March 1st is Self-Injury Awareness Day

Self-injury (SI) – is any deliberate, non suicidal behavior that inflicts physical harm on one's body to relieve emotional distress.

Self-injury does not involve a conscious intent to commit suicide, though many believe that people who harm themselves are suicidal.

People who SI are often trying to:

* Distract emotional pain
* End feelings of numbness
* Calm overwhelming feelings
* Maintaining control
* Self-punish
* Express thoughts that cannot be put into words
* Express feelings for which there are no words

Who engages in self-injury?

There is no simple portrait of a person who intentionally self-injures. This behavior is not limited by gender, race, education, age, sexual orientation, socio-economics, or religion. However, there are some commonly seen factors:

* Self-injury more commonly occurs in adolescent females.

* Many self-injurers have a history of physical, emotional or sexual abuse.

* Many self-injurers have co-existing problems of substance abuse, obsessive-compulsive disorder or eating disorders.

* Self-injures tend to have been raised in families that discouraged expression of anger, and tend to lack skills to express their emotions.

* Self-injurers often lack a good social support network.


What are the types of self-injury?

* Cutting

* Burning
* Picking at skin
* Interfereing with wound healing
* Hair-pulling
* Hitting
* Scratching
* Pinching
* Biting
* Bone-breaking
* Head-banging

* Embedding items under skin


Treatment

Self-injury is often misunderstood. Self-injurers trying to seek medical or mental health treatment frequently report being treated badly by emergency room doctors and nurses, counselors, police officers and even mental health professionals.

Finding professionals who specialize in working with self-injury is IMPERATIVE. With proper treatment, new ways of coping will be learned and slowly the cycle of hurting will end. For more information, check out American Self-Harm Information Clearinghouse, First Signs and LifeSigns

Lloyd, K. (2010). Understanding Repeated Self-Injury: A Multidisciplinary Approach The Psychiatrist, 34 (2), 77-77 DOI: 10.1192/pb.bp.109.026534

How Observant Are You?

This was fun. Interesting how we "see" things. If you take the quiz, let me know what you get!

Your Observation Skills Get A B-

Your senses are pretty sharp (okay, most of the time) And it takes something big to distract you!

How Observant Are You?

February is Eating Disorder Awareness Month

Canada, The United Kingdom and The United States use the month of February to bring awareness to Eating Disorders.

Generally, eating disorders involve self-critical, negative thoughts and feelings about body weight and food, and eating habits that disrupts normal body function, and daily life activities.

What causes eating disorders is not entirely clear, though a combination of psychological, genetic, social and family factors are thought to contribute to the disorder.

Types of Eating Disorders

Anorexia Nervosa~ Essentially self-starvation, this disorder involves a refusal to maintain a minimally normal body weight. In severe cases, anorexia can be life-threatening

Bulimia Nervosa ~ This involves repeated episodes of binge eating, followed by ways of trying to purge the food from the body or prevent expected weight gain. People can have this condition and be of normal weight.

Binge-eating Disorder~ This is characterized by frequent episodes of overeating without purging.

Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS) ~ A range of other disordered eating patterns don’t fit into the other types of eating disorders. These eating patterns are still serious, and intervention and attention are necessary.

Left unattended, eating disorders can lead to serious health problems or even death.

Orbanic, S. (2010). What Every Therapist Needs to Know About Treating Eating & Weight Issues Eating Disorders, 18 (1), 78-79 DOI: 10.1080/10640260903439581

The Broken Heart Syndrome

Studies have shown that sudden emotional stress can trigger a severe, but reversible heart muscle weakness that mimics a heart attack. This condition known as
Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy is sometimes called The Broken Heart Syndrome.

First described in Japan 15 years ago, Broken Heart Syndrome occurs because emotional trauma floods the body with stress hormones, over-stimulating the nervous system and stunning the heart muscle.

Unlike a heart attack, Broken Heart Syndrome is reversible if diagnosed early. Patients are hospitalized and can recover within days - with no permanent damage to their hearts. Once medical issues are stabilized, seeking a trained mental health specialist will help cure the emotional trauma.

Derrick, D. (2009). The"Broken Heart Syndrome": Understanding Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy Critical Care Nurse, 29 (1), 49-57 DOI: 10.4037/ccn2009451

The Power of Kindness

Research says that witnessing simple acts of everyday kindness, such as one person giving up a seat on the bus, holding a door open for another, or helping someone pick something that dropped to the floor can promote altruism. This pychological phenomenon that makes us feel great, lifts our emotions and motivates us to do good is called elevation. Witnessing an uplifiting act inspires us to do the same for others. In essence, kindness is contagious.

One Million Acts of Kindness Week is February 8th to the 14th. So, go start a ripple effect and be kind. For inspiration go here and to the Pay It Forward Foundation



Landis, S., Sherman, M., Piedmont, R., Kirkhart, M., Rapp, E., & Bike, D. (2009). The relation between elevation and self-reported prosocial behavior: Incremental validity over the Five-Factor Model of Personality The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4 (1), 71-84 DOI: 10.1080/17439760802399208