What is NAMI you may be asking? Well NAMI stands for National Alliance for Mental Illness. They are an organization helping people get the help they need, giving support to family members of those with mental illness, and raising awareness around the nation in your local community.
This September 24, 2011 there is a NAMIWalk and my husband and I have registered to participate in it. I have a personal page where you can donate any money if you wish to help keep this organization going. Please help me support this great organization. This is a very personal thing for me as you know because of my life struggles with the disorders I have and the self-injury that I have struggled with. Visit my webpage to donate:
http://www.nami.org/namiwalks11/SLC/SurvivorGirl
You may also donate here as well:
http://www.nami.org/namiwalks11/SLC/chansen1983
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Signs and signitures to Look For
I know that most of the people who self-harm themselves, me included, were(are) very ashamed of our injuries. I used to hide it all of the time and prayed at every moment to not get caught.
So because self injury is most often times kept secret, it can be easy to miss some of the signs that your teen, friend, sister, brother, wife, or husband is injuring themselves deliberately. Here are some helpful hints to help guide you if you are suspicious that a loved one or friend is engaging in this type of behavior.
*Symptom may include but are not limited to:
I know I have mentioned before some of the ways that people can harm themselves, but here is a little bit more detailed list of things people might do, from the mild, to the extreme.
*Forms of Self-Injury:
Again, these are only a few of the ways that people have found to harm themselves. Some people may use more than one method of injuring themselves. But more people like me, I had a love/hate relationship with a razor blade. It was the easiest way to get what I needed and it was the easiest way to hide it. Sometimes I would keep a razor blade hidden away inside my makeup compact. I was talking with my mother today on the telephone and we were discussing this issue. I guess I had forgotten all about this story, but here it is.
When I moved away for college, I thought I had pretty much cleaned out my room. I guess I was wrong. My mom had told me that when she went in to get my room cleaned up and ready for my younger sister, she had found steak knives and blades from shaving razors scattered in different places. As I was listening to my mom say these things, she told me that it was then she had began to have her major suspicions. But as probably most parents are probably devastated and scared to figure these things out, she didn't know how to address the situation with me. I think sometimes that it would have been nice if she had come to me. It might not have been so hard for me to ask for help later on. But I do not blame her at all. I know that it must have been a difficult time as a parent to discover something like that.
One last thing before I go. Please parents, friends, loved ones. If you find out that someone close to you is injuring themselves on purpose. Please don't come at them with an aggressive tactic. It will most likely make this person become introverted to the conversation and you most likely won't get much out of them. Attempt to be as kind as possible. Let them know you love them. Let them know you care and that if they want the help, that you will be there to support them. It helps an extreme amount to have a good support system when dealing with self-injury. There are usually so many more elements that coincide with the self-injury behavior.
*Information cited from MayoClinic.com
So because self injury is most often times kept secret, it can be easy to miss some of the signs that your teen, friend, sister, brother, wife, or husband is injuring themselves deliberately. Here are some helpful hints to help guide you if you are suspicious that a loved one or friend is engaging in this type of behavior.
*Symptom may include but are not limited to:
- Scars, such as from burns or cuts
- Fresh cuts, scratches, bruises or other wounds
- Broken bones
- Keeping sharp objects on hand
- Spending a great deal of time alone
- Relationship troubles
- Wearing long sleeves or long pants, even in hot weather
- Claiming to have frequent accidents or mishaps
I know I have mentioned before some of the ways that people can harm themselves, but here is a little bit more detailed list of things people might do, from the mild, to the extreme.
*Forms of Self-Injury:
- Severe scratching
- Cutting
- Burning
- Poisoning
- Carving words or symbols on the skin
- Breaking bones
- Hitting or punching
- Piercing the skin with sharp objects (in my opinion, popular body piercings do not count in this category.)
