New Research on Young People and Self Harm
The BBC today announced the results of new research into the number of young people needing hospital treatment after harming themselves. The report suggests that there has been yet another increase and focuses on the disturbing amount of graphic material widely available online which could easily trigger people to injure themselves.
A spokesperson from the Royal College of Psychiatry stated that young people are protected from danger in all other aspects of life and so they have called for restrictions on images, videos and graphic writing about self harm should be taken off the internet, but YouTube responded by saying that they would only take off the "worst videos" that "encourage" self injury and didn't want to take too many videos off the site.
The statistics, as with many, are difficult to believe or understand due to the secretive aspect of the behaviour and the focus was only on people who recieved treatment for their injuries (many more will go without), but the research shows that "there were 2,727 admissions in the UK for self-harm with a sharp object among under-25s in 2008/9, compared with 1,758 in 2004/5" and suggests that at least 1 in 10 young people have self-harmed at some point - I would, sadly, guess that it is higher.
Many lines can be drawn between the percieved and actual causes of self harm with those of Eating Disorders. The most obvious myth being that people do it for attention - definitely not the case in the vast majority of those affected. Now that this report has come out, I'm sure that many fingers will be pointing towards the internet and other media as something to blame for the increase in self harm, as it did with Anorexia - but as with 'pro-ana' sites, those which include detailed descriptions or pictures and videos of self harm, despite being incredibly stupid and dangerous, are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to finding the source of the problem. Again, as with Eating Disorders, self harm is a coping mechanism that people use for a wide range of reasons - pressure to do well, stress, depression and low self esteem are sited as the some of the most common given reasons. Contrary to popular belief, self harm is not necessarily a sign that the individual wants to kill themselves and many, for this reason, keep their injuries and scars hidden away - it is private, secret, unspoken. Keeping things under wraps only increases stress, and this, plus theories which state that self injury is an addictive behaviour, means that the problem can escalate quickly and become a horrible cycle.
From personal experience, I would say that self harm is a way of temporarily being able to escape from your thoughts - all your focus is on the moment, the feeling, the doing. You know that what you are doing is not right, not normal, but for that rush of release, for the tension to dissapate just for a few minutes, it feels worth it. The scars carry shame, memories, guilt - but some people see them as battle wounds, it was just their way of coping with a situation. Whatever the reason though, self harm still carries with it a huge amount of stigma and is often misunderstood because we don't talk about it - perhaps more of these young people would seek help if they felt that they could speak out about their problems instead of bottling it up and taking everything out on themselves.
BBC have and are doing a good job of raising awareness, but this shouldn't be something that comes once in a while after a bit of research has been conducted - it needs constant attention from us all, parents, families, teachers, the government... Self Harm will remain a problem until we can all pull our thumbs out and do something about it. I hope that along with body image, the governments new scheme to make PSHE classes mandatory in all schools will also help with young people suffering from stress, unable to deal with the pressures around them and just allow them to feel open and confident enough to actually talk, speak out about this and help each other. Whilst I think that the said websites should be banned and that sites like YouTube are being completely irresponsible for allowing this kind of material to remain on the site, I know that this alone won't see many changes in the statistics or in reality.
Just talk, people.
A spokesperson from the Royal College of Psychiatry stated that young people are protected from danger in all other aspects of life and so they have called for restrictions on images, videos and graphic writing about self harm should be taken off the internet, but YouTube responded by saying that they would only take off the "worst videos" that "encourage" self injury and didn't want to take too many videos off the site.
The statistics, as with many, are difficult to believe or understand due to the secretive aspect of the behaviour and the focus was only on people who recieved treatment for their injuries (many more will go without), but the research shows that "there were 2,727 admissions in the UK for self-harm with a sharp object among under-25s in 2008/9, compared with 1,758 in 2004/5" and suggests that at least 1 in 10 young people have self-harmed at some point - I would, sadly, guess that it is higher.
Many lines can be drawn between the percieved and actual causes of self harm with those of Eating Disorders. The most obvious myth being that people do it for attention - definitely not the case in the vast majority of those affected. Now that this report has come out, I'm sure that many fingers will be pointing towards the internet and other media as something to blame for the increase in self harm, as it did with Anorexia - but as with 'pro-ana' sites, those which include detailed descriptions or pictures and videos of self harm, despite being incredibly stupid and dangerous, are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to finding the source of the problem. Again, as with Eating Disorders, self harm is a coping mechanism that people use for a wide range of reasons - pressure to do well, stress, depression and low self esteem are sited as the some of the most common given reasons. Contrary to popular belief, self harm is not necessarily a sign that the individual wants to kill themselves and many, for this reason, keep their injuries and scars hidden away - it is private, secret, unspoken. Keeping things under wraps only increases stress, and this, plus theories which state that self injury is an addictive behaviour, means that the problem can escalate quickly and become a horrible cycle.
From personal experience, I would say that self harm is a way of temporarily being able to escape from your thoughts - all your focus is on the moment, the feeling, the doing. You know that what you are doing is not right, not normal, but for that rush of release, for the tension to dissapate just for a few minutes, it feels worth it. The scars carry shame, memories, guilt - but some people see them as battle wounds, it was just their way of coping with a situation. Whatever the reason though, self harm still carries with it a huge amount of stigma and is often misunderstood because we don't talk about it - perhaps more of these young people would seek help if they felt that they could speak out about their problems instead of bottling it up and taking everything out on themselves.
BBC have and are doing a good job of raising awareness, but this shouldn't be something that comes once in a while after a bit of research has been conducted - it needs constant attention from us all, parents, families, teachers, the government... Self Harm will remain a problem until we can all pull our thumbs out and do something about it. I hope that along with body image, the governments new scheme to make PSHE classes mandatory in all schools will also help with young people suffering from stress, unable to deal with the pressures around them and just allow them to feel open and confident enough to actually talk, speak out about this and help each other. Whilst I think that the said websites should be banned and that sites like YouTube are being completely irresponsible for allowing this kind of material to remain on the site, I know that this alone won't see many changes in the statistics or in reality.
Just talk, people.