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Tendency to self-harm,
a serious problem
Our Correspondent
Ludhiana, May 17
Of late incidents of growing children harming or hurting themselves has assumed to an alarming extent. Almost every day one comes across such mishaps when the adolescents are found to have taken too many tablets, cut their wrists, burnt their bodies, banged their heads or other ways to hurt themselves.
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Those in the midst of problems should talk to someone, if alone phone a friend, if the person you are with, is making you feel worse, go out, distract yourself by going out, singing or listening to music |
These observations were made in a community mental health lecture, here, last evening, by Dr Paramjit Singh Khurana, consultant neuro-psychiatrist and drug de-addiction specialist at Guru Teg Bahadur Charitable Hospital. He said on an average, one in ten youngsters, would self-harm at some point, although it could occur at any age. This tendency is more common in young women than men. Several studies conducted on this issue have led to the belief that those who tend to inflict self-harm are more likely to have experienced physical, emotional or sexual abuse during their childhood. He maintained that the biggest factor behind this tendency among the adolescents is emotional distress. Other reasons could be physical or sexual abuse, depression, relationship problems with partners among the grown-ups, friends and family, feeling of neglect or isolation, hopelessness, things being out of control, or feeling powerless to tackle a particular situation. According to Dr Khurana, even though others might feel that acts of self-harming are done deliberately and almost cynically, but this is not true. Someone who self-harms, would usually do it in a state of high emotion, distress and unbearable inner turmoil. While some people may plan it in advance, others do it suddenly. In the same way, some people self-harm only once or twice, but others do it regularly, or in other words, it can become almost like an addiction for them. The unfortunate part of the problem, said Dr Khurana, was that a lot of people with the tendency to self-harm did not seek help. He asserted that the tendency to self-harm goes away after a while. Listing steps to deal with such situations, he said, “Those in the midst of problems should talk to someone, if alone phone a friend, if the person you are with, is making you feel worse, go out, distract yourself by going out, singing or listening to music, or by doing anything (harmless) that interests you, or adopt a positive attitude and seek professional assistance if required.” Dr Khurana concluded that self-harm is not a solution to a problem, but such behaviour rather complicates the situation and creates more problems.
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