Self Harm

People from all walks of life can self harm or self-injure. They can be male or female, rich or poor, and any age. Self-harming behaviour can happen at any time over the lifespan. Here at YIBC, we hear from a lot of youth who use self-harming as a means of coping with various situations and feelings. They tell us that self-injury provides immediate relief, and yet they also say that often the relief is only temporary.

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The definition of self-harm (and what it includes and excludes) varies greatly. For the purposes of this section, we’re referring to intentional actions whose primary goal is physical injury to the person themselves in order to cope with stress, feelings, difficulties. While there may certainly be some suicidal intent (“I wouldn’t have minded if the damage had been more serious…“), we’re usually talking about behaviours that are not suicidal in primary intent, since the idea behind them is to find a way to continue living, not stop living.