Self Harm Awareness

Time Magazine wrote an article concerning teenagers and their mental health disorders. A few teenagers told their stories of their battles with depression and how the dealt. One girl spoke of how she self harmed. She would cut on her arms and ribs and felt that's the only thing that could make her feel better. Her parents were in the interview too and stated they had no idea she was depressed, let alone self harming. The only reason they know now is because the mother spotted the cuts on her wrist. The article stated tons of statistics and symptoms of depression or anxiety. The article, I believe anyway, was to raise awareness of the issue and to inform parents of what is going on.

Not only parents but adults in general seem to be oblivious to, or trying to forget, the issue. Many parents, teachers, coaches, and adults in general want the best for upcoming generations. No one wants to think of a child harming themselves, which is why I believe it's not highly talked about. As uncomfortable as it sounds it should be talked about more. Since about 15% of teens have reported that they self harmed, who knows how many teens have gone unreported. On top of that, the percentage is only growing.

While a vast majority of the teens are female there still is a good portion of males. There's multiple ways of self harm. The most common ways are: cutting, the most popular taking about 64%, head banging, taking about 21%, and burning taking about 15%. Research has also found two ways on why people cut. One being, they can't feel anything and can only experience this pain. The other being the exact opposite, they feel they are too full of sadness and that is the only way to release what's built up inside of them. Also there are two types of self-harmers: the person actually attempting suicide and the person crying for help. There's a common misconception that if you self harm that you're looking for attention. In most cases that claim is completely false. The people that cry for help aren't looking for attention, their trying to catch the attention of someone who cares, see the difference?

Personally I know what it feels like to self harm. Which is why I chose this as my senior project topic and the topic of this blog. It's something I'm very passionate about. Self-harming, cutting, whatever you want to call it can be like an addiction. Some people come home and get so hammered they can barely move, some people get so high they can barely understand simple English, others go home and cut their skin until they've lost so much blood they get dizzy. I'm certainly not encouraging these acts by any means, I'm comparing it. I was the person that was so immersed by sadness and pain I could only release it one way, or so I thought at the time. I know the pain of these teens, I was the one sitting on the edge of my bed crying wondering why I was like this. I believe wholeheartedly that if I can get through it anyone can.