This document seeks to address common myths and misconceptions about self-injury. It summarizes that self-injury can affect anyone regardless of gender, age, culture or society. It is often a coping mechanism for stress, low self-esteem, trauma or other mental health issues rather than being attention-seeking or addictive behavior. The severity of injuries does not correlate with the severity of emotional distress or problems.

1. Self-injury myths
LifeSIGNS - Self-Injury Guidance & Network Support
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS My name is Wedge

2. Who self-injures

3. Anyone can turn to self-injury
▸ Self-injury doesn’t discriminate
▸ All ages
▸ All genders
▸ What about different societies?
Different cultures?
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

4. What drives a person to self-injury

5. Stress and distress
▸ Low self-esteem
▸ Perfectionism and high achievement
▸ Poor body image
▸ Trauma and abuse
▸ Other mental health issues
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

6. Why self-injury ‘works’

7. Self-injury re-focuses the mind
▸ Release from overwhelming emotion
▸ Relief from cyclical thoughts
▸ Physical pain and self-care
▸ State change
▸ Anchoring
▸ Control
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

8. Myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk/self-injury-myths

9. Mostly, women
self-injure.
Many people, including statisticians and the media
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

10. The majority of collected stats show women get more help
▸ It’s not correct to imagine that a ‘few’ men turn to self-injury.
▸ Our work, and large studies, shows that men can turn to self-injury in similar
ways to women.
▸ Self-injury is a coping behaviour, something some people rely on when under
stress or in difficult situations – it isn’t sex or gender based.
▸ But there are gendered differences in behaviour, owing to culture and up-
bringing.
▸ See http://men.lifesigns.org.uk
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

11. But it’s mostly a teen
white girl thing, yeah?
The media, including TV dramas
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

12. Young people are more likely to start self-injuring than older adults
▸ Young people of all ages (pre-teen to early adulthood) are more likely to turn to self-injury
than older adults, but this includes boys, lads and men.
▸ A further concern is the lack of support available to adults who self-injure, and older adults
who have been hurting themselves since childhood, or who begin to injure in later life.
▸ There are fewer statistics about people who self-injure in certain countries, and people within
certain cultures within the UK. Evidence suggests that culture, not race, plays an important
role in the way a person learns to cope with mental health concerns, emotional turbulence,
stress, trauma and abuse. Repressive upbringing can influence a person to become secretive
and emotionally repressed. As an example, some people within UK Asian cultures hurt
themselves in specific ways in order to be certain to keep their self-injury hidden.
▸ See www.lifesigns.org.uk/adult-self-injury
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

13. Self-injury is
attention seeking.
So many people
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

14. People need attention
▸ Most people who self-injury keep it to themselves
▸ Many feel shame
▸ When a person is in need of attention, it’s bizarre to belittle
them
▸ This myth is fuelled by some photos online. Sharing wounds
and scars is complex behaviour - let’s discuss.
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

15. Self-injury is a suicide
attempt; it’s parasuicide.
Some NHS statisticians
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

16. Self-injury is a coping mechanism
▸Habitual self-injury, as a way of coping, is
separate from suicidal behaviour
▸Self-injury does not lead to suicide; despair does
▸Suicidal behaviour can co-present with self-injury
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

17. You have to be mentally
ill to self-injure.
Logical people
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

18. You don’t need to be mentally ill to be suffering mental distress
▸ Self-injury is not a disorder; it might indicate a disorder or show that
something is wrong
▸ Self-injury is a coping mechanism, a behaviour that some people rely on in
times of stress, emotional distress, and / or traumatic events
▸ Low-self esteem is not, in itself, a mental illness
▸ People with many kinds of mental illness might turn to self-injury, as a
coping mechanism and for other reasons
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

19. Self-injury is
addictive.
Some people who self-injure
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

20. It may feel like the only thing that works
▸ Self-injury is a behaviour
▸ People can choose to change their behaviours (as opposed to what their
bodies are physically reliant upon)
▸ People can become psychologically addicted to lots of things, but automatic
enrolment in ‘addiction therapies’ is not often the best step
▸ Endorphins; cortisol; serotonin; dopamine; etc.
▸ Self-injury can become the automatic and relied upon coping mechanism
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

21. Self-injury is
‘cutting’.
The media, parents, and many health care providers
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

22. Self-injury and self-harm cover a wide range of behaviours
▸ Not everything leaves a scar. Not everything is obvious.
▸ Self-injury is a coping mechanism. An individual harms their physical self to
deal with emotional pain, or to break feelings of numbness by arousing
sensation.
▸ Self-harm is a bigger umbrella term.
▸ The method of hurting might be very important to the person, but is not our
focus.
▸ We must address the underlying emotional drivers.
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

23. Only someone who
does it can understand.
Some people who self-injure
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

24. Actually, it can be shocking to think about hurting yourself as a form of healing
▸ Self-injury is a difficult behaviour to sympathise with for some
▸ It should be easier to sympathise, and empathise, with a person in emotional
distress
▸ Without self-injury, some people do worse things. Some people cannot
function.
▸ New choices, new ways of thinking and new ways of behaving must be
embedded before self-injury is reduced.
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

25. People who self-injure
don’t feel the pain.
Amateur psychologists
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

26. Yeah no
▸ For many, the pain is a focus for the mind, bringing relief from chaos or
numbness.
▸ For some, the pain is felt less, yet needed to focus.
▸ People who dissociate might not feel the pain in the same way as at other
times.
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

27. The worse the damage,
the bigger the problem.
Loads of people, including some people who self-injure :(
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

28. Severity does not indicate emotional pain
▸Destroy this myth
▸Destroy the need for ever deeper
wounds to be taken seriously
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS

29. • Once you’ve told someone, things automatically get better
• Self-injury is a trend
• Celebrities need ever more extreme activities
• Self-injury mostly affects the privileged
Suggested by Wadham College, Oxford
Self-injury myths
www.lifesigns.org.uk | @LifeSIGNS