What is self-injury?

Its called many things such as self-inflicted violence, self-injury, self-harm, parasuicide, delicate cutting, self-abuse, and self-mutilation, the latter being a term that angers most self-injurers as it implies that the intent is to mark or maim the body and in most cases this isn't so.

Self -injury is the act of attempting to alter a mood state by inflicting physical harm serious enough to cause tissue damage to your body. This can include cutting (using razors, knives, glass, pins, or any other sharp object), burning, hitting your body with an object or your fists, hitting a heavy object such as a wall, picking at skin till it bleeds, biting yourself and pulling your hair out (trichotillomania) etc. The most common forms of self-injury seem to be cutting, burning and self-hitting.

Damage that tears, bruises or burns the skin usually refers to 'tissue damage' - something that causes bleeding or marks the skin and doesn't go away in a few minutes. A mood state can be either positive or negative or neither, some people self-injure to end a dissociated or unreal-feeling, to ground themselves and come back to reality. People learn that hurting themselves brings them relief from some kinds of distress and it becomes their primary coping mechanism.

Its not self-injury if your main purpose is:

• sexual pleasure
• body decoration
• spiritual enlightenment via ritual
• fitting in or being cool

Adapted from Deb Martinson © 1996-2004   Secret Shame