Project Description
What is self-harm?
Self-harm is when you hurt yourself as a way of coping with life’s difficulties. It could be by causing physical harm to your body, or it could be less obvious such as putting yourself in risky situations, excessive exercise, over-eating or under-eating.
Self-harm can make you feel better temporarily, but the cause of your distress is unlikely to have gone away. You may feel embarrassed or ashamed of self-harming. These and other worries might mean that you keep it hidden from anyone. This is a common reaction.
How can I help myself?
If you are thinking of stopping or reducing self-harming you might find it difficult to know where to start.
There are some things that you can try to help yourself:
- Keep a diary to record what happens before, during or after self-harm to understand what triggers the urge to self-harm
- Distract yourself
- Delay self-harm each time you feel the urge
You can find a list of how you can help yourself on www.mind.org.uk under the section self-harm.
It is ok not to know or not to understand why you are self-harming; you can still ask for help. In fact, talking to somebody in a confidential setting might help you to understand your self-harm better and might in turn help you to look after yourself in a different way.
What can I do if I know somebody self-harms?
This information is for family or friends who want to support someone who self-harms.
Make sure you let the person you want to support know that you are there for them if they need you or want to talk. Talking about self-harm with a person you care about can be upsetting and difficult for both of you. It might be useful for you to seek additional support.
Some organisations offer parent-to parent support such as pinpoint on www.pinpoint-cambs.org.uk/
Young people can get help from
www.selfharm.co.uk
What support is available?
It is important to decide who would be a trusted person to talk to if you are reaching out for support. You might feel able to talk to family members, but this might feel uncomfortable too and that is OK.
You can talk to your doctor, particularly if you are scared or worried about your injuries. Your doctor might also be able to refer you to more specialist services.
There are telephone and email helplines you could contact anonymously:
Samaritans 08457 909090 or email jo@samaritans.org.uk
ChildLine 0800 1111
There are websites that can be really useful:
https://www.cpft.nhs.uk/self-harm-a-guide-for-young-people/
Centre33 offers confidential counselling. It might be useful to talk to a trained therapist who will work with you in a non-judgemental way. Please look here for counselling information