by admin | Nov 6, 2020 | Uncategorized
Have you ever become so absorbed in what you were doing—an exciting project, a difficult school assignment—that you forgot to eat? If so, then you probably remember that throbbing headache that showed up a few hours later. Most of us in that situation are able to put...
by admin | Feb 2, 2018 | Uncategorized
I’ve been working with non-suicidal self-injury, or NSSI, for about 14 years. Most of the people I help are cutters, burners, carvers, pickers, or other self-harmers who have no intent of actually killing themselves. Their interest in this admittedly dark behavior is...
by Self-Injury Institute | Jun 20, 2016 | Uncategorized
Summer is the season to show some skin. The images of bikini clad vixens and shirtless studs are impossible to avoid if you surf the web, watch a little television, or simply stand in line to buy your groceries. The idea of working towards and achieving the ideal...
by Self-Injury Institute | Apr 15, 2016 | Uncategorized
When parents, teachers, or loved ones discover that someone they care about is engaging in some kind of self-harm, their natural response is one of fear. And usually it’s a specific fear: Does this mean s/he is going to commit suicide? Almost every family that we...
by Self-Injury Institute | Nov 11, 2015 | Uncategorized
One of the first questions I often get when parents come into therapy terrified of their child’s self-harm is some version of this: What should I do with all the knives and other sharp objects in the house? Their first instinct, usually, is to remove everything from...
by Self-Injury Institute | Aug 24, 2015 | Uncategorized
There’s a lot of bad publicity out there these days for one of nature’s most important emotions. “Don’t shame me!” is a frequent conversation-ender that people seem to be using more and more to get out of a sticky confrontation with a friend or family member. When we...
by Self-Injury Institute | Apr 20, 2015 | Uncategorized
“Now every girl is expected to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old...
by Self-Injury Institute | Dec 16, 2014 | Uncategorized
Even though a wealth of research shows how working out—even just doing mild physical activity for older people—has endless positive effects on our brain and mental state, I would argue that a large majority of doctors and therapists still don’t make an effort to use...
by Self-Injury Institute | Oct 25, 2014 | Uncategorized
A couple of months ago, we posted a piece on attention-seeking self-injury that seemed to inspire parents across the nation to email us with questions. One parent in particular struck us as the kind of parent we see a lot in treatment: concerned, caring, and genuinely...
by Self-Injury Institute | Sep 10, 2014 | Uncategorized
People do all kinds of self-destructive things. A lot of our clients cut or burn themselves, some of them carve entire phrases on their bodies, and others insert objects right under the epidermis and leave them there for hours. Some pour boiling water on their skin,...
