Self Harm

Talking and reading about self-harm stirs up difficult emotions. Please be aware of how you are feeling before reading the rest of this page. If you feel that you need to talk to someone about how you are feeling then please contact The Samaritans.

What is Self-Harm?
Self-harm can affect us all in lots of different ways. Self-harm can be hard to talk about because it can be linked to emotions we don’t know how to voice. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Self-harm involves emotionally or physically hurting yourself on purpose. You may also hear it being called: ‘self-injury’, ‘cutting’, ‘self-violence’, ‘non-suicidal self-injury’, ‘self-injurious behaviour’,.

Self-harm is often misunderstood.

Why do people self-harm?
People might self-harm because they are dealing with something difficult that is happening, or that happened in the past, or they might not know why they are hurting themselves. Some reasons people self-harm include:

• living with health problems
• living with conditions like ADHD or autism
• stressful or upsetting experiences
• intrusive thoughts
• problems with how you feel about yourself
• questioning your sexuality or identity
• having low self-esteem or body image worries

For information on self-harm from Mind click here to download their information booklet or for self-help booklets on a range of topics, which includes self-harm, from Cumbria Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS click here.