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mousmeDon't know what that stands for? A lot of people don't.
It's National Self Injury Awareness Day. March 1st. Coming soon to not a whole lot of of places near you. (The link is an old one, for 2002, unfortunately)
Think you don't know someone who self-injures? Think again. This is one of the last great taboos of western society, the last "dirty little secret" that no one talks about.
I haven't spoken about my own SI in a long time in this space. Not that I don't still struggle with it, every single damned day of my life. Mostly, (*pause to knock on wood*), I'm out of the woods. I consider myself to be "recovering" (I don't know if the word "recovered" can ever really apply. I'll let you know if it ever happens).
So, I figure a lot of you who are new to my journal might not have known that little tidbit about me. So, yes, that's another little facet in the world of Phnee's descent into stark-staring madness. Fun, eh?
But it's not only about mental illness. A lot of people who aren't mentally ill also self-injure. Self-injury is a coping mechanism, not a sign of mental illness. It's a way to deal with emotional turmoil that's too much to handle otherwise, just like alcoholism or an eating disorder or drug abuse. It's a self-destructive, maladapted coping mechanism, a behaviour that will inevitably cause more harm than good, but in the short term it provides relief, an outlet for pent-up emotions. It's also incredibly hard to explain to the 99% of people who don't do it. To the outsider, voluntarily hurting oneself is an abhorrent act, against nature and logic.
Frankly, I'm going to refer you here, because that page explains it in very clear terms and even offers lots of helpful psychological theory to guide you along should you so desire further down the page.
This is taken from Deb Martinson's comprehensive and excellent website, Secret Shame.
If you're a self-injurer (or know someone who self-injures and need some support of your own) and for whatever reason have never been there, there's a fantastic support community over at Bodies Under Siege, where I used to be a moderator until Real Life constraints made me decide to step down. It's become a huge community, because it's one of the very few places on the internet which is "safe" for SIers (Deb and the other moderators keep a sharp eye out on all the posters to make sure things don't degenerate into flame wars, trigger warnings and similar rules are strictly enforced, etc.). It's worth checking out.
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borrowedwings quoted fox1013 in this entry of hers about SI and NSIAD. Worth a read, definitely. You can see the original entry here.
Monday, March 1, 2004 is Self Injury Awareness Day.
It's not the first one. It's been going on for a few years.
But I've never seen it really acknowledged. No one ever seems to want to own up.
It's kind of the red-headed stepchild of disorders, really. Most people don't want to own up to their own self-injuring, if they do so, and most people are a lot happier believing their friends don't hurt themselves.
Well, guess what? It's not that safe. It's not that easy. Statistics for self-injury have been steadily rising. We're up to between half a percent and one percent of people hurting themselves, and at this point, no one can afford to make the assumption that it couldn't happen to them.
What is self injury? Self-injury is the active choice to physically harm oneself, without intent of suicide. Self-injury is the act of cutting, hitting, punching, stabbing, biting, poking. It's the act of pulling out hair or nails, of sometimes even removing a limb.
Self-injury is a coping mechanism. The short answer is that it's a way to make the internal pain into external pain. The short answer doesn't even begin to cover it. But it's not a cry for help, and it's not a sign that the person is crazy. It's just a coping mechanism.
People bleed profusely from this. People go to the hospital from this. People permanently scar from this. And sometimes they don't. Sometimes, they just scratch themselves repeatedly, or pick at themselves until they bleed. And sometimes that's scarier.
A hell of a lot more of us just hurt ourselves in little ways. Just a little every day. Just enough to make it last. Just enough to be real. And maybe so little that it's not even self-considered self-injury. Maybe it's just this thing, this coping mechanism.
And without open discussion? It'll never be dealt with.
And it'll escalate.
You think I'm kidding? Go read the literature.
Actually, read the literature anyway. Because, some of the things I've read? Have given me nightmares.
If you don't find some of the stories terrifying, if you don't find this to be cause for activism, I don't know what could convince you.
Because the fact of the matter is, the world isn't safe, and the world isn't easy. People hurt themselves. People almost kill themselves. And you know what causes a hell of a lot of the severity of self-injury?
Ignorance.
How scary is it for your only knowledge of self-injury to come from a "Seventh Heaven" episode where they send the kid away? Or maybe "Secret Cutting," on Lifetime, where the mother ends up leaving the family? How is that going to make you go to a doctor and try to get help?
Fuck, no. It's time to stand up for this. It's time to to make self-injury a matter of public awareness.
Because that's the only way to stop what is rapidly becoming an epidemic.
It's National Self Injury Awareness Day. March 1st. Coming soon to not a whole lot of of places near you. (The link is an old one, for 2002, unfortunately)
Think you don't know someone who self-injures? Think again. This is one of the last great taboos of western society, the last "dirty little secret" that no one talks about.
I haven't spoken about my own SI in a long time in this space. Not that I don't still struggle with it, every single damned day of my life. Mostly, (*pause to knock on wood*), I'm out of the woods. I consider myself to be "recovering" (I don't know if the word "recovered" can ever really apply. I'll let you know if it ever happens).
So, I figure a lot of you who are new to my journal might not have known that little tidbit about me. So, yes, that's another little facet in the world of Phnee's descent into stark-staring madness. Fun, eh?
