The Secret Society of Self-Injury

There are “50 signs” of mental illness; here are a few of them: anger, anxiety, appetite disturbances, confusion, depression, mood swings, panic, stress, and self-mutilation. Who hasn’t felt one or many of these emotions at one time or another? In moderation, these for the most part are normal emotions. But, what happens when these emotions overtake a person? There are many aspects of mental illness that may be explored, but the secretive, impulse control disorder that I have chosen to talk about is self-mutilation. Self- mutilation is an exceptionally complicated disorder, which is not only incredibly difficult to diagnose, but becoming quite prevalent among the youth of the U.S.
More often than not this particular disorder going hand and hand with another mental illness. Bi-polar, borderline personality disorder, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia are the most common accompanying disorders to self-mutilation. Due to the fact that diagnosing this disorder is such a long and pain-staking process, the trust between patient and physician or therapist is a vital part of the process. In the majority of cases an individual will do anything and everything in their power to hide this disorder. To an untrained eye, many indicators of self-mutilation will go undetected.
The actions included in this illness are cutting, burning, scratching, head banging, bone breaking, and picking of the skin, such behaviors are done in a compulsive manner. They feel the compulsion to inflict pain upon themselves to relieve stress, anger, fear, emptiness, and sadness. Many of these persons feel relief and a sense of peace after inflicting an injury upon themselves. Warning sign that someone may be engaging in self-injury are: wearing long sleeves and/or pants in warm weather, low self esteem, difficulty handling emotions, problems with relationships, poor functioning in everyday life, and have a razor, lighter, or any sharp object that one would not expect to see in a person’s belongings.
Treatment for this particular illness may consist of psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, post-traumatic stress therapy, group therapy, family therapy, hypnosis, and medication. The prognosis for a person that self-mutilates varies, for every person, with the psychological state of the person being the most influential factor. The other mental illnesses which accompany self-injury also play a part in prognosis. Unfortunately this disorder is rapidly growing throughout the United States, at an alarming rate. Information on self-injury is becoming more accessible, but there is still a plethora of facts we have yet to learn. Education and awareness are the best tools we have to inform the residence of the communities where we live to help raise awareness and help people better understand self-mutilation.