Self-Harm Among Young People on the Rise

*Trigger Warning*: This article contains triggers for self-harm.

The UK is witnessing a steep rise in self-harm cases among young people.

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Self-harm is on the rise among young people in the UK. According to NHS figures obtained by BBC Newsbeat, there has been a 20 per cent rise in the number of 10 to 19-year olds being admitted to hospital for self-harming across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

NHS defines self-harm as an act of intentionally damaging or injuring one’s body. It is a way of coping with or expressing overwhelming emotional distress.

“Self-harm is a physical response to an emotional distress of some kind,” says selfharmUK Project Manager, Rachel Welch. “The pain of injury becomes preferable to the stress being experienced in a given moment” she adds.

A World Health Organisation 2014 study reveals that one in five 15-year-olds in England self-harm. The same study also highlights a three-fold increase in the total number of UK teenagers self-harming during past ten years.

There are several factors that are responsible for the increasing incidence of self-harm among adolescents, including “increasing peer, school and societal pressures that the youth of today face,” says Dr Kathryn Gardner of the Health Psychology Research Group at the University of Central Lancashire.

“Lack of support within the family and school and an unstable family environment are also causal factors,” she adds.

“It’s important to remember that everyone is an individual and therefore will have different reasons why they self-harm,” says Lancashire Minds’ Children and Young People Services Manager, Louise Clarkson.

“For some people who feel numb or disconnected from their physical self, self-harm may be a way of reconnecting,” she adds.

The NHS has seen about 70 per cent increase in the number of 10-14-year-olds treated for self-harm between 2012 and 2014, and it’s believed around 13 per cent of 11-16-year-olds will attempt to hurt themselves at some point.

Copycat self-harming is also one of the driving factors. “Unfortunately, there is also a “contagious” nature to self-harm,” says Dr Gardner.

“When one child self-harms, children in the peer-group attempt the same perhaps to see what it feels like.”

“Even if the self-harm begins in this rather exploratory fashion, these children are then at risk of continuing with the behaviour as they accidentally realise that self-harm brings emotional release or support from others” she explains.

However, not all children attempt to self-harm after seeing someone doing so.  “One would expect that the more vulnerable children might do so” she clarifies.

Lucy*, a 15 –year old came to know about self-harming from her friends. “I was hanging around with year 11’s and always saw what people had done to themselves… It kind of had an impact on me. They were doing it for a reason but it was on full display.”

“I was 13 at the time and thought it was the in- thing,” she adds.

Celebrities such as American singer Demi Lovato have been increasingly vocal in public about their self-harming. Such cases can also incite copycat self-harm among the young people, teenagers in particular.

Lucy started self-harming after “a really bad break-up”. “I slowly got addicted to it,” she adds.

For Livla Maggio-Carluccio, it was “a completely overwhelming anxiety” that pushed her towards self-harming.

“I didn’t understand at all what was going on with myself…why I was having obsessions and compulsions that I could not control and why I would break down at the tiniest thing,” adds the Cardiff-based university student.

Things began to change for Lucy when she had “hit the rock bottom and had ended up in the hospital.”

“While I was in the hospital I really thought that I don’t deserve to go through all this.”

“When I got back to school, I wanted to set things straight,” she says.

Social media may also be one of the possible factors behind rising self-harm cases.  In January 2013, a Twitter campaign called #CuttingForBeiber urged Justin Bieber fans to self-harm themselves and film it to protest against the controversial images of the pop sensation.

The mock campaign’s hashtags were trending on Twitter until it was vehemently condemned by several mental health support charities such as YoungMinds.

Meanwhile, Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust used the same platform in a constructive way. Last month, the organisation used social media to raise awareness of self-harm among young people by launching ‘Self-Help Not Self-Harm’ campaign.

The organisation called on people across the county to write how they cope with pressures on their wrists and post a selfie on social media using the hashtag #selfhelpnotselfharm while nominating three friends to do the same.

According to a joint study conducted by ChildLine, SelfharmUK and YouthNet, 60 percent of 11-14-year-olds have admitted sharing images of people self-harming on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

The research was carried out on over 2,000 children ahead of Self-Harm Awareness Day on March 1.

The study also revealed that after seeing such images, more than half of the children admitted that they ‘felt like hurting themselves afterwards’.

Studies show that for the vast majority of cases, self-harming is used as a coping mechanism. It allows them to purge their pent-up emotions and distress through physical pain. “Commonly, we see young people struggling with anger control, and low self-esteem…In the absence of being able to process those feelings in healthier ways, self-harm creeps in as a coping mechanism,” Welch explains.

Statistics show that teenage girls are more than twice as likely to self-harm as young males.  “Those statistics are based on known disclosures, so it may well be that just as many boys self-harm as girls but are not coming forward and making themselves known,” says Welch.

“They are limited to what is recorded as self-harm, actions such as punching walls or fighting may not be recorded as self-harm but maybe a self-harming act,” Clarkson explains.

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Data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) suggests that the number of self-harm cases among young males is also on the rise. It has increased from 454 in 2009 to 2010, to 659 in 2013 to 2014.

Welch says that self-harm issues today are less taboo in the British society than they have ever been. “But they are generally still steeped in stigma and misunderstanding.”

“We know that self-harm tends to be a private act and there is a lot of shame associated with it,” says Clarkson.

“Attitudes and misconceptions such as this reinforce the shame felt by those who self-harm reducing the likelihood of them seeking help” she adds.

“Society is getting better at talking about self-harm but it is still perceived as being about ‘girls who cut’ whereas it’s much more complex and diverse than that,” says Welch.

Clarkson says that this adds “an extra pressure on boys who self-harm” leading to a fear of being judged because “only girls do it.”

Events such as self-harm awareness conferences are “a much-needed opportunity to open discourse and challenge these myths” explains Clarkson.

Welch stresses that we need to keep talking about it and “maintain accurate and helpful reporting in the media.”

Often, self-harm is mistaken to be an act of attention-seeking. “It’s a term that has become constructed as being negative, when in fact people struggling with self-harm DO need attention, but for all the right reasons.”

“We all self-harm, whether we have a cigarette when stressed, have a couple of glasses of wine after work, comfort eat…we need to vent” says Clarkson.

“When we are able to talk openly about self-harm and suspend judgement or shock we will create more opportunities for those who are self-harming to seek help” she adds.

Learning how to deal with people who are doing self-harm or consider doing so is crucial to address the problem.

“The cure is time and the medicine is patience,” says Lucy who has managed to overcome the issue after a year long struggle.

Livla says, “I overcame it with the help of my Mum. It was with the constant supervision and a combination of the correct medication that lead me to move away from the urges.”

“I still get them fleetingly now, but today marks the day that I am 11 months clean so that’s an achievement!” she adds joyfully.

There are some signs that one’s family and friends should look for. “The biggest indicator will be a change in behaviour,” says Welch.

“If someone you know well starts to behave differently, or may become more reclusive or shows signs of hiding their arms and legs then there may be a cause for concern.”

“Make sure they know you care,” she adds.

For people who are going through a hard phase in life, Lucy suggests that trying to resolve the problem is what people should aim for instead of harming themselves. “See if you can get to the root of the problem.”  “Keep yourself busy,” she stresses, it can help keep one’s mind away from the things that hurt.

*Not her real name.

If you are feeling depressed or experiencing suicidal thoughts, please call the SupportLine telephone helpline at 01708 765200. You can also talk to your parents or a loved one or, seek professional help. It’s important to know that you’re not beyond help and you’re not alone.