Myths About Self Harm:

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1. Self harm is for attention

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People who self harm usually don't want attention. Many try their hardest to conceal their self harm and hide it from others. Rarely, but sometimes, self harm is used as a cry for help, or people show it because they want help. The majority of self harmers are not attention seeking and the ones who are still deserve help if something is bad enough that they're willing to self harm for attention.

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2. You can just stop whenever you want

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Self harm is an addiction. It releases feel good chemicals just like drugs do that make you want to do it again. Your brain associates the feeling of self harm with relief or a release or whatever it is you get out of self harm. You literally get emotionally attached to self harm. You're basically rewriting your brain to cope with self harm, teaching it that self harm is all that will help.

 

You need to get to the underlying problems first before you can try to stop self harming. Until the emotional problems are taken care of, you're still going to want to self harm because the root problem is still there, and as long as you want it you're probably not going to be able to resist it. 

 

3. People who self harm are suicidal. 

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People who self harm can be suicidal, but not all are, and not all suicidal people self harm. 

 

4. The problem isn't valid if the injuries aren't deep or bad/if the wounds aren't bad neither is the problem 

 

The injuries don't always reflect on what they're going through or how bad a problem is. Any self harm is dangerous and all problems are valid regardless of the severity of self harm. 

 

 

5. Self harm is only a "white girl problem"/a teenaged girl problem

 

Self harm doesn't discriminate. Anyone of any race, gender, or sexuality can self harm. 

 

6. Boys can't self harm 

 

Can boys feel emotional pain? Yes? Boys can self harm- they're human too. They have emotions just like everyone else. 

 

7. Only emo people self harm

 

Not all emo people self harm and not all self garners are emo. You can be emo and self harm but you can also self harm and not be emo.  Emo isn't the definition of "angsty white girl who self harms", which is a stereotype about self harm. 

 

8. Self harmers like pain

 

It's not necessarily that they like pain. They might hate pain but self harm because the physical pain takes away from the emotional pain, it covers it so you can't feel it anymore. You can self harm and like the pain just as much as you can self harm and dislike the pain. Both are valid. 

 

9. People who self harm have been abused 

 

Similar to "only emo people self harm" and the stereotypes about white teenaged girls, you can be abused and self harm and you can self harm and not be abused. Self harm doesn't discriminate. Some people who are abused may self harm to cope with it and some may not. 

 

10. People who self harm only cut

 

It's called self harm because it's not just cutting. It's various different forms of harming yourself. Cutting is only one form. 

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