Unfortunately, it’s fairly common, and the reaction of the parent plays an important role in helping teens in the recovery process.

Cutting into the skin is the most widely known form of self-harm.

Teens do this using their fingernails, razor blades, knives, or even pen caps. Self-harm can also come in the form of burns, skin picking, hair pulling, or even hitting oneself.

Kids with anxiety, depression, eating disorders, borderline personality disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder are all at risk for self-harm, but so are kids with a history of trauma, neglect, or abuse.

Other potential risks for self-harm include the following:

• Low self-esteem
• Feeling rejected or lonely
• Feeling unsafe at school or at home
• Perfectionism
• Frequent conflicts with friends or family
• Impulsive behavior
• A tendency to take unhealthy risks (behaviors that could result in physical harm)

How do I know if my teen is engaging in self-harm?

Teens who self-harm tend be skilled at hiding their behavior from their parents, friends, and other adults in their lives. While some parents might notice scars or marks on a teen’s arms, torso, or legs, many of the red flags for self-harm tend to be subtle.

If you suspect that your teen might be susceptible to self-harm, be on the lookout for these signs:

• Suspicious looking scars
• Wounds that don’t heal or get worse over time
• Isolation
• Talking about self-injury (they might mention peers who engage in self-harm)
• Collecting sharp items
• Secretive behavior
• Wearing long sleeves and/or long pants in hot weather
• Avoiding social activities
• Wearing a lot of bandages
• Avoiding sports or other activities where they might have to change clothes in front of others

What triggers self-harm behavior in teens?

An important part of helping teens recover from self-harm is understanding why they do it in the first place. There isn’t a simple answer to this question but, in general, some teens use self-harm to relieve tension by stimulating endorphins while others use self-harm to feel physical pain instead of emotional numbness. Stress and pressure, anxiety, and depression are all associated with self-harm in adolescence.

Other feelings that trigger the impulse to engage in self-harm can include:

• Anger
• Sadness
• Rejection by peers or adults
• Loneliness
• Irritability
• Social issues
• Family discord
• Social media use, including videos and photos that show other kids cutting to cope with emotional pain

Get Help for Teens that Self-Harm

If your teen is engaging in self-harm, he or she needs professional help. Though self-harm is generally not considered suicidal in nature, there is an elevated risk of suicidal behavior for teens who self-harm.

If there is an underlying mental health disorder, such as anxiety or depression, medication might be prescribed. A good first step is to get a comprehensive evaluation by an adolescent psychiatrist who specializes in anxiety and depressive disorders. If your teen’s self-harm behavior is elevated and potentially life-threatening, hospitalization might be necessary.

Psychotherapy helps teens work through the triggers that contribute to negative thought patterns and learn positive coping skills to use instead of engaging in self-harm behaviors. Seek an evaluation from a licensed mental health practitioner who treats adolescents and has experience helping teens who engage in self-harm.

Treatment options can include:

• Family therapy to explore triggers in the home and how parents and teens can improve communication patterns and help develop better coping skills for dealing with the stress at home.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to challenge negative and distressing thoughts, recognize the pattern of negative thinking, and learn replacement strategies.
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to learn how to tolerate uncomfortable emotions, to learn to regulate feelings of anxiety, rejection, anger, and fear, and to learn positive coping skills.

Also read:

3 Ways to Help Your Teen Stop Self-Harming

5 Benefits of Residential Treatment for Troubled Teens

Where to Send Your Troubled Teen

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If your teen is self-harming and you’ve have exhausted your local therapy and resources, please contact us to learn the benefits of residential treatment for teens that engage in self-injury.

Written by Katie Hurley, LCSW  and author of The Depression Workbook for Teens.

The post How to Help a Teen that Self Harms first appeared on Help Your Teens.

Self-injury is a trend we are hearing more and more about. Teens and younger are engaging in self-harming and it’s very alarming for parents, as it should be.

What is causing this dangerous and risky behavior? Is it peer pressure? Is it stress related? What is so emotionally painful that your child is burying it by the physical pain of cutting?

Is self-harming a form of mental illness?

It’s important to understand that a teen who is a self-injurer is not mentally ill. Self-injury is not merely a way to get attention. Even though the self-injurer may not feel the pain while inflicting the wound, he or she will feel pain afterward.

This is not to say it’s not imperative you get your child help.

Thus, such injuries should not be brushed aside as mere manipulation, nor should the teen be made fun of for being different. Self-injury should be taken seriously by friends and family. Trust and compassion can make a world of difference.

Cutting verses suicide is another issue parents are concerned about.

People who self-injure to get rid of bad feelings are not necessarily suicidal. Self-injury is almost the opposite. Instead of wanting to end their lives, those who inflict physical harm to themselves are desperate to find a way to get through the day without feeling horrible.

Again, this doesn’t mean you dismiss this as not an important problem, these are big issues.

Though the two concepts are different, self-injury should not be brushed aside as a small problem. The very nature of self-injury is physical damage to one’s body. It’s important for the self-injurer to seek help at once.

Can you stop your child from self-harming?

A person may not be able to stop injuring themselves “cold turkey.” But seeing a counselor or joining a support group will likely help to ease the frequency and severity of self-injury. Intense negative feelings may cause a person to feel isolated from the rest of the world, so a social support system is important to fight self-injury.

 

There are effective treatment strategies for those who self-injure. The forms and causes of self-injury are unique to each individual. A psychologist or counselor will be able to tailor a treatment strategy to each person.

If you have exhausted your local resources and local therapy, support groups as well as outpatient treatment is not working – please contact us for information on residential therapy.

Read: 5 Benefits of Boarding Schools for Troubled Teens.

Read: Are Therapeutic Boarding Schools Effective?

Read: Where to Send My Troubled Teen.

Source:  WebMD.com

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If you feel you have exhausted your local resources, your troubled teen is shutting down in therapy, out-patient isn’t working, please contact us for information regarding quality residential therapy.

The post Is Self-Harming A Form of Mental Illness? first appeared on Help Your Teens.