Myths of Self-Harm
There are many myths surrounding self-harm. These misconceptions can make it difficult for people to talk to others about their self-harm and even prevent them from getting the kind of support from friends and family that they need. The next several blogs will provide some information to clear up these myths that are often barriers to reaching out for help.
Myth 1: People self-harm in order to get attention.
Often, there is a misconception that people self-harm only to get attention from others. In a small minority of cases, self-harm may be a way to communicate distress to others. In the majority of cases, however, people engage in self-harm to relieve unbearable distress and emotional pain. Between 70% (Briere & Gil, 1998) and 96% (Brown et al., 2002) of people who self-harm indicated that they harmed themselves “to stop bad feelings” or to relieve or distract from painful feelings. Sometimes, people who engage in self-harm actually do get more attention from others. Just because they may get more attention, however, doesn’t mean that the person engaged in self-harm on purpose with the intent of getting attention. In fact, a large majority (nearly 75%) of people who self-harm go to great lengths to hide this behaviour from other people (Children, Youth, and Women’s health, 2009)- the opposite of using it to get attention!
