Myth 3: Self-harm is for girls.
Many people have a stereotyped image of an adolescent female when they think of a person who self-harms. Although rates of self-harm are higher among adolescents (13-15% in some studies, Ross & Heath, 2002; much higher in other studies), nearly half of all people who self-harm are between 25 and 45 years old (Auseinet, 2007). In fact, 5% of people who self-harm are over 65 years old (Pierce, 1987). Furthermore, although past research indicated that females were more likely to self-harm than males (World Health Organization, 1989), more recent research shows that males are just as likely to self-harm as are females (Gratz, 2001; Gratz & Chapman, 2007; Klonsky, Oltmanns, & Turkheimer, 2003). Researchers have speculated that past studies found self-harm to be more common among women simply because men often did not tell people about their self-harm. These statistics reveal that self-harm can be a problem for many people, and is not at all limited to a subset of female teenagers.
