If you are struggling with your mental health, you are not alone. According to the National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH), “more than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness.”[1]
When you aren’t treating a mental health condition with therapy or medication, your brain tries to find ways to cope on its own. Sometimes, the coping mechanisms you begin to rely on are not healthy. For example, some individuals might begin self-medicating their symptoms with drugs and alcohol, causing them to develop a co-occurring addiction.
Substance abuse is not the only maladaptive coping mechanism associated with untreated mental health conditions. Unfortunately, some people resort to self-harming behaviors. To explain, self-harm or self-injury is characterized by hurting yourself to deal with difficult emotions, painful memories, or distressing and overwhelming situations.
According to a study, 17% of adolescents who engaged in the survey admitted to engaging in self-injury at least once.[2]
While self-harming is done without the intention to commit suicide, it is still an incredibly dangerous coping strategy. It should be treated by a professional mental health treatment program. Thankfully, the New Jersey Behavioral Health Center is here to help.
In this article, you will learn:
- What is self-injury?
- Why do people self-harm?
- How does self-harm treatment work?
- Where can you find self-injury treatment in New Jersey?
What is Self-Harm or Self-Injury?
Self-harm or self-injury occurs when a person hurts themselves as a way to cope with distress. They could be experiencing intense emotions, dealing with memories of a trauma, or some other type of crisis.
While most people think of self-harm as cutting yourself with sharp objects, there are many forms of self-injury, including:
- Biting yourself
- Picking your skin
- Scratching yourself
- Cutting yourself with sharp objects like razors
- Burning your skin
- Hitting yourself or the wall
- Exercising excessively
- Poisoning yourself without the intention of dying
- Inserting sharp objects into your body
- Misusing alcohol or recreational drugs
- Pulling your hair
- Having unsafe sex
- Self-neglect
- Putting yourself into harm’s way intentionally, such as getting into fights
Self-injury is any action you take to intentionally hurt yourself. That said, self-harm is not considered a suicide attempt. They are simply trying to cope with something distressing using a physical outlet, even though it is a maladaptive coping skill.
Why Do People Self-Harm?
There are many reasons that people self-harm, as it is different for everyone. That said, most people who engage in self-injury are simply trying their best to cope with something difficult for them to process, whether it be emotions or trauma.
Some of the reasons a person might self-harm include:
- Experiencing intense pressure at school or work
- Sudden increase in stress
- Dealing with painful emotions
- Losing your job or having financial trouble
- Physical, mental, or emotional abuse
- Bullying, including online or in-person bullying
- Homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia
- Low self-esteem
- Loneliness
- Experiencing a stressful illness or health condition
- Coping with underlying mental health disorders
- Living with a neurodiverse condition, like autism
Emotional pain often triggers self-injury. If you are engaging in self-harm, it’s time to seek help from a mental health professional. Therapists and psychologists can help you develop healthy coping mechanisms to replace self-harming behaviors, making it possible for you to achieve long-term recovery.
How Does Self-Harm Treatment Work?
If you notice self-harm signs in your child or a loved one, they might need support and encouragement to seek help. When self-injury is left untreated, it can lead to worse problems, like suicide attempts. Thankfully, self-harm treatment programs can help you or your loved one achieve recovery.
Self-harm treatment centers help you recover by:
Creating a Treatment Plan
When you arrive at a self-harm treatment center, the mental health experts will complete an in-depth assessment. They’ll ask you questions about when the self-harming began, how long you’ve been doing it, and what triggers you to begin self-injuring. From there, they can figure out whether you have any underlying mental health disorders that require treatment.
Your individualized treatment plan might include a combination of individual therapy sessions, group counseling, and medication. The assessment will help your treatment team determine what level of care you need (i.e., inpatient programs, partial hospitalization programs, or outpatient programs), how long you should remain in treatment, and what types of specialty services you may require.
Therapy and Medication
Young adults dealing with self-harm require therapy to uncover the underlying reasons for their behavior, heal the root causes of their self-injury, and develop positive ways to cope instead of engaging in harmful behaviors like cutting.
Examples of therapies often used to help you heal from self-harm include:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
- Commitment therapy
- Mindfulness-based therapies
- Family therapy
- And more
If you have an underlying mental illness like depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, etc., you might receive psychiatric medication to help you manage your symptoms. Sometimes, managing conditions like depression and anxiety can stop self-harm altogether.
Improving Emotional Well-being
Self-harm stems from experiencing painful emotions and not having a healthy way to cope. Self-harm rehab programs will help you improve your emotional well-being to remove your need to injure yourself.
During a self-harm rehab program, you’ll improve your emotional health by:
- Identifying and managing underlying issues that led to self-harm
- Learning skills to manage distress
- Learning better ways to manage your emotions
- Developing ways to boost your self-esteem and self-image
- Developing skills to improve your relationships and communication
- Learning healthy problem-solving skills
Where to Find a Self-Harm Treatment Center
Attending a treatment center for self-harm will help you achieve a more fulfilling life. By ending harmful behaviors, you will make space for happiness and positive experiences. But first, you have to find a self-harm recovery center that suits your needs.
At the New Jersey Behavioral Center, we understand that self-harm affects people in different ways. We offer a supportive environment that allows our clients to begin their recovery journey. Our process begins with an in-depth assessment that allows us to create personalized treatment plans based on each client’s needs.
Because self-harm can begin in childhood or the early adult years, we know that our clients might range greatly in age. Our treatment program takes each client’s age and life experience into consideration, adjusting therapy and techniques used to ensure they are age-appropriate.
If you notice self-harm warning signs in a family member or loved one, you can trust that New Jersey Behavioral Center is the best program for self-injury recovery in the state.
Get Connected to Self-Harm Treatment in New Jersey
If you are looking to achieve lasting recovery from self-harm, you’ve come to the right place. At New Jersey Behavioral Center, we offer personalized care and a comprehensive program. Whether you’ve experienced trauma or have an underlying mental illness, our program will help you stop self-harming once and for all.
Contact us today to learn more about how we support people through the process of recovery from self-injury.
References:
- The National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH): Mental Illness
- The American Psychological Association (APA): Who Self-Injures?