๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง & ๐๐๐ฅ๐-๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ
To get a better understanding of harm reduction, lets first talk about why people self-harm, why it's important to understand, and to have tools and methods at hand for a safe aproach for the self-harmer's recovery journey.
๐๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐๐ฅ๐-๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ?
Self-harm can be a way of dealing with deep distress and emotional pain. It may help you express feelings you canโt put into words, distract you from difficult life situations, or release emotional pain. You probably feel better afterwards, at least temporarilyโBut then the unpleasant emotions return, and you want to injure yourself again.
Self-harm includes anything you do to intentionally injure yourself. Some of the more common ways include:
- Cutting or severely scratching your skin
- Burning or scalding yourself
- Hitting yourself or banging your head
- Punching things or throwing your body against walls and hard objects
- Sticking objects into your skin
- Intentionally preventing wounds from healing
- Swallowing poisonous substances or inappropriate objects
Self-harm can also include less obvious ways of hurting yourself or putting yourself in danger, such as driving recklessly,ย binge drinking, starving yourself, taking too many drugs, or having unsafe sex.
๐๐ก๐ฒ ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐-๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ
Often times, injuring yourself is the only way you know how to:
- Cope with feelings like sadness, self-loathing, emptiness, guilt, and rage
- Express feelings you can't put into words or to release the agony and stress you feel inside
- Feel in control, as an act of self-punishment, or to alleviate
guilt. - Distract yourself from overwhelming emotions or difficult life circumstances
- Make you feel alive, or simply feel something, instead of feeling numb.
Whatever the reasons for self-harming, it's important to know that support is accessible if you want to stop. You can learn to use various coping mechanisms to cope with everything thatโs going on
inside without having to hurt yourself.
๐๐ก๐ฒ ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ญ ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐๐ฅ๐-๐ก๐๐ซ๐ฆ: ๐๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ข๐ซ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ฌ
โI feel relieved and less anxious after I cut. The emotional pain kind of slips away into the physical pain instead.โ
"To me, feeling that pain is better than feeling nothing at all, when feeling numb. Especially when I feel that I'm supposed to be feeling something in that moment."
"Tending to the wound afterwards is a comforting way of taking care of myself, since I'm no longer able to care for myself in any other way."
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ข๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐-๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ & ๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง
The first few questions surrounding this topic are often:
"Why would someone be okay causing physical harm on themself?"
"Wouldn't causing pain just make you feel overall worse?"
"How can self-harming become an addiction?"
The answer depends on the individual, but let's discuss the overall science and explanations behind this:
๐
๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ, ๐
๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ, ๐จ๐ซ ๐
๐ซ๐๐๐ณ๐.
When experiencing strong emotions or trauma for a prolonged period of time, it often results in either:
- An emotional breakdown or outburst (This can include rage, adrenaline rush, and the loss of or inability to feel empathy.)
- Panic attacks and the desire of fleaing from or putting an end to your problem at hand, immediately.
- Dissociation or Shutting down mentally as the brain's way to protect itself from worsened damage.
You may recognize these as the three main responses to stress or fear: Fight, Flight, or Freeze. When experiencing this, it's very common to have ease and the desire to inflict harm on another person or yourself. It's the brain's initial response of a last minute self protection, which can get misconstrewed into instead causing harm on oneself.
Another reasoning tied into the science behind this is:
๐๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐จ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐๐ฏ๐๐ฅ๐ฌ & ๐๐๐ง๐ฌ๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ฅ ๐๐ก๐จ๐๐ค
Often times when experiencing a large amount of mental or bodily stress, you will feel the need to shock your system, most commonly using a cold compress. You feel a bit of releif afterwards, right? That is because the sensory stimulation is quickly lowering heightened cortisol levels, which is the primary stress hormone. This is also why the newfound physical pain can be a postive distraction from the even worse mental pain. So calming down is not always deep breaths and meditation, our bodies know what to do and when it's necessary.
Sensorial shock is a valid coping mechanism, but In these more extreme cases, the stimulation option of choice will be unsafe methods of self-harm. Therefor, self-harming becomes a coping method option for the struggling individual. For most, its a once and done thing, since they don't have as strong of: Adrenoline, Cortisol levels, ongoing trauma or the disorders that come with it. But for others, who struggle with the issues stated above, it can become a regular coping mechanism and even turn into an addiction.
