Self Injury

Self-injurious behavior is also known as self-injury, deliberate self-harm, self-mutilation, cutting, or non-suicidal self-injury. Such behaviors refer to individuals who intentionally inflict harm to his or her body for purposes other than any socially acceptable actions (like tattooing).

Self-injury can include a variety of self-destructive behaviors. Most common are cutting, which is intentional carving or cutting of the skin, scratching, burning, ripping or pulling skin or hair, swallowing toxic substances, intentionally bruising oneself, burning oneself with lit cigarettes, and actually breaking bones.

The urge to injure oneself has many underlying causes; people report being sad, anxious, upset, and even numb. Individuals attempt self-injurious actions in an attempt to manage unendurable feelings or to experience some sense of feeling. Self-injury can be a way to deal with anxiety, depression or other negativity, or relieve stress or pressure. There is a need for control and expression, for distraction, to communicate, to act out—there are a myriad of reasons people seek to mutilate themselves. Feelings of gross inadequacy, serious lack of self-esteem, emotional or sexual trauma experienced as a child can also lead to such destructive behavior.

For “cutters” and patients engaged in other self-injurious behavior, seeking the origin of such self-destructive feelings is the first step to recovery. At Caron Texas, our goal is to sort out the destructive behaviors and more importantly teach patients alternative ways to deal with those feelings. While our focus is on alcohol and drug treatment and removing the chemical dependency, identifying healthy ways of coping with mental health issues such as self-injury is an important part of addiction treatment.