Many mistakenly believe that anyone who intentionally harms their own body is trying to end their life. The legal and mental health systems are challenged by a lack of clarity about suicidal behavior. Police stations, jails and some psychiatric facilities will often put someone on ‘suicide watch’ for self harming behaviors.
Continue reading “Is it a Suicide Attempt or Self-injury?” »
Better to inflict pain on myself than to let other people do it. –Tracy Thompson, The Beast: A Reckoning with Depression
People self-harm for many reasons. Often people who engage in self-harm behaviors have been victims of abuse or have otherwise had experiences in which they felt helpless to control their emotions and circumstances. The ability to harm yourself is the ultimate control over your own body. For some, it is the only control they feel they have. Continue reading “Finding Alternatives to Self-Harm” »
We’ve all found ourselves in a crisis, in a conflict with someone important in our lives or overwhelmed by emotion and circumstances. It can be difficult to maintain emotional balance while figuring out just how to navigate through those stressful times. For some, repetitive stressful events and an inability to recover fully from one event before another occurs results in destructive behaviors, such as self-injury and suicide attempts. It takes skills to solve life’s problems while enduring intense emotion.
Continue reading “Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Skills Groups: An Overview” »
