What is self-harm?

What is self-harm?
Self-harm is a way of expressing and dealing with deep distress and emotional pain. It includes anything you do to intentionally injure yourself. Some of the more common ways include:

Cutting or severely scratching your skin
Burning or scalding yourself
Hitting yourself or banging your head
Punching things or throwing your body against walls and hard objects
Sticking objects into your skin
Intentionally preventing wounds from healing
Swallowing poisonous substances or inappropriate objects
Self-harm can also include less obvious ways of hurting yourself or putting yourself in danger, such as driving recklessly, binge drinking, taking too many drugs, and having unsafe sex.

Regardless of how you self-harm, injuring yourself is often the only way you know how to:

Cope with feelings like sadness, self-loathing, emptiness, guilt, and rage
Express feelings you can't put into words or release the pain and tension you feel inside
Feel in control, relieve guilt, or punish yourself
Distract yourself from overwhelming emotions or difficult life circumstances
Make you feel alive, or simply feel something, instead of feeling numb
But it's important to know that there is help available if you want to stop. You can learn other ways to cope with everything that's going on inside without having to hurt yourself.