Читать книгу What Every Parent Needs to Know About Self-Injury - Tonja Krautter - Страница 19

The last common reason that people self-injure is to decrease tension and stress. This is one of the most prevalent indicators for self-injurious behavior and the one cited most often when patients first come into my office. Many of my patients are struggling with intense pressure and stress in their lives. During the initial intake interview, these patients often admit to utilizing self-injury as a way to relieve those feelings. I hear statements like “It calms me down,” “It relieves tension,” or “I feel at peace with myself when I do it.”

This calming technique, although very unhealthy, seems to work in the short term. The problem is that it does not work in the long term and can lead to very dangerous consequences. Aside from the reasons behind self-injurious behavior, the behavior itself can be highly detrimental both physically and psychologically. However, when used to relieve tension and stress, there is an added component which makes it more dangerous and potentially lethal.

In my professional experience, I have found that there is a significant correlation between increasing tension and increasing severity of the self-injurious behavior. In other words, the more stress and tension that the individual feels, the greater the severity of the self-injurious act. As discussed above, it is not uncommon for these patients to end up in the hospital because their behavior becomes so dangerous and out of control.

For example, Kathy was admitted to the hospital following an incident of self-injurious behavior where she cut so deep that she stated, “I even scared myself.” She explained, “I needed to cut more deeply to get the same effect. The tension I was feeling was so powerful that superficial cutting did not seem to get rid of all my stress. I needed something more.” Nadia found herself in a similar situation. She was hospitalized right before a family reunion. She cut so deep, she could see bone. She did not want to go to the hospital, but knew that it was what she needed. She was afraid that she would take things too far as a way to try to get the relief she was looking for. She stated, “The cuts I made on a daily basis were not enough. I needed something more. It was like I built up a tolerance to the pain and couldn’t get the same feeling unless I dug deeper into my skin.”