For a lot of people who suffer with mental health issues, the light at the end of the tunnel seems unreachable. Many people don't believe that there is a way out and turn to suicide and self-harm. According to Selfharm.co.uk, self-harm refers to a wide range of behaviors including physical abuse to yourself either by cutting, scratching, burning etc. Self -harm can affect people from all ages and all walks of life. Everyone starts to self-harm for different reasons and each experience with self- harm is completely different from the other. Although so many people experience it, I feel that there is not a lot out there about self-harming and I feel it is a huge part of Mental Health Issues. So here is my experience with self-harm. For myself, I never thought I would ever feel happy again, it got to the point where I could not even remember what it felt like to be happy. Each day that passed I seemed to get worse and I went into my own little bubble. I began to feel emotionally numb, my family didn't know whether I was happy, sad or angry, I couldn't feel anything. Unfortunately, I turned to self harm. I had no previous experience of it and I didn't know anything about it, but I started to scratch my arms and eventually that led to cutting. For me this gave me a sense of relief, I felt like it was the only way to deal with what I was going through. However at times, I also self harmed as a result of conflict or as a form of punishment. I felt that I had let my family and friends down. I was so angry at myself, how dare I feel like this. I have no reason to feel stressed or sad I have supportive people around me, I punished myself for feeling so selfish. I covered up what I was doing for a short period but eventually close family members realized what had been happening and kept a close eye on me. That is a period of my life that I am not proud of and I want to express that. I am definitely NOT encouraging people to self-harm, if anything self-harm made me feel ten times worse. I just want to highlight that unfortunately people do self - harm, but there is a different and better way to deal with the horrible feelings that you are experiencing. The first and biggest step is to talk to someone about it. Whether it is a family member, friend, colleague or teacher, once it is someone you trust, they will listen to you and not pass judgement. Although people's first reaction to self-harm is that the person should stop immediately, in some cases, self- harm can be an addiction for some people, in which stopping self-harm immediately could do more damage then good. In such cases, I highly recommend setting up an appointment with your GP. My GP was great and referred me to a few places. The place which seemed to be the best match for me at the time was Pieta House. I would highly recommend them, whether you are the person self-harming or your loved one is hurting themselves, they are definitely the best people in my eyes to go to for help. They have many centers located in Ireland and in various areas in Dublin including Ballyfermot, Lucan, Finglas and Tallaght. In Pieta House, I explored the main reasons behind my self-harming habits. For me, although putting an end to my self-harming was extremely important to me, finding out why I was doing it and releasing these emotions in other non abusive ways was the best things that I learned with the help of Pieta House. I picked up little tips along the way to stop me from hurting myself, like instead of scratching or cutting I wore an elastic band around my wrist so anytime I felt anxious or stressed I used to flick the elastic band slightly. Although at first it didn't have the same affect as self-harming did have for me, however as the weeks went by, I stopped feeling the need to self-harm or even wear the band, that moment for me is one of the biggest achievements I have had so far. As I said, I am not promoting self-harm, at all, I am simply trying to encourage people to talk about their feelings and to speak out about their experiences with self-harm. I also want to make people aware of the affects self-harming has on people, why people do it but also how to help those who do self-harm and to show them that the light at the end of the tunnel is closer than you may think! Love EM X
2 Comments
Shauna O' Connor
7/31/2015 07:58:46 am
Coming from someone who has been through this experience not so long ago I really enjoy reading your blog and I only wish i could of found a blog like this when I was going through though times. Thankfully there was a light at the tunnel and eventually I found it, and I hope you do to, it is probably one of the most difficult things I have been through but Pieta House definetly helped me aswel, Emma you really are doing a great job with this blog and I hope everything goes well for you ❤️❤️
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Emma
7/31/2015 08:49:37 am
Aw thanks so much Shauna, that really means a lot! I'm glad you got through it and I hope you get stronger and stronger everyday! That is exactly how I feel, I felt so alone like I was the only one to experience these issues because I couldn't find anything like the blog with people's experiences and positive outcomes, I just want people to know that it is going to be ok! Thanks so much for the support, hope everything is good for you <3 xxx
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