Understanding Self Harm: Why do you desire to self-harm

Although self-injury may hurt the person physically, self-injury provides a temporary relief from emotional problems. However, self-injury does not provide a long-term solution to the underlying problems. As a result, people who self-harm keep coming back for more relief.

The most common reasons why people hurt themselves include:

• Cope with feelings like sadness, self-loathing, emptiness, guilt, and rage
• Express feelings you can’t put into words or release the pain and tension you feel inside
• Feel in control, relieve guilt, or punish yourself
• Distract yourself from overwhelming emotions or difficult life circumstances
• Make you feel alive, or simply feel something, instead of feeling numb

Do any of the feelings above sound familiar to you? Which feeling do you think you might have been using self harm to cope with?