Self-harm
Self-harm is the act of inflicting physical harm serious enough to cause damage to your body. This is often in an attempt to alter a mood state, which can be positive as well as negative. Some people self-injure to end a dissociated or ‘unreal’ feeling state in order to come back to reality. This self-injury is often repetitive and people who do it learn that hurting themselves in this way, brings a form of relief from distress. Studies have suggested that when people who self-injure get emotionally overwhelmed, an act of self-harm brings their feelings of tension and arousal back to a bearable level almost immediately.
It is important to understand that those who inflict physical harm on their bodies are often doing it in an attempt to maintain psychological integrity. The release of unbearable feelings is sometimes the only way of coping. One of the main problems for someone suffering from self-harm is the lack of understanding from those around them.
At Progress we do understand this distressing behaviour and we have found that techniques such as hypnotherapy and acupuncture help to relieve tensions that normally would need an attack on the body. Self-injury is similar in many ways to eating disorders and to substance abuse, in that it is a maladaptive coping mechanism. We help our clients to work through their moments of overwhelming feelings, so that they can learn to cope without harming themselves. We then work to address any issues that may cause this self-abuse, and to help them learn to value themselves and to build their self worth. Group therapy is often valuable for those who self-harm as they can learn to relate to others and discover that they are not alone with the intensity of their feelings.
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