Self-harm

When I sat down to write this, it was the 1st of March and, few people will know this, Self-injury Awareness Day. However, by the time I'd finished painting my nails, midnight had passed and it is no longer the 1st of March. However, that is not to say that it is a reason not to be aware of self-harm and the very real effects it can have on people's lives, and so I shall finish the blog anyway.

I think that the most damage caused by self-harm is not the cutting itself, which is usually pretty superficial, and while it may leave scars, will not leave any other long-lasting damage, but the stigma and preconceptions that people hold in relation to self-harm. 

There is a certain stereotype commonly associated with people who self-harm, and that stereotype is that everybody who self-harms is an emo who is only doing it for attention because apparently being "damaged" is cool. While this may be true in a lot of cases, it definitely is not all of them, and believe it or not, self-harming existed long before My Chemical Romance did, and for some people it is a genuine compulsion that enables them to cope with depression, anger or whatever other issues they may have. 

Self-harming is not always a cry for attention. Some people like to hurt themselves in order to prevent them from hurting others, or as a distraction from how bad they are feeling. For some the pain gives them a rush and a temporary high, making them forget for a moment just how bad their situation is. People that really do suffer with self-harm issues do not flaunt their scars. They were sleeves or lots of bracelets, and a huge amount of people hurt themselves in places that most people never get to see, such as their stomach or thighs. 

Even if you yourself cannot understand why people may feel the urge to self-harm, just think before you make jokes about it because it's something that many people don't find very funny at all. There's been so many times when I've seen somebody with a scratch on their arm and someone else has said "How did you do that you emo hahahahaha". Now obviously the person asking the question is joking and would probably be shocked if the person was actually a self-harmer, but just imagine that the wound was self-inflicted. How would they feel being mocked for it? They would feel even more alone than they probably already did previously, victimised and probably angry as well. 

Please, think before you joke about self-harm because it's really not funny. 

http://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/commentisfree/2012/mar/01/how-i-managed-to-stop-self-harming