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Self-harm addiction, also known as self-mutilation, usually refer to the act of cutting and burning oneself and is an addiction which is widely misunderstood. Many often people believe that a self-harmer is attempting to commit suicide due to the serious nature of the wounds, cuts inflicted. When a person is a self-harmer, they engage in obsessive and compulsive behaviours involving inflicting physical damage to their bodies in quest to avoid feelings with which these are unable to cope or do not know how to process. Others may see a self-mutilator as an attention seeker which is simply not so true.
Self-harming can include cutting, burning with cigarette lighters, cigarettes, other hot implements, general acts of bodily harm such as hitting one's head against a wall repeatedly. The self-mutilation can be so severe that the sufferer may need medical treatment and sometimes hospitalisation.
The results of self harming leave permanent scars on the body, which the sufferer may be proud of when immersed in their addiction, yet will also cause deep shame of their behaviour resulting in their hiding the evidence from others at times.
Many people suffer from the addiction concerned with self-harm. The condition does not discriminate race, gender, culture or creed although young women seem to suffer most commonly from these kinds of addictive behaviours. Self-harm is often accompanied by other addictive tendencies, like eating disorders and drug addiction, but anyone can suffer from the problem.
Self-harm is a disease - just like drug addiction and alcoholism, the sufferer has an incurable and progressive disease which can be arrested and managed through therapy or treatment. The act of harming one's body is not really the problem when self-mutilation is involved. Whilst the behaviour is an addiction, the problem lies in the person: their behaviour is a symptom of the disease.
If a person is addicted to the obsessive and compulsive behaviours related to self-harming, any person is generally secretive about their behaviour. Fear of being stopped or confronted results in hiding of their actions.
Many sufferers report their behaviour involving self-harm as 'ritualistic', just as with drug addicts and also alcoholics. The location of self-harm infliction on their bodies may be in one place, such as arms, thighs, stomach and sometimes even the face.
The process of self-harming generally involves the sufferer experiencing some sort of an emotion, such as rejection and the resulting self-hatred, and following this, a desperate need to 'cleanse' themselves of the unbearable feelings.
Signs of a person having a problem with self-mutilation are secretive behaviour, wearing long sleeves even when the weather is hot in an attempt to hide the scarring, staring at or playing with scars, obsessions with whatever implement they choose. Uncharacteristic behaviour such as mood swings and engaging in other self-destructive behaviour, some of which include drug use, alcohol abuse, starvation, purging, over eating and promiscuity.
Treatment for self-mutilation is of similar approach to treating other addictions. Firstly the behaviour must be ceased to allow the feelings which the sufferer is avoiding to surface. It is only then that healing can begin in the form of therapy and counselling.
Self-mutilation treatment is most beneficial when one to one counselling, group therapy and a daily programme of recovery is implemented. Self-harming addiction is incredibly serious and can take sufferers to such dark places that they may feel they can never recover or live a life free of the obsession and compulsion to self-harm. Yet, with treatment and a daily programme of recovery, a self-harming addict can regain a normal and happy life.
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