Putting out cigarettes. Hitting a wall or slapping yourself. Or cutting your forearms or inner thighs. Self-harm has become widespread in today’s societies, especially among pre-teens and young adults, as a mechanism to regulate emotions, feel relief from a problem, attract attention, or show psychological distress. It is a disorder that has increased in recent years and now affects 25% of young people worldwide.
The danger lies not in the self-harm itself, which can be superficial, but in the fact that it generates a very dangerous addiction, according to research collected in the book The Oxford Handbook of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, in which Hilario Blasco-Fontesilla, a researcher at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR) and medical director of the Emote Center for Emotional Well-Being, participates with other international experts.
Scientific evidence suggests that when an injury or blow occurs, the body releases beta-endorphins into the blood, which are painkillers and make you feel happy. Self-harm can release this hormone and lead to an addiction similar to that of tobacco or tobacco drugs.
What may start out as an emotional regulation mechanism […]Because humans tolerate physical pain better than emotional pain, it can trigger a reward mechanism that makes it necessary to engage in more frequent or more severe self-harm, a situation that can lead to loss of control and the sharing of symptoms of “abstinence” experienced in other addictions, explains Dr. Blasco-Fontesilla.
Possible suicide
The situation is so serious that a teenager who self-harms is 30 percent more likely to attempt suicide, about twice as likely as an adult to self-harm. “Self-harm is like a teenager running a yellow light to get help,” the doctor adds. “If we don’t get there in time, the risk of it turning into a suicide attempt is very high.”
It should be taken into account that according to the Anar Foundation, which helps minors at risk, cases treated for suicidal ideation have increased by 23 since the pandemic arrived and suicide attempts have increased by 25. Statistics show that 2% of Spanish teenagers will attempt suicide at some point in their lives. In addition, the use of new technologies in suicide attempts has increased from 33.5% to 51.5%.
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He points out that the disorder can start very early, when a child is five or six years old, although the most dangerous range is between the ages of 13 and 17, when they can resort to suicide. From this age, until the age of 24, self-harm tends to decrease, but suicide attempts increase.
In response, Blasco Fontesella calls for a specific training plan especially for primary care workers, “since they are often the ones who detect the first symptoms of self-harm or suicidal ideation among their patients.” He concludes that “the safety of children and adolescents represents a public health emergency.”
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