What Are The Risk Factors For Self-Harm?

There are certain factors that can raise a person’s risk of engaging in self-harm:

• Gender: Being a female puts a person at a higher risk of self-harm.
• Age: Most individuals who engage in self-harm are teens and young adults. However, those in other age groups can also self-harm. This behavior usually starts in the teen years, due to emotional volatility, peer pressure and a variety of other problems.
• Friends who engage in self-harm: People who hang around and associate with those who self-harm are more likely to begin to do it themselves.
• Personal problems: Some individuals who self-harm were sexually, physically and/or emotionally abused or suffered from childhood neglect. Traumatic events and growing up in an unhealthy/unsafe environment may result in a young person being insecure and participating in self-harm.
• Mental illness: Many people who self-harm are more likely to be impulsive, explosive and highly judgmental of themselves. Additionally, self-harm is most often associated with certain mental illnesses such as borderline personality disorder, depression, eating disorders, anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Excessive use of drugs and/or alcohol: People who practice self-harm many times will do it under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.

How You Can Help Someone Who Self-Harms

If you know someone you love is engaged in self-harm, the first step is to confront them in a loving and non-judgmental manner. Talking about self-harm can be very intimidating and some victims may feel ashamed of what they are doing to themselves. Having someone take the initiative and ask them openly about their problem may feel embarrassing at first, but it can also be a big relief that allows them to be open about their situation.

Deciding who they can trust with this sensitive information is going to be very hard. However, if you confront the person gently and with concern, the individual may feel less threatened and relieved to get their problem out into the open. Eventually, self-harming behavior becomes so overwhelming, a person will grow weary of the issue and wish to open up and talk about it to others, but that is very hard to do.

Prognosis

If you or someone you love is participating in self-harm and wants to change, it can happen through opening up about your problems to someone you love and trust. Being open about what you are doing will allow you to find a healthy outlet for your suppressed emotions. There are many support groups and treatment programs that specialize in helping someone heal from self-harm, but you have to take the initiative to make that happen.

READ Addictions and Self-Judgment

Let go of your fears and express what you are feeling, don’t carry around self-hate and shame any longer, because your life can change.  Talk to someone today about your self-harm problem, because with time, therapy and professional help your life can get better. Never let the chance go by to try to help someone who needs it most, because saving a life is an invaluable thing.