What is self-harm?
Self-harming or self-injurious behaviour means harming your own body or exposing yourself to something dangerous or risky. Hurting oneself in this way is usually a way of dealing with difficult feelings and anxiety.
Getting hurt can sometimes feel good for a short while, but afterwards it's common to feel ashamed or bad. This can make you want to hurt yourself again and feel even worse.
There are many different reasons why people start to self-harm. Often you feel very bad about one or more things in your life that you feel you can't escape from. It's easy to feel shame and guilt, but it's not your fault that you feel bad. And it may not feel that way right now, but it is possible to feel better!
If you need help
To feel better, you need to break the self-harming behaviour. You may need help with strategies - ways to deal with the difficult feelings that make you hurt yourself.
One strategy may be to learn to recognise the difficult feelings, so that you can do other things more quickly instead of hurting yourself. Our app Stella has exercises to relieve anxiety, maybe one of them will help you when the hard feelings start to come.
To help someone else
Do you have a friend who you suspect is self-harming? It's important to take self-harm seriously, no matter how someone hurts themselves.
The best way to help someone you are worried about is to talk to them! Show that you are there without judging. Offer to come and talk to an adult your friend trusts.
If you want to know more about self-harm, you can also go here: www.shedo.se
If you or someone close to you is hurting yourself, you can also talk to us at Tjejjouren West here in the chat!