Self Injury – Symptoms and Causes

Understanding Self-Harm

Self-harm, also known as nonsuicidal self-injury, happens when someone purposely hurts their own body. Common methods include cutting, burning, or other ways of causing physical harm to oneself. People who self-harm usually don’t intend to end their lives.

Self-injury often serves as an unhealthy coping mechanism. People use it to deal with difficult emotions like intense sadness, overwhelming stress, anger, and emotional pain.

While self-harm might provide temporary relief from these feelings, this relief doesn’t last long. Most people experience guilt and shame afterward, and their painful emotions return.

Although people who self-harm typically don’t mean to cause serious injury, there’s always a risk that the harm could become severe or even life-threatening.

With proper treatment and support, individuals can learn healthier ways to manage their emotions and break the cycle of self-injury.

Signs of Self-Harm

Types of Self-Injury

Self-harm typically happens in private and often follows a pattern. Common ways people hurt themselves include:

• Cutting or scratching with sharp objects, one of the most frequent methods
• Burning the skin with matches, cigarettes, or heated knives
• Carving words or patterns into the skin
• Hitting oneself, punching, biting, or banging the head
• Piercing the skin with sharp items
• Placing objects under the skin

People most often target their arms, legs, chest, and stomach, but any body part might be harmed. Some individuals may use multiple methods.

Feelings of distress often trigger the urge to self-harm. Some people only hurt themselves a few times before stopping, while others develop a long-term pattern of this behavior.

When Medical Help Is Needed

If you’re harming yourself in any way or thinking about it, please seek help. Even minor self-injury points to underlying stress that needs attention.

Reach out to someone trustworthy like:

• A friend or family member
• Your doctor
• A spiritual advisor
• A school counselor or teacher

These people can help you take the first step toward treatment. Remember, supportive people won’t judge you for seeking help.

Helping Someone Who Self-Harms

If someone you care about is self-injuring, take it seriously. While you might worry about betraying their trust, this problem is too serious to handle alone.

For your child:

• Start by talking to their pediatrician
• The doctor can evaluate them or refer them to a mental health professional
• Express concern without yelling, threatening, or accusing

For a teenage friend:

• Suggest they talk to parents, teachers, or school counselors

For an adult:

• Gently share your concerns
• Encourage them to seek medical and mental health treatment

Emergency Situations

Call 911 or your local emergency number immediately if:

• The injury is severe
• The injury may be life-threatening
• You think you or someone else might attempt suicide

If you’re having suicidal thoughts, you can also:

• Call your mental health provider
• Contact a crisis hotline – in the U.S., call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (available 24/7)
• Talk to your school nurse, counselor, teacher, or doctor
• Reach out to friends or family
• Contact someone from your faith community

Causes

Self-injury rarely stems from a single source. Instead, several factors may contribute to this behavior:

Poor Coping Mechanisms

When people lack healthy ways to deal with stress and emotional pain, they might turn to self-injury as an alternative coping method.

Emotional Regulation Challenges

Many who self-injure struggle with managing their feelings. Complex emotional states often trigger these behaviors, including feelings of worthlessness, loneliness, anger, guilt, self-hatred, and rejection.

People may use self-injury to find relief, create distraction, gain control, feel something, express inner pain, communicate distress, or self-punish.

Specific situations can increase vulnerability to self-injury, such as being bullied or questioning one’s sexual identity. These experiences often intensify the emotional turmoil that makes self-injury seem like a solution.

Risk Factors

Self-harm behaviors are most common among teens and young adults, but can affect people of all ages. These behaviors often begin during the preteen or early teen years—a time of rapid emotional development and increasing social pressures.

Several factors may increase someone’s likelihood of engaging in self-injury:

Social Influences

• Having friends who self-harm significantly increases the risk of adopting similar behaviors
• Social isolation can contribute to feelings that lead to self-injury

Difficult Life Experiences

• History of trauma (physical, emotional, or sexual abuse)
• Growing up in unstable home environments
• Identity struggles or questioning sexual orientation
• Ongoing family conflicts

Mental Health Conditions

• Borderline personality disorder
• Depression
• Anxiety disorders
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Eating disorders

Psychological Traits

• Being extremely self-critical
• Difficulty solving problems effectively
• Trouble managing intense emotions

Substance Use

• Alcohol consumption
• Recreational drug use

These risk factors often overlap and interact with each other. For example, someone dealing with both depression and substance use may face a higher risk than someone with just one risk factor.

Serious Effects

Self-injury often leads to several problematic outcomes.

People who hurt themselves may feel worse about themselves afterward. These negative feelings include shame, guilt, and lower self-worth.

Wounds from self-injury can become infected. This risk increases when tools are shared with others.

Physical consequences include:

• Permanent scarring
• Lasting bodily damage
• Potential worsening of mental health issues without proper treatment
• Serious injury that could be life-threatening

Self-injury isn’t typically meant as a suicide attempt. However, it can raise the risk of suicide because of the emotional problems behind the behavior.

When someone develops a pattern of harming their body during distress, this can make suicide more likely later on.

Prevention

Preventing self-injury requires both individual and community efforts. No method guarantees prevention, but several strategies can reduce risks.

Early identification and support make a difference. When someone shows warning signs of self-injury, offering help can be crucial. Teaching healthy coping skills during stressful times can provide alternatives to harmful behaviors.

Social connections matter significantly. People who self-injure often feel isolated or disconnected. Helping them build supportive relationships with non-self-injuring peers can improve both their social skills and emotional wellbeing.

Key Prevention Strategies:

• Recognize warning signs early
• Provide immediate support and resources
• Help build healthy social connections
• Teach effective stress management techniques

Education plays a vital role in prevention. Learning to recognize warning signs allows for faster intervention. Communities, schools, and families should work together to increase awareness about self-injury.

Peer support can be powerful. Young people often confide in friends before adults. Encouraging them to seek help when concerned about someone rather than keeping secrets can lead to earlier intervention.

Media literacy deserves attention too. Various media sometimes portray self-injury in problematic ways. Teaching critical thinking about media messages helps young people resist harmful influences that might normalize self-injuring behaviors.