- Head banging
- Biting
- Pulling out hair
- Interfering with wound healing
Again, these are only a few of the ways that people have found to harm themselves. Some people may use more than one method of injuring themselves. But more people like me, I had a love/hate relationship with a razor blade. It was the easiest way to get what I needed and it was the easiest way to hide it. Sometimes I would keep a razor blade hidden away inside my makeup compact. I was talking with my mother today on the telephone and we were discussing this issue. I guess I had forgotten all about this story, but here it is.
When I moved away for college, I thought I had pretty much cleaned out my room. I guess I was wrong. My mom had told me that when she went in to get my room cleaned up and ready for my younger sister, she had found steak knives and blades from shaving razors scattered in different places. As I was listening to my mom say these things, she told me that it was then she had began to have her major suspicions. But as probably most parents are probably devastated and scared to figure these things out, she didn't know how to address the situation with me. I think sometimes that it would have been nice if she had come to me. It might not have been so hard for me to ask for help later on. But I do not blame her at all. I know that it must have been a difficult time as a parent to discover something like that.
One last thing before I go. Please parents, friends, loved ones. If you find out that someone close to you is injuring themselves on purpose. Please don't come at them with an aggressive tactic. It will most likely make this person become introverted to the conversation and you most likely won't get much out of them. Attempt to be as kind as possible. Let them know you love them. Let them know you care and that if they want the help, that you will be there to support them. It helps an extreme amount to have a good support system when dealing with self-injury. There are usually so many more elements that coincide with the self-injury behavior.
*Information cited from MayoClinic.com
Self-Injury Poll
I wanted to do a poll to help people better understand how many people are affected by this debilitating coping mechanism. So if you would please take just a quick moment to do my survey I would really appreciate it. http://www.99polls.com/poll_89170:1
Thursday, July 14, 2011
What is Self-Injury? *Graphic Material*
What is self-injury you may be asking yourself?
Well, I have my own personal definition of self-injury, but I'll give you a medical standpoint.
An article by the Mayo Clinic states that self-injury is the act of deliberately harming your own body, such as cutting or burning yourself. It's not meant as a suicide attempt. Rather, self-injury is an unhealthy way to cope with emotional pain, intense anger and frustration.
There are many other ways besides cutting or burning that people use to harm themselves with. For instance, some people will pull their own hair, scratch themselves, cut with razor blades, burn with fire or chemicals. Since this blog is about sharing my story I will share a little bit more about myself. I for instance started out small. When I first started to injure myself, I would use something as crude as a bent paperclip to scratch the surface of the skin. I would scratch myself with my fingernails until the skin literally just sluff off. It would look very similar to a rug burn. But as my emotions became more and more buried, I couldn't help but feel the urge to find something more. Razor blades scared me, but intrigued me. I never used a box-cutter style razor blade at first. I figured out an ingenious way to take apart my shaving razors to get to the little blade inside. I remember the first time I cut myself with a razor blade after having an emotional day at school. I remember how it felt dragging it across my skin. The rush of endorphins that were quickly released gave me such a high and feeling of invincibilty. But as I soon noticed, that feeling quickly passed and it was back to feeling anxious, depressed, and most of all, guilty for what I had just done.
It is estimated that 1% of the population self-harms. So to put that in to scale. If there are approximately 6 billion people in the world, that means that 60 million people around the world are estimated to self-injure themselves in some way or another. That's a staggering amount. When you go to the grocery store or the park, just take a look around. Chances are that at least one person you come in contact with self-harms. There could be a possiblity that in your own family that someone close to you that you love does this.
Now I'm sure that you have heard or thought that we who self-harm ourselves are just looking for attention or are trying to attempt suicide. This is not the case usually. For most of us that do, we are ashamed of it. We hide it. I used to wear long sleeve shirts and pants during the summer months so that no one would see and to avoid the possible ridicule. It becomes a coping mechanism.
For those of you out there who do ridicule someone you see with obvious scars, please remember to be respectful. That person may be going through hell and rude and disrespectful comments may lead that person to inflict more harm to themselves. And although most people who self-injure don't intentionally try to kill themselves, some injuries can be severe enough that it could lead to death. So just think before you speak.
