{"id":8223,"date":"2023-07-19T19:13:55","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T19:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/?p=8223"},"modified":"2023-07-19T19:13:55","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T19:13:55","slug":"what-is-self-harm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/what-is-self-harm\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Self-Harm?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-540201358.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-8224 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/GettyImages-540201358-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"372\" height=\"253\" \/><\/a>Self-harm is when a person intentionally hurts themselves. Generally, people who self-harm do not intend for their actions to kill them. They may act in this way for a wide variety of reasons, such as to help them cope emotionally with distressing thoughts or feelings or to communicate to others non-verbally that they are in distress and need support.<\/p>\n<p>People self-harm in many different ways, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cutting or scratching to break skin<\/li>\n<li>Burning themselves with objects such as lit cigarettes, heated sharp objects, or chemicals<\/li>\n<li>Physical trauma, such as hitting themselves with an object or hitting objects in ways that cause harm to themselves (for example, punching a wall)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These forms of self-harm can leave different kinds of marks on the body, such as bruises, burns, and scars. A person may try to cover these marks up with long-sleeve clothing, even in hot weather, and may explain the presence of any visible marks as the results of accidents. New marks may appear with some degree of frequency.<\/p>\n<p>Certain factors increase a person\u2019s likelihood of developing self-harming behaviors. Some of these factors include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Abuse or traumatic childhood experiences<\/li>\n<li>Age (self-harm most often begins between the ages of 12 and 14, potentially continuing for many years)<\/li>\n<li>Being non-cisgender (people who identify with a gender other than the sex assigned to them at birth face a higher likelihood of facing bullying, abuse, and trauma)<\/li>\n<li>Being non-heterosexual (people belonging to sexual minority groups self-harm at a higher-than-average rate due to an increased likelihood of abuse and trauma)<\/li>\n<li>Social isolation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Self-harm can lead to potentially serious and permanent medical complications, including infection, nerve damage, scarring, severe injury, and death. It can also negatively impact social relationships, feed into a negative self-image, and increase a person\u2019s risk of suicide, particularly if their self-harming behaviors become worse over time.<\/p>\n<p>If you or someone you know engages in self-harm, it can help to have someone to talk to about what you\u2019re thinking or feeling in a non-judgmental setting. Flushing Hospital Medical Center\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/flushinghospital.org\/clinical-services\/mental-health-services\/\">Outpatient Psychiatric Clinic<\/a> provides individual psychotherapy services to people of all ages who are experiencing mental health problems. You can reach the clinic to schedule an appointment by calling (718) 670-5562. Additionally, you can dial 988 to reach the Suicide &amp; Crisis Lifeline.<\/p>\n<p>If a medical emergency occurs due to self-harm, please dial 911 immediately.<\/p>\n<p class=\"disclaimer\">All content of this newsletter is intended for general information purposes only and is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.  Please consult a medical professional before adopting any of the suggestions on this page.   You must never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking medical treatment based upon any content of this newsletter.<strong>  PROMPTLY CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN OR CALL 911 IF YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE A MEDICAL EMERGENCY.<\/strong> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Self-harm is when a person intentionally hurts themselves. Generally, people who self-harm do not intend for their actions to kill them. They may act in this way for a wide variety of reasons, such as to help them cope emotionally &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/what-is-self-harm\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[474],"tags":[2208],"class_list":["post-8223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mental-health","tag-self-harm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8225,"href":"https:\/\/flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8223\/revisions\/8225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flushinghospital.org\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}