Self Injury Awareness Day - The Stigma Of Self-Injury

     Self Injury Awareness Day (or SIAD for short) is a global event that occurs each year on the 1st March. The purpose of SIAD is ultimately to raise awareness, but, more importantly, to stamp out the stigma behind it. 

If you would like to help raise awareness about
self-injury you can wear an orange ribbon.

     Sometimes (unfortunately more often than not) when people first hear about self-injury, they usually fire questions like 'Why would someone do that to themselves?', or say that people who self-injure are 'attention seeking'. Let's get some of these things straight.

     A definition of self-injury is any deliberate, non suicidal behaviour that inflicts physical harm to your body; this can include cutting, burning, hair-pulling, scalding, scratching, biting, and many others.  Self-injury can be a coping mechanism - aimed at relieving emotional distress or pain, or to arouse sensation from feelings of numbness. Sometimes physical pain is often easier to deal with than emotional pain – it can cause 'real' feelings, and sometimes the injuries enable the individual to feel that their emotional pain is real and valid. Self-injury can become part of a natural response to the daily stresses of life, but in can escalate in frequency and severity.

     Self-injury, however, only provides temporary relief; it does not deal with the underlying issues. Additionally, after an individual self-injures sometimes they experiences feelings of guilt or disappointment, something of which is not helped by the stigma and prejudice 
that surrounds it. These feelings can also be a trigger to self-injury and so it can become a viscous circle.

A vicious cycle

     When some people assume that individuals who self-injure are ‘attention-seekers’ they perhaps do not realize that individuals who self-injure often do so in secret, and try their best to hide their injuries. They might feel frightened of talking about their self-injury for fear of being judged, misunderstood or stigmatized  Unfortunately, all too often they are proved right to feel this way. It is stigma like this that prevents someone from seeking help when they urgently need it.

The stigma that surrounds self-injury can prevent someone from seeking help when they urgently need it.

     To change people’s perceptions on self-injury, raising awareness is very important. By talking about it, not only will it help break down the wall of stigma (by educating them about the truths and challenging the myths) but perhaps show people that there is hope and help. Even if some people are unable to fully understand self-injury, at least by raising awareness more and more people with be able to empathize with people who hurt themselves.

     So make the most of Self-Injury Awareness Day. Wear a ribbon. Start of conversation. Anything that raises awareness and breaks down the wall of stigma.

     For further help and advice, whenever you may want or need it, click on 'Help, Support and Advice' on the menu on the right.

BMNM.