๐๐ก๐๐ญ ๐๐ซ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐-๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐ข๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง?
We've learned how self-harming has a calming affect on the brain, can be an affective distraction, why certain struggling individuals use this method long term, and struggle to quit. Some main mental disorders behind the use of long term self-harm are:
- Major Depressive Disorder or Persistent Depressive Disorder (PDD)
- Bipolar Disorder or Addictive Personality Disorder
- Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
- Panic Disorder or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Individuals with these disorders experience intense prolonged negative feelings, emotions and moods. In term causes an almost daily cycle of either high anxiety, depressive or suicidal thoughts and feelings which trigger the Fight or flight responses. But in some cases it's not always these intense negative feelings that are the source of self-harming. Here are some other reasons or causes for this addiction:
- Hemophilia (The attraction to or strong love of Blood)
- Non suicidal self-injury (NSSI.)
While some do it just solely for the satisfaction of the blood visual, others are simply desensitized to the act. The primary reason why people self-injure is to obtain relief from intense emotional exeriences. Alcohol and drugs can serve a simular function, but these substances are also frequently used (and misused) for those experiencing positive feelings.
Over time, with addiction to a substance, that substance becomes reinforcing no matter what else is going on in the individual's life. Most people with NSSI, however, do not feel the urge to hurt themselves if they're having a good day. So at this point, it becomes a response to average and managable negative feelings, or even an act out of boredom.
๐๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐๐ช๐ฎ๐๐ง๐๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐-๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ
The relief that comes from cutting or self-harming is only
temporary and creates far more problems than it solves.
Relief from cutting or self-harm is short lived,ย and
is quickly followed by other feelings like shame and guilt. As well as keeping
you from learning more effective strategies for feeling better.
Keeping the secret of self-harm is difficult and lonely.ย Maybe
you feel either: Afraid of the backlash from peers or guardians finding out, ashamed,
or maybe you just think that no one would understand. But hiding who you are
and what you feel is a heavy burden. Ultimately, the secrecy and guilt affects
your relationships with friends and family members and how you feel about
yourself.
You can hurt yourself badly, even if you don't mean to.ย It's
easy to end up with an infected wound or misjudge the depth of a cut,
especially if you're also using drugs or alcohol.
You're almost guaranteed to be left with scars. Depending on the depth and area of the cut, you
will be left with different types of scars. Some are hard to see and only last
up to a few months, while others are very obvious and last years. The meatier
the area on your body, the more at risk of long-lasting thick scars.
You're at risk for bigger problems down the line.ย If you don't learn
other ways to deal with emotional pain, you increase your risk of major
depression, drug and alcohol addiction, and suicide.
Self-harm can become addictive.ย It may start off as an impulse or
something you do to feel more in control, but soon it feels like the cutting or
self-harming is controlling you. It often turns into a compulsive behavior that
seems impossible to stop.
Now that we've discussed all of the reasonings, causes, and science behind self-harm; it's important to find the best methods and tools to help keep the self-harmer safe, and to start their recovery journey.
๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง
Harm Reduction is an evidence-based, effective self-harm recovery method reccomended by many mental health proffessionals. This is a client-centred approach with the goals of reducing the health and social harms associated with addiction and substance use, without necessarily requiring the people involved from abstaining or stopping. What's essential for the harm reduction approach is that it provides people a choice of how they will minimize harms through non-judgemental and non-coercive strategies in order to enhance skills and knowledge to live safer and healthier lives.
Harm reduction acknowledgesย that many individuals dealing with addiction and problematic substance use may not be capable of maintaining abstinence or sobriety from their preferred substance.
Individualsย have the option to interact with peers, healthcare professionals, and social services in a nonjudgmental manner that will "meet them where they are" courtesy of the harm reduction approach.
This enables a health-focused approach to substance use, and it has been proven that people who use harm reduction services are more likely to continue receiving treatment as a result of engaging in these services.
๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ ๐๐ฑ๐๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง:
Use of a nicotine patch instead of smoking, drinking water while drinking alcohol, using drugs while in a safe environment with a trusted person, and needle exchange programmes for drug users are some behaviours that follow a harm reduction philosophy. Harm reduction doesn't merely pertain to drug use. We use harm reduction in our daily lives to reduce risks, such as enforcing seatbelts while operating a motor vehicle or wearing a helmet when riding a bike.
You may have heard of some of these common cutting related self-harm reduction methods:
- Snapping a rubber band on your arm
- Tearing duct tape off your skin
- Scratching the skin with either your nails or a semi sharp object.
It is crucial to understand the key components of harm reduction in order to better comprehend it's approach, which includes:
- Pragmatism: Harm reduction acknowledges that drug use or addiction is frequently unavoidable in a community that is essential to take a public health-oriented response to reduce potential harms.
- Humane Values: Individual choice is taken into account, and substance users arte not shamed. There is consideration for the human dignity of substance users.
- Focus on Harms: A person's substance use is secondary to any potential harms that could result from such use.
- Lack of access to Psychological Aid: Often times, recieving psychological assistance is unavailable to individuals for a number of reasons, main obstacle being finance. Other times, this kind of medical support won't be the most effective method as substance use or addiction impulses can be too powerful to psychologically manage.
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐๐ฅ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง:
The goal of harm reduction is to limit the amount of harm / damage done safely, until the user can get to a headspace where they can begin to fully recover; including the trigger behind the emotions behind the desire to self-harm. The approach is meant to prevent the negative consequences of substance use and to improve health, morals, overall self image, and more.
๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐จ๐ง ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ:
One common misperception about harm reduction is that it encourages or promotes the use of illicit substances and dismisses the need of abstinence in the treatment of addiction. However, harm reduction stratagies do not resume a specific resullt, therefore interventions based on abstinence might equally fit within the range of harm reduction.
๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฒ ๐๐๐ง:
This is the method that my product, the Recovery Pen uses. This is also approved and recommended by professionals. The Recovery Pen not only uses the Harm Reduction method, but also includes elements of:
- Desensitization
- Aromatherapy
- Kinesthetic & Visual swish pattern (NLP)
The Recovery Pens were made to safely cover every aspect of self-cutting in order to wean people off of self-cutting altogether. The tool uses principles such as: Harm reduction, desensitization, aromatherapy, and kinesthetic & visual swish pattern (NLP), offering a multifaceted approach to behavior modification.
Through the use of different colored inks and essential oils, coupled with the experience of the tool itself, these pens provide both visual and kinesthetic substitutes for self-cutting behaviors, complemented by the additional component of aromatherapy.
Aromatherapy is the practice of using essential oils for therapeutic benefit. When inhaled, the scent molecules directly affect the emotional center of the brain. This can help ground yourself, and is commonly used to treat anxiety and panic attacks.
The underlying mechanism involves rewiring neural pathways within the brain. The Recovery Pen's purpose is to introduce a new positive association with the urge to self-harm. Over time, your brain will start linking the feeling of wanting to self-harm with the Recovery Pen. This is a crucial aid in keeping the user safe.
Over time, individuals progress through different levels of Recovery Pens, ultimately reaching a point where self-cutting tendencies are hardly present. Eventually it will no longer be considered true self harming; marking a significant milestone in their recovery journey.
As individuals transition to higher leveled pens, their brains adapt, forming new, healthier connections. The ultimate goal is to dissociate the impulse to self-harm from the act itself, achieving long-term recovery and well-being.
Self-harming is a behavior that can affect people of many ages and acts as a coping mechanism, helping those affected deal with deep distress, emotional pain, anxiety, burn-out and exhaustion.
Self-cutting is one of the more common forms of self-harm. This act may offer a release of overwhelming feelings, or communicate an inner state to the individual. To help express feelings, an inner state that the individual canโt put into words, or as a distraction from difficult life situations.
The significance of the 'sight of blood' can be crucial for individuals who engage in self-injury through cutting, alongside with the physical feeling. When people are under an extreme amount of stress, a common way of relieving those feelings is through sensorial stimulation.
For some, this is a cold compress, for others, it is the feeling of self-injury. It gives a purpose to the urge and a function as it can assist the release of ย intense emotions and despair.
Self-cutting is a growing clinical concern, so any safe alternative is a truly positive way forward.