Rather than attempting to end their lives, people who self-harm are surviving and managing intolerable and emotionally painful lives. They don’t necessarily want to die, nor do they often see happiness as attainable. They just want to stop feeling miserable.
When someone experiences the numbness of repeated trauma, the tissue damage, physical pain and blood from injuring yourself can be a reminder of life. Behaviors such as burning and cutting help to control emotion and obtain help from an indifferent or punishing environment.
The difference that emerges between suicide attempts and self-injury is in intention and lethality. In one study non-suicidal acts of self-harm were reported as intended to express anger, punish oneself, generate normal feelings and distract oneself. In contrast, the most often reported intention of suicide attempts was to make others better off.
Self-injury, therefore, can be seen as inadequate solutions to overwhelming, intensely painful emotion. On the other hand, suicide attempts include self-injurious acts or acts with potential for harm (for example, putting a gun in your mouth) that have an explicit or inferred intent to die as a result of the act.
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/dbt/2010/06/is-it-a-suicide-attempt-or-self-injury/When someone experiences the numbness of repeated trauma, the tissue damage, physical pain and blood from injuring yourself can be a reminder of life. Behaviors such as burning and cutting help to control emotion and obtain help from an indifferent or punishing environment.
The difference that emerges between suicide attempts and self-injury is in intention and lethality. In one study non-suicidal acts of self-harm were reported as intended to express anger, punish oneself, generate normal feelings and distract oneself. In contrast, the most often reported intention of suicide attempts was to make others better off.
Self-injury, therefore, can be seen as inadequate solutions to overwhelming, intensely painful emotion. On the other hand, suicide attempts include self-injurious acts or acts with potential for harm (for example, putting a gun in your mouth) that have an explicit or inferred intent to die as a result of the act.
This was my response to the post:
I started self-injuring as a teenager. It is under control at this point (I am now 45) but the urge still rises when things go really wrong. I have never really dealt with the underlying issues that caused this behavior to begin. Compassionate, effective mental health assistance is still unattainable for many of us. The county facilities need to serve the more critically ill among us, and private treatment is not affordable for many of us who are managing to hold jobs but still live in marginalized circumstances.
I was not trying to kill myself when I was put in the hospital at 16 for a suicide attempt and humiliated and treated as less than human by most of the so called "professionals" there. I was dubbed a "hysterical neurotic" by the clown of a psychiatrist who "treated" me. Fortunately when my son started having problems with depression he was treated in a compassionate fashion and thus has been willing to seek help. I think it is no surprise, however, that many older people with mental health issues are reluctant to seek help (providing we could even afford it) given the way we have been treated when we did so in the past.
I was not trying to kill myself when I was put in the hospital at 16 for a suicide attempt and humiliated and treated as less than human by most of the so called "professionals" there. I was dubbed a "hysterical neurotic" by the clown of a psychiatrist who "treated" me. Fortunately when my son started having problems with depression he was treated in a compassionate fashion and thus has been willing to seek help. I think it is no surprise, however, that many older people with mental health issues are reluctant to seek help (providing we could even afford it) given the way we have been treated when we did so in the past.
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