Self-Harm Treatment

What is Self-Harm?

Self-harm refers to a maladaptive behavior in which a person hurts themselves to feel temporary relief from psychological distress. This behavior is also called self-injurious behavior (SIB). Furthermore, self-harm can range from mild to severe.

Self-harm can be a symptom of a mental disorder, such as autism, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), borderline personality disorder (BPD), anxiety, or depression.

Common examples of self-harm include the following behaviors:

Usually, people self-injure their arms, legs, chest, and stomach. These are parts of the body that can be easily covered, thus hiding any marks or scars from self-harm. However, other body parts could be the target of self-harm.

It is also important to note that self-harm refers to non-suicidal self-injury. While self-harm could be deadly, the intent isn’t to end a person’s life like suicidal attempts and behaviors. In addition, people with eating disorders are at a high risk of engaging in self-harm.

Why Do People Self-Harm?

People self-harm when they feel emotional distress and don’t have other means of coping. These behaviors are a way of releasing pent-up tension and frustration. Self-harm can be a means of distraction from emotional pain, a way to feel a sense of control, a punishment inflicted on oneself, a way to feel something when a person feels numb or empty, or an expression of internal distress.

Furthermore, many people who self-harm have a low distress tolerance.

What is Distress Tolerance (And How Does It Relate to Self-Harm)?

Distress tolerance is a person’s ability to manage uncomfortable or stressful situations and feelings. People with a high tolerance for distress use healthy coping skills to regulate their emotions. However, those with a low distress tolerance often engage in maladaptive behaviors to regulate their emotions.

Self-harm is a maladaptive (unhealthy) way of coping with distress. Other maladaptive coping behaviors include substance abuse, gambling, aggression, and sex addiction. Thus, a person with a low distress tolerance is more likely to engage in self-harm and other maladaptive behaviors.

Is Self-Harm a Mental Disorder?

Self-harm is not a mental disorder, but it could be a symptom of a mental disorder. Nearly every mental disorder can lead to a person having a low distress tolerance. This could lead to self-harm or other maladaptive coping mechanisms.

Mental disorders associated with self-harm include the following:

In addition, veterans could be at a higher risk of self-harm than the general population. According to a study on Gulf War veterans published by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), “Of the Veterans who responded, nearly 8% said they had engaged in nonsuicidal self-injury in the past year.”

Thus, self-harm treatment involves understanding the underlying causes of self-harm. Once a person understands why they engage in self-harm, they can find healthy coping skills to replace their maladaptive behaviors.

Anxiety and Self-Harm

Anxiety is a common reason people engage in self-harm. Oftentimes, anxiety results from an inability to regulate intense emotional reactions. Therefore, self-harm can be a way of distracting a person from intense anxiety or to regain a sense of control when they feel anxious.

Anxiety is also a common symptom of several mental disorders related to self-harm, such as borderline personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Depression and Self-Harm

Like anxiety, depression is another mental health issue that can lead to self-harm. People with depression struggle with feeling empty or numb. While sadness is most often associated with depression, the reality is that most people with depression can’t feel any emotion—whether negative or positive.

So, in order to feel something, the person might engage in self-harm. The pain from self-harm is a maladaptive way of relieving the emotional emptiness that accompanies depression.

Signs and Symptoms of Self-Harm

Self-harming behaviors are generally misinterpreted as a way of getting attention from others. While this can be true sometimes, most of the time a person engaging in self-harm will hide their behaviors from others. This can make it difficult for others to notice the signs and symptoms of self-harm.

However, there are still ways to notice signs and symptoms of self-harm, including:

Since the person will usually try to hide or excuse any signs of self-harm, it can be difficult for loved ones to notice these signs. However, when patterns of some of the above-mentioned signs emerge and a person changes for the worse, they could be engaging in self-harm.

Self-harm treatment primarily focuses on two things: (1) preventing further incidents of self-harm and (2) treating the underlying cause of self-harm.

Preventing Self-Harm

Preventing self-harm involves replacing self-harming behaviors with healthy coping skills. Remember that a person engages in self-harm as a way of coping with emotional distress. Therefore, they need to find replacements to cope with distress.

Furthermore, the person also needs to find treatment for any underlying mental disorders or other psychological causes of self-harm. This will help a person build resiliency, self-esteem, and a healthy sense of mental well-being.

Some ways to prevent self-harm include the following:

Self-Harm Treatments

Self-harm treatment is really about treating the underlying causes of self-harming behaviors. Most often, the person has a mental disorder, and learning what disorder they have is the first step to treatment. In addition, treatment includes learning healthy coping skills for stress, low self-esteem, and other psychological issues.

If the cause of self-harm is a mental health disorder, North Atlanta Behavioral Health (NABH) is here with treatment programs that include the following: