ezzlepopz...: Self- Harm

I know this is quite a serious and personal issue to talk about but I though it was relevant as I've read so many stories and know a handful of people who have suffered from self-harm. It is an issue that needs to be addressed as more people turn to it as an escape.

(Note: All of the information was found online, I have not quoted anyone's personal experiences as that would be out of order and unfair to them)

So what is self-harm exactly? Self harm is the process of harming you body or mind on purpose. It is a way of expressing feelings and distress, a way of coping with life. It can be describes as the ‘inner scream’ because it’s something that can’t be put into words or thoughts, a source of communication, a cry for help.

It isn't attention seeking or a joke. Anything can trigger someone to hurt themselves; stress, struggle, traumas, abuse, anger, depression, isolation, loneliness, neglect or thoughts and feeling like not being good enough or having low-self esteem. Although many people don’t know the exact reasoning for their self harm or why the start, they just know it’s their way of coping with the pain they’re suffering.

Today, 3 in 4 teenagers don’t know where to turn to talk about their problem, so they keep self-harm a secret from everyone; teachers, family, friends, everyone because they’re scared and worried of what others will think of them.

It’s shown that girls are more likely to self harm, but this doesn't means that boys don’t, as the years pass the numbers of boys beginning to harm themselves are doubling.

And as the numbers are increasing more and more people are trying to do things about it, to open up to those who self-harm by creating support pages on social media sites and creating projects such as The Butterfly Project.

Other ways of supporting people who self-harm involve writing things like ‘Love’, ‘Keep Fighting’ and ‘Stay Strong’ on your wrists, American star Demi Lovato recently admitting her struggles with self-harm and now has a tattoo to remind herself to stay strong and keep fighting because things do get better.

Another clever project I discovered whilst researching, is The Semicolon Project. Drawing a semicolon on the wrist because a semicolon represents that the author could have ended the sentence but didn’t. The author is the self-harmer and the sentence is their life.