Well, I have my own personal definition of self-injury, but I'll give you a medical standpoint.
An article by the Mayo Clinic states that self-injury is the act of deliberately harming your own body, such as cutting or burning yourself. It's not meant as a suicide attempt. Rather, self-injury is an unhealthy way to cope with emotional pain, intense anger and frustration.
There are many other ways besides cutting or burning that people use to harm themselves with. For instance, some people will pull their own hair, scratch themselves, cut with razor blades, burn with fire or chemicals. Since this blog is about sharing my story I will share a little bit more about myself. I for instance started out small. When I first started to injure myself, I would use something as crude as a bent paperclip to scratch the surface of the skin. I would scratch myself with my fingernails until the skin literally just sluff off. It would look very similar to a rug burn. But as my emotions became more and more buried, I couldn't help but feel the urge to find something more. Razor blades scared me, but intrigued me. I never used a box-cutter style razor blade at first. I figured out an ingenious way to take apart my shaving razors to get to the little blade inside. I remember the first time I cut myself with a razor blade after having an emotional day at school. I remember how it felt dragging it across my skin. The rush of endorphins that were quickly released gave me such a high and feeling of invincibilty. But as I soon noticed, that feeling quickly passed and it was back to feeling anxious, depressed, and most of all, guilty for what I had just done.
It is estimated that 1% of the population self-harms. So to put that in to scale. If there are approximately 6 billion people in the world, that means that 60 million people around the world are estimated to self-injure themselves in some way or another. That's a staggering amount. When you go to the grocery store or the park, just take a look around. Chances are that at least one person you come in contact with self-harms. There could be a possiblity that in your own family that someone close to you that you love does this.
Now I'm sure that you have heard or thought that we who self-harm ourselves are just looking for attention or are trying to attempt suicide. This is not the case usually. For most of us that do, we are ashamed of it. We hide it. I used to wear long sleeve shirts and pants during the summer months so that no one would see and to avoid the possible ridicule. It becomes a coping mechanism.
For those of you out there who do ridicule someone you see with obvious scars, please remember to be respectful. That person may be going through hell and rude and disrespectful comments may lead that person to inflict more harm to themselves. And although most people who self-injure don't intentionally try to kill themselves, some injuries can be severe enough that it could lead to death. So just think before you speak.
Now Is the Time
I am on a journey. A journey that will not only continue helping me with my own recovery but hopefully help thousands more with theirs. I am a recovering self-injurer. I am sharing my story because I feel like it is the right time for me to share this. I started self-harming when I was 15 years old and it carried on as it took over my life for nine years. I am happy to say that I am almost three years self-harm free. Free. It is such a strong and invigorating word. I know many of the people who suffer from this debilitating disorder long for freedom from this. For me, it became an addiction. It was the only way I knew how to cope with things. It came to a point where I was doing it all the time. Even when I wasn't stressed out or sad, etc. I was in college when I was hitting the peak of my cutting. With a scared little girl mentality, I told my parents. They came and got me from school and thus started the healing process. It was a major undertaking. I know it was a very stressful time for my parents, but it was almost a horrifying process for me. It was so difficult to admit to the things that I was doing. As I began therapy, I became more and more aware of why I would cut myself. What it would do for me. I was eventually diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and Bipolar Depression. I won't go too much into detail about Borderline Personality Disorder or BPD because it is a lengthy and complicated description. If you wish to know more information, don't hesitate to look it up on the Internet or at your local library.
This is not the beginning of my recovery journey as I have already taken those steps a long time ago. This blog is to hopefully help others who suffer from self-injury and families and friends of those suffering that they may get a better understanding and hope. I was there. I walked in those heavy shoes. I want to make the world aware that this disorder affects millions around the world.
This is not the beginning of my recovery journey as I have already taken those steps a long time ago. This blog is to hopefully help others who suffer from self-injury and families and friends of those suffering that they may get a better understanding and hope. I was there. I walked in those heavy shoes. I want to make the world aware that this disorder affects millions around the world.
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