Every night I burn
Every night I call your name
Every night I burn
Every night I fall again
Burn - The Cure

If you Self Injure, you are not the only one!

Why do people Self-Injure?

Most people Self-Injure to relieve some unpleasant emotion, ranging from anxiety to depression. "Studies have suggested that when people who self-injure get emotionally overwhelmed, an act of self-harm brings their levels of psychological and physiological tension and arousal back to a bearable baseline level almost immediately."

There are many speculations about why people Self-Injure. Some experts think the behavior stems form childhood abuse or trauma. However, statistics don't support this theory. The backgrounds of people who self-injure are varied, coming from both abusive and non-abusive households. People also cited the need to feel real among their reasons for self-injury. Hurting themselves makes them feel something, where they otherwise feel numb to the world around them. Another theory concerning people who self-injure is they have a brain chemical imbalance:

"Just as it's suspected that the way the brain uses serotonin may play a role in depression, so scientists think that problems in the serotonin system may predispose some people to self-injury by making them tend to be more aggressive and impulsive than most people."

Unfortunately for the Self-Injurer, much social stigma surrounds the issue. "In emergency rooms, people with self-inflicted wounds are often told directly and indirectly, that they are not as deserving of care as someone who has an accidental injury. They are treated badly by the same doctors who would not hesitate to do everything possible to preserve the life of an overweight, sedentary heart-attack patient." Click here to read about what you can do to help your friend at the emergency room if s/he Self-Injures.

Unfortunately, people are ignorant about SI. Many of them think Self-Injury is simply about getting attention. However, this is rarely ever the case. People self-injure to relieve tension and unwanted emotions. If someone is committing self injury for attention, they are probably asking for help and need the attention.

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