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If You or a Loved One is Engaged in Self-Injury

If you or a loved one is engaged in self-injury, you may also have Borderline Personality Disorder, as this is one of the symptoms of the disorder. For you, self-injury is probably embarrassing and maybe even shocking, but still a very real fact of life. You may be unable to understand why you deliberately hurt yourself, and are frightened by the fact that you keep doing it, even when you vow that you will stop this behavior.

People who injure themselves by cutting (or one of the other means of self-injury) may feel a momentary sense of calm or release of tension, but these feelings are then quickly replaced by other negative feelings – guilt, shame, etc.

Although self-injury is not a personality disorder by itself, it is an abnormal behavior that is commonly associated with other personality disorders such as Borderline Personality Disorder. One of the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder is self-injury.

There are several reasons that people deliberately injure themselves, but most often it is because they are in deep emotional pain, and they lack healthy ways to cope with this pain, so they turn to self-injury to gain relief from the pain. Self-injury is a physical sign of a non-physical (i.e., emotional) pain.

If You Engage in Self-Injury:
You have most likely already realized that the relief found in self-injury is almost always short-lived. You may feel better for a little while, only to find that your distressing emotions have quickly returned and, once again, you're reaching for a match to burn your stomach or a razor to cut your arm, even if you swore to stop harming yourself.

Self-injury can almost become a habit — you may automatically turn to self-injury without stopping to consider other, safer alternatives to handling your distress.

Self-injury may also be more dangerous than you think. You can risk hurting yourself more seriously than you intended. For example, when cutting yourself, you can sever an artery, leading to life-threatening blood loss. When injuring yourself while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, you run an even greater risk of serious injury or even death.

It's very difficult to overcome self-injury on your own. You need to get treatment from a mental health professional that has experience with self-injury issues and can help you learn healthier ways to cope – ways that won't leave permanent scars on your body. Try to find someone you can confide in, someone you can trust, whether it’s a friend or loved one, counselor or therapist, pastor, or someone else. You need someone who can help you take the first steps toward successful treatment.

If Your Loved One Engages in Self-Injury:
If your loved one engages in self-injury, you may not know what to do. You may feel shocked, dismayed and/or scared. Learning more about self-injury may help you to understand why this behavior occurs, and help you to develop the compassionate, firm approach that you need.

If your loved one is an adult, you need to gently encourage him/her to seek medical treatment. If your loved one is a child, you can begin by consulting your pediatrician or family doctor, who can provide an initial evaluation or referral to a mental health provider.

About the Author

David Oliver is the founder of BorderlineCentral.com a one stop source of information on how to cope and deal with borderline personality disorder.

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This Week's Borderline Personality Disorder News

The Cutting Truth of Borderline Personality Disorder
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Cutting and other forms of self-mutilation may be hard for many people to understand. People who self-harm are more likely to have an underlying emotional problems, such as Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). According to a study by German researchers, people with BPD may engage in self-injury because they get a sense of emotional relief from physical pain. BPD is a complex set of... Read More

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