Sharing – People harm themselves to cope with big emotions. You can help them heal.
I was curious to read this article because as mentioned, we don’t really talk a lot about self-harm., especially with teens, because it’s such a taboo subject.
“It’s hard to know exactly how many people harm themselves because it’s often done in private, and people don’t talk about it. Retired professor Janis Whitlock, who is a self-injury researcher at Cornell and a senior fellow at the Jed Foundation, said about one in five young people have injured themselves, though that number pre-dates the pandemic, and instances of self-injury have probably risen. About 6% of adults also harm themselves.
The behavior is complicated and can be hard to treat, Whitlock said, but people do it because they are trying to get their needs met.”
I appreciate that there is someone researching this, and I am also glad that the subject of the article, artist Donalen Rojas Bowers, is sharing her story as well. It’s not an easy thing to talk about, it’s not an easy thing to learn about, and it’s definitely not an easy thing to find out someone you love is self-harming.
None of that unease should matter when compared to understanding and helping kids and adults who feel the need to self-harm because there have no better options available. The only way we find those is to talk about this.
