Quick Facts on Self-Injury

Self-injury is characterized by deliberately injuring oneself to alleviate some kind of emotional distress. The most common form of self-injury is cutting or scratching the skin, but people also self-injure by burning themselves, picking at skin and wounds, or hitting themselves. Self-injury is more common in girls than boys, and onset is often around puberty.

• Talking about self-injury
• Suspicious-looking scars
• Wounds that don’t heal or get worse
• Cuts on the same place
• Increased isolation
• Collecting sharp tools such as shards of glass, safety pins, nail scissors, etc.
• Wearing long-sleeved shirts in warm weather
• Avoiding social activities
• Wearing a lot of band aids
• Refusing to go into the locker room or change clothes in school

If you discover that a child has been hurting herself it’s important to have her evaluated by an experienced mental health professional to find out why she is self-injuring and what emotional difficulties she’s experiencing.

• Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT): In this kind
  of therapy a psychologist works with your child to help her learn how to tolerate uncomfortable feelings like anger, anxiety and rejection without resorting to cutting.
• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): In CBT, a
  psychologist teaches your child to recognize and challenge negative, distressing thoughts, and train herself to think outside of them.
• Family therapy: If there are distressing things going on at home—conflict, job loss, a death—family therapy may be helpful.

Often, if there is another disorder involved, a doctor will prescribe medication to treat that condition.