The number of children being admitted to hospital in England for self-harm is at a five-year high, according to the BBC, with admissions of girls aged 10-14 increased by almost 93 per cent,090 from 2009/10 to 5,953 in 2013/14 – with a rise of 45 per cent in boys from 454 to 659.
Campaigners say the figures could be the tip of the iceberg and ‘huge numbers’ of children – especially boys – were still ‘suffering in silence’.
According to the NHS, self-harm is when somebody intentionally damages or injures their body. It is a way of coping with or expressing overwhelming emotional distress. Sometimes when people self-harm they intend to die but often the intention is more to punish themselves or express their distress or relieve unbearable tension. Self-harm can also be a cry for help.
One way self-harmers can be helped is through hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy aims to get to the root of the problem by exploring the possible causes behind the person’s feelings.
Self-harm is an expression of inner depression, anxiety and turmoil and the reasons for these feelings can be worked through and treated with hypnotherapy.
The National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) has more than 1,800 qualified therapists on its books – all well placed and trained to deal with problems like depression, anxiety, emotional distress and self harming.
Hypnotherapy allows the therapist to access those parts of the unconscious mind which are responsible for the self harming behaviour. Therapists will then help those parts learn to express themselves in more positive ways than self-harming.
People who self harm, it has been found, often feel ashamed and isolated by their actions and the symptoms. The effects of this can have a dramatic impact on their lives from day to day.
The support group Harmless says self-harmers suffer real shame and guilt and are often restricted in what they can wear in order to cover up the ‘evidence’ of what they have done.
“Their actions can have a negative effect on their relationships with family and friends, resulting in the sufferer becoming isolated and feeling the need to harm themselves more frequently to ‘release’ the resulting emotional pain,” Harmless says.
The NCH notes that people can suffer from a wide variety of distressing feelings such as panic attacks, anxiety, jealousy, guilt, anger or inadequacy.
Whatever the problem feeling, hypnotherapy can deal with it more specifically than can a drug – and without harmful side effects. By using hypnotic techniques, the therapist can help the