But it's not only about mental illness. A lot of people who aren't mentally ill also self-injure. Self-injury is a coping mechanism, not a sign of mental illness. It's a way to deal with emotional turmoil that's too much to handle otherwise, just like alcoholism or an eating disorder or drug abuse. It's a self-destructive, maladapted coping mechanism, a behaviour that will inevitably cause more harm than good, but in the short term it provides relief, an outlet for pent-up emotions. It's also incredibly hard to explain to the 99% of people who don't do it. To the outsider, voluntarily hurting oneself is an abhorrent act, against nature and logic.
Frankly, I'm going to refer you here, because that page explains it in very clear terms and even offers lots of helpful psychological theory to guide you along should you so desire further down the page.
This is taken from Deb Martinson's comprehensive and excellent website, Secret Shame.
If you're a self-injurer (or know someone who self-injures and need some support of your own) and for whatever reason have never been there, there's a fantastic support community over at Bodies Under Siege, where I used to be a moderator until Real Life constraints made me decide to step down. It's become a huge community, because it's one of the very few places on the internet which is "safe" for SIers (Deb and the other moderators keep a sharp eye out on all the posters to make sure things don't degenerate into flame wars, trigger warnings and similar rules are strictly enforced, etc.). It's worth checking out.
borrowedwings quoted fox1013 in this entry of hers about SI and NSIAD. Worth a read, definitely. You can see the original entry here.Monday, March 1, 2004 is Self Injury Awareness Day.
It's not the first one. It's been going on for a few years.
But I've never seen it really acknowledged. No one ever seems to want to own up.
It's kind of the red-headed stepchild of disorders, really. Most people don't want to own up to their own self-injuring, if they do so, and most people are a lot happier believing their friends don't hurt themselves.
Well, guess what? It's not that safe. It's not that easy. Statistics for self-injury have been steadily rising. We're up to between half a percent and one percent of people hurting themselves, and at this point, no one can afford to make the assumption that it couldn't happen to them.
What is self injury? Self-injury is the active choice to physically harm oneself, without intent of suicide. Self-injury is the act of cutting, hitting, punching, stabbing, biting, poking. It's the act of pulling out hair or nails, of sometimes even removing a limb.
Self-injury is a coping mechanism. The short answer is that it's a way to make the internal pain into external pain. The short answer doesn't even begin to cover it. But it's not a cry for help, and it's not a sign that the person is crazy. It's just a coping mechanism.
People bleed profusely from this. People go to the hospital from this. People permanently scar from this. And sometimes they don't. Sometimes, they just scratch themselves repeatedly, or pick at themselves until they bleed. And sometimes that's scarier.
A hell of a lot more of us just hurt ourselves in little ways. Just a little every day. Just enough to make it last. Just enough to be real. And maybe so little that it's not even self-considered self-injury. Maybe it's just this thing, this coping mechanism.
And without open discussion? It'll never be dealt with.
And it'll escalate.
You think I'm kidding? Go read the literature.
Actually, read the literature anyway. Because, some of the things I've read? Have given me nightmares.
If you don't find some of the stories terrifying, if you don't find this to be cause for activism, I don't know what could convince you.
Because the fact of the matter is, the world isn't safe, and the world isn't easy. People hurt themselves. People almost kill themselves. And you know what causes a hell of a lot of the severity of self-injury?
Ignorance.
How scary is it for your only knowledge of self-injury to come from a "Seventh Heaven" episode where they send the kid away? Or maybe "Secret Cutting," on Lifetime, where the mother ends up leaving the family? How is that going to make you go to a doctor and try to get help?
Fuck, no. It's time to stand up for this. It's time to to make self-injury a matter of public awareness.
Because that's the only way to stop what is rapidly becoming an epidemic.
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-24 11:36 pm (UTC)*hugs Phnee tightly* I don't think you're stark, raving mad sweets... Wonderful, amazing and gorgeous perhaps, but not mad.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-25 05:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-25 06:35 am (UTC)I'll go and see if
no subject
Date: 2004-02-25 06:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-25 06:32 am (UTC)*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2004-02-25 06:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-25 08:39 am (UTC)The only televised subject matter I've seen on it was Degrassi: the Next Generation. The resolution there was that an acquaintance spotted it, confronted her and eventually got her to see the school counsellor. We see only the very first session of said counselling where the girl says nothing until her time's up. She apologizes for wasting the counsellor's time. The counsellor explains that it wasn't a waste of time: that it'll take time before she feels ready to open up on the subject. On the whole, I think a much more positive message than the ones cited.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-25 09:02 pm (UTC)I'm VASTLY oversimplifying this, because this is an LJ comment and not a university paper. ;)
But, basically, that's what it is. Women are taught from the time they're very young that it is not acceptable for them to feel any kind of "negative" emotion. Not just *show* any kind of negative emotion, but even feel it. They must be restrained and quiet and "proper." Therefore, when they inevitably feel sadness or, God forbid, anger, they immediately feel conflicted and guilty, and, in extreme cases, they turn on themselves, because they don't know how to deal with these strong emotions in a healthy way.
Men, on the whole, are given more outlets for "negative" emotions (I'm using quotation marks because I don't like that word, but I can't think of a better one right now). I'm not saying the outlets are necessarily good, but there are more of them readily available. Not so for women, whose failure to live up to the impossible standards to which society holds makes them the first victims of self-hatred. It's basic programming: they're programmed to think that unless they act a certain way, they're defective. Unfortunately, it's beyond the capacity of any human being to act that way all the time, therefore they fail. Those women in whom the programming is strongest therefore begin to believe that they are the problem, that they are defective, and thus begins the cycle of self-loathing, of self-destruction.
It's a lot more insidious than most of us care to think.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-25 02:40 pm (UTC)