a BBC link about self-harm

[mrnotsomoody]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20039008

just saw this today 23/10/2012. 1 in 12 young people self harm? Thats alot. When I was younger, going back 14 years when I self-harmed I hardly knew of anyone doing this, I seemed even more alienated by what I was doing. I can relate alot to what the young woman is saying in the clip also.

[Sweetpea]

This is a scary statistic and thanx for posting the link.  I have never self harmed but I did empathise with the young woman when she said about her lack of self worth and thinking she was never good enough.  This should be highlighted in young people and older people.  Much more money needs to be put into mental health.  The stress on everyone this day and age is just making things worse.

S x x x x

[I.B Igor]

I agree, when I grew up the emphasis on how you looked, and what clothes you wore was pretty high, I would hate to be a teenager now, if your a girl you have to be so thin its almost impossible to achieve, and all the role models out there now are mostly spiteful , spoiled , spray tanned Barbie dolls. 

Not only do you have to be thin enough to slip under a door, you now need parents rich enough to shower you in phones, clothes and hair extensions , fake nails and god knows what. No wonder teenagers self harm, a lot  more help and research needs to be put into  it.

[mrnotsomoody]

good point I.B, thats true about pressure put on us more and more to emulate or be some unrealistic ideal that we cant achieve. Have the right this or that, look a certain way. No one is allowed just to be themselves anymore. A few buck the trend, I mean truly buck it and are individuals who dont care what people think of them, how they act,look or what they wear,or own. Those individuals are probably the happiest and those are the ones I admire most.

In many ways life is easier than it was say a hundred or two hundred years ago, the flip side is now with constant media bombardment we and our youth are put under more pressure. What were the riots a year ago really about? Social injustice, lack of self worth? Or about going out and grabbing as many material goods as possible? In the vain hope that(because we are constantly told so) that these possessions would make them feel full-filled as a person and also accpeted?

[Pip]

I will look at the link later as I;m about to get my mutts out but not surprised at the statistics.  When I first 'came out' about self harming 7 years ago on an adoption related forums I received a number of pms from other members thanking me for posting about it as they had self harmed and had felt too ashamed to admit this to anybody.  It helped me as I hadn't known anybody else who had self harmed. 

[Got]

This is a good thread.

[nocaph]

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[Got]

It is good that you can be open.