in self-injurious behavior, ranging from biochemical to the social environment. The reason will be different for most children. According to. For example, if a child engages in wrist-biting and excessive self-scratching, there may be different a reason for each behavior (see Edelson, Taubman and Lovaas, 1983) also other challenging behaviors can co-occur with SIB, particularly in individuals with ASD (Banda, McAfee, & Hart, 2012; Kerth, Progar, & Morales, 2009; Rooker & Roscoe, 2005) and other developmental disabilities (Lerman, Iwata, Smith, & Vollmer, 1994; Pace, Iwata, Edwards, & McCosh, 1986; Smith, Iwata, Vollmer, & Pace, 1992). Another reason why an individual may engage in self-injurious behavior is to obtain an object or event (Durand 1986; Durand & Cremmins, 1988). Some individuals engage in self-injury to avoid or escape an 'aversive ' social encounter (Carr et al., 1976; Edelson et al., 1983).

Self harm is an mental health issue that not a lot of people know about. Self harm is “...the act of deliberately harming your own body, such as cutting or burning yourself” (www.mayoclinic.org). It is an issue that people do not like to talk about and especially in schools. Statistics showed that in 2014, 110% of teen girls per 100,000 self-harmed; and it has increased from 23% to 35% that teen boys self-harm (Michelle). Overall, about 15% of Canadian teenagers self harm (Kids Help Phone). Although many teenagers self harm, people do not think about if adults self harm. Statistics showed that in 2006, 54% of adults between the ages of 30 and 64 self harmed (Public Agency Of Canada). Those who self harm may be suicidal, but they do not

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 .

Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior. Past occurrences may cause someone to act in a certain way, especially within social situations. Deliberate Self-Harm (DSH) is a behavior in which a person commits an act with the purpose of physically harming themselves with or without real suicidal intent. Self-harm is most often related to going through trauma in childhood rather than as an adult. There are many reasons why people are known to self-harm; a lot of the time it is to help feel the pain they are feeling on the inside in another way. One of the reasons a person may self-harm is due to a high rate of childhood sexual or physical abuse within their past. Despite people’s beliefs, people who suffer from a self-harm disorder are not doing it for attention. If someone sees cuts or scars on someone’s wrists or legs, their immediate reaction is that it is from attention. In reality people who self-harm are not doing it for attention and a lot of the time these people take every precaution to hide the cuts to not be questioned about it. There has been research conducted on many aspects that tie into this behavior; research that involves both men and women, the outcomes of childhood abuse, and more. Together, these articles of research

14 to 24 percent of adolescents in recent research tell us that they have self-injured sometime in their life. Most often it's cutting, but it also

Attempted suicide and NSSI are distinctly different. NSSI is a behavior where the child or teen deliberately inflicts tissue damage to himself or herself without the intent to die. Whereas, attempted suicide is performed with some intent to die. Adolescents, who repeatedly administer self-injury without the intention to die, exhibit this sort of negative behavior seeking out attention or to “see if anyone loves [them]”. (p. 2) Research has shown that deeper symptoms of depression are more prevalent in those who engage in both attempted suicide and NSSI. These cases are deemed more clinically severe than those who do not display both behaviors. They experience low self-esteem and have a very high negative outlook of themselves. There impulse to calm their pain or to end their anxiety takes over their logical thinking. Adolescents with a history of attempted suicide are more repulsed with life and idealize death. NSSI behaviors have been proven to be predictors of future suicidal

Self-harm also known as self-injury, self-abuse, self-mutilation occurs when someone internationally and repeatedly harms herself/himself in a way that is impulsive and not intended to be lethal. “Self harm, often referred to as cutting”. Cutting is an self-injurious behavior where a student uses a sharp object such as: a razor blade and a knife to inflict physical pain. Although cutting is one of the most common and well documented forms, there are many things people do to hurt themselves (Bells 1). Self-harming behavior can include variety of methods of self injury (pearlman 1). Studies have documented over 16 forms of self-injury and there may well be more than that (Bells 1). Most common methods are scratching, burning, carving, hitting, punching or pulling out hair. Self-injury can be and is performed on any part of the body, but most often occurs on the hands, wrists, stomach and thighs. The severity of the act can vary from superficial wounds to those resulting in lasting disfigurement (Bells

Mrug and Windle (2010) explored violence by internalizing and externalizing problems among adolescents. When an adolescent externalizing the problem, Mrug and Windle stated that the aggression and delinquency he or she is feeling is related to witnessing violence or victimization in the community, home and/or school. Likewise, it is stated that internalizing the problems such as depression and anxiety are related to violence exposure at school, in the community, and/or at home.

Self-harm is harming oneself intentionally without a suicidal attempt in order to cope with emotions, thoughts, problems, etc, it is especially most popular with teens. Some different forms of self-harm include: burning skin with cigarettes or matches, picking at skin until it bleeds, banging one’s head on a wall or table, getting numerous amounts

There are a wide variety of ways people commit self-harm such as burning, punching, pinching, and scratching oneself. Other popular forms of self-harm are pulling hair out, banging one’s head, breaking bones, and picking scabs or repeatedly interfering with the healing process (Brown, & Kimball 2013). Furthermore, individuals who self harm can be using multiple methods at once (Brown, & Kimball 2013). This can be demonstrated by way in which an individual uses cutting as their primary source of self-harm and bangs their head as an alternate

After self-harm has been afflicted there are certain ways others can keep an eye out to see if someone you know is hurting themselves. According to Mental Health America, warning sighs to look for include frequent scraps, burns or cuts around the body. These areas of focus are wrists, arms, legs or arms. The Young Youth Self-Report states between the ages of eleven through eighteen, 67.2% report on the upper arms (Laukkanen 2013). Out of this group the total number was 296 students on who answered where their self-injuries were performed. This study provided the cuts that are found on forearms are at lower risk for suicide and are feeding to this addiction for emotional pain. The cuts that were found on other parts of the body suggested these children were in need of mental help, which could form to suicide thoughts (Laukkanen 2013).

Non-Suicidal Self Injury has been a concern for many parents and therapist throughout the United States because it is highly related to the amount of suicides and suicidal attempts there are in a given year. Many of these ideations of self-harm can also start early in an adolescents life around the ages of 13 to 15. This use of non-suicidal self- injury can be related to a number of different reasons, which can either be internal or external problems that a person is having at a given time. To cope with these struggles, the person inflicts pain on themselves through a variety of different techniques in order to give them temporary relief

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.

In this essay I will try and demonstrate my knowledge and understanding of the title, by describing and evaluating two approaches of the treatment of self-defeating behaviour.

Many young teens engage in risky behaviors that can affect their health and leave negative outcomes on their bodies. There was a survey conducted by The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2015 and researchers found that “30% of high school teens had had sexual intercourse during the previous 3 months and of these, 43% did not use a condom the last time they had sex. 14% did not use any method to prevent pregnancy and 21% had drunk alcohol or used drugs before their last sexual encounter (CDC, 2015).” The statistic previously read only covers 30 percent of people who agreed to participate in the study. There are still teens who either did not want to participate or who are not having any form of sexual activity. From the statistic we can confer that education about sexual health is something that is not being administered in schools and thus will cause a larger problem in the future.