Self-Injury Awareness Month
People who self injure are not crazy, stupid or immature. They are people in need of help and understanding. There are reasons behind their behavior. Sometimes its to externalize unfathomable inner pain. Please pass this on to someone who may need help. Links provided."Self-harm has been deemed a big cry for help by many people around the world. It is in a way, but in another way self-harm is a cry to ourselves. ""Self-injury is a self-preservation technique for many cutters; the self-mutilation relieves anxiety and/or depersonalization symptoms which could lead to psychosis or suicide if not alleviated. Self-harm can be focusing, calming. It can give a person a feeling of control over their lives and their bodies which they have experienced no other way."
FROM THIS SITE
"For many self-injurers, self-mutilation seems the only appropriate response to the state of the world and to how they're feeling about it and about themselves. Many self-injurers are extremely intelligent, sensitive, and creative people who have a hypersensitivity to the world around them."FROM THIS SITE
What could be causing so many people to self-harm and attempt suicide or commit suicide?
A UK Mental Health Foundation survey published in February 2001 revealed that half of university students showed signs of clinical anxiety whilst more than 10% suffered from clinical depression.
However, whilst some people decide to end their life because of despair, others take their life because they see it as a "logical step". Although not a mental health professional, I've often thought that the former category (despair) is the result of "mental illness", whilst the latter (logical step) is because of "psychiatric injury". It may be that much of what we call "mental illness" is in fact long-term "psychiatric injury".
The difference between mental illness and psychiatric injury is important because injury has an external cause - in other words, something - or someone - is liable.
The differences between mental illness and psychiatric injury are often not recognized; understanding the differences could alter the verdict, perhaps from suicide to manslaughter.
Bullying, harassment and abuse cause injury to health, which is often diagnosed as stress and anxiety but may also include depression.
Prolonged negative stress can culminate in a cocktail of symptoms often congruent with the diagnostic criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD; these include
anxiety,anger,
reactive depression,
tearfulness,
disbelief,
panic attacks,
fatigue,
sleeplessness,
migraines,
joint and muscle pains,
excessive guilt,
feeling unworthy and undeserving,
suicidal thoughts,
loss of self-esteem and self confidence.
Another source is unresolved grief
When a person does not grieve properly these feelings are internalised and end up as inwardly-directed anger. This builds more anger and the process repeats until the person experiences depression, self-harm and suicidal thoughts.
FROM THIS SITE
SELF HARM IS OFTEN ASSOCIATED WITH POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD) WHICH RESULTS FROM A PSYCHOLOGICAL INJURY NOT MENTAL ILLNESS
Differences between mental illness and psychiatric injury include:
Mental illnessPeople suffering Complex PTSD as a result of bullying report consistent symptoms which further help to characterise psychiatric injury and differentiate it from mental illness. These include:
* the cause often cannot be identified
* the person may be incoherent or what they say doesn't make sense
* the person may appear to be obsessed
* the person is oblivious to their behaviour and the effect it has on others
* the depression is a clinical or endogenous depression
* there may be a history of depression in the family
* the person has usually exhibited mental health problems before
* may respond inappropriately to the needs and concerns of others
* displays a certitude about themselves, their circumstances and their actions
* may suffer a persecution complex
* suicidal thoughts are the result of despair, dejection and hopelessness
* exhibits despair
* often doesn't look forward to each new day
* is often ready to give in or admit defeat
Psychiatric injury
* the cause is easily identifiable and verifiable, but denied by those who are accountable
* the person is often articulate but prevented from articulation by being traumatised
* the person is obsessive, especially in relation to identifying the cause of their injury and both dealing with the cause and effecting their recovery
* the person is in a state of acute self-awareness and aware of their state, but often unable to explain it
* the depression is reactive; the chemistry is different to endogenous depression
* there is very often no history of depression in the individual or their family
* often there is no history of mental health problems
* responds empathically to the needs and concerns of others, despite their own injury
* is often highly sceptical about their condition and circumstances and is in a state of disbelief and bewilderment which they will easily and often articulate ("I can't believe this is happening to me" and "Why me?")
* may experience an unusually heightened sense of vulnerability to possible victimisation (ie - hypervigilance)
* suicidal thoughts are often a logical and carefully thought-out solution or conclusion
* is driven by the anger of injustice
* looks forward to each new day as an opportunity to fight for justice
* refuses to be beaten, refuses to give up
FROM: PTSD ALLIANCEFatigue with symptoms of or similar to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
An anger of injustice stimulated to an excessive degree (sometimes but improperly attracting the words:"manic" instead of motivated, "obsessive" instead of focused, and "angry" instead of "passionate",
An overwhelming desire for acknowledgement, understanding, recognition and validation of their experience
A lack of desire for revenge, but a strong motivation for justice
A tendency to oscillate between conciliation (forgiveness) and anger (revenge) with objectivity being the main casualty
Extreme fragility, where formerly the person was of a strong, stable character
Numbness, both physical (toes, fingertips, and lips) and emotional (inability to feel love and joy)
Clumsiness
Forgetfulness
Hyperawareness and an acute sense of time passing, seasons changing, and distances travelled
An enhanced environmental awareness, often on a planetary scale
An appreciation of the need to adopt a healthier diet
Willingness to try complementary medicine and alternative, holistic therapies, etc
A constant feeling that one has to justify everything one says and does
A constant need to prove oneself, even when surrounded by good, positive people
An unusually strong sense of vulnerability, victimisation or possible victimisation, often wrongly diagnosed as "persecution"
Feelings of worthlessness, rejection, a sense of being unwanted, unlikeable and unlovable
A feeling of being small, insignificant, and invisible
An overwhelming sense of betrayal, and a consequent inability and unwillingness to trust anyone, even those close to you
Excessive guilt - when the cause of PTSD is bullying, the guilt expresses itself in forms distinct from "survivor guilt"; it comes out as:
- an initial reluctance to take action against the bully and report him/her knowing that he/she could lose his/her job
- later, this reluctance gives way to a strong urge to take action against the bully so that others, especially successors, don't have to suffer a similar fate
- a proneness to identifying with other people's suffering
- a heightened sense of unworthiness, undeservingness and non-entitlement (some might call this shame)
- a heightened sense of indebtedness, beholdenness and undue obligation
- a desire to help others, often overwhelming and bordering on obsession, and to be available for others at any time regardless of the cost to oneself
- an unusually high inclination to feel sorry for other people who are under stress, including those in a position of authority, even those who are not fulfilling the duties and obligations of their position
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