Self-Harm Awareness Month

March is Self-Harm Awareness Month - Let’s open up the conversation to help de-stigmaize the experience and open doors for support! For a primer on this topic, check out the post I wrote a few years back by clicking here! The main change to this post is that the contacts for support have developed to be the following:

• Text “HOME” to 741741 from anywhere in the United States – this 24/7, free, confidential text crisis line provides a live, trained volunteer Crisis Counselor to respond through listening, supporting you and helping you when you want to self-harm or have difficulty managing your mental health

• If calling a crisis counselor feels more comfortable than texting, you can call 988 for help in this area or if you just needing someone to talk to instead of the previously listed 800 number

To help bring light to a challenging topic as an act of de-stigmization, let’s explore and understand a few reasons why someone might utilize self-harm:

• Not having the means or resources to cope with psychological pain

• Having a low threshold in managing or understanding their emotions

• Being under severe distress due to day-to-day circumstances

• Needing a distraction from physical pain in a different area of their body

• Wanting a felt sense of control over one’s body, feelings, or life situations, especially when the person wants to feel something different that they are currently experiencing

• Desiring to express internal feelings in an external way

• Expressing/communicating one’s feeling of depression

• Believing one should be punished for their felt/experienced faults

In reviewing this list, I imagine that everyone can see themselves in some capacity. A reminder in contextualizing self-harm is that said action is a way to process difficult circumstances. In supporting those who access or have accessed self-harm, areas of increased risk include the following:

• Having friends who previously or currently self-harm

• A history of trauma, abuse, unstable family dynamics, social isolation and confusion about a facet of one’s identity

• Mental health experiences like borderline personality disorder, depression, anxiety, PTSD and disordered eating

• A relationship with substances like drugs and alcohol

If you or someone you know relate to these lists, consider utilizing your support system or talking to your mental health provider about your relationship to self-harm. It may have served you thus far and I’d like to propose there is another way to relate to your body and mental health that can foster deeper connection, understanding and relief of challenges related to yourself and the world around you!

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Lou Lim, LMHC, REAT is a licensed mental health counselor and registered expressive arts therapist (REAT) with a master's degree in Expressive Therapy and Mental Health Counseling from Lesley University. He is a member of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association and on the committee for REAT credentialing. He has 13 years of experience in counseling and expressive therapy working with children, adolescents, teenagers, adults, and retirees.

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