Page 185 - Under the Cover of Darkness

secret – feelings which exacerbate the situation. For those
who have no experience or education in it, it can seem
frightening and extremely difficult to even comprehend.
There are many questions surrounding the subject of self
-harm and I’ll try to address as many of them as I can
but at the heart of this sinister enigma is the
question WHY?

“Why do they do it?!” …

There isn’t necessarily ONE main reason why people
self-harm – although mental and emotional pain is
invariably at the root of it, but in my personal
experience, (both as a recovering self-harmer and having
trained and worked in Mental Health & Social Care),
people self-harm for any one, or combination of the
following reasons…
Making it REAL: Mental & emotional pain is as real &
painful as physical pain but it’s invisible. Often the
emotional pain a person is in is so excruciating it’s
difficult to believe there are no visible signs. The
self-harmer might inflict a wound as a way of manifesting
their agony and making it real and visible – both to
themselves and other people. A person might writhe in
internal agony but be perceived as having no problem at
all by outsiders. Their wound illustrates that they are in
deep and real pain.
Making it FEEL BETTER: usually the internal pain felt by
the self-harmer is so severe that the harm they inflict on
themselves (whether cutting, burning or
whatever) actually feels better. A lot better! It might go
some way to explaining how much pain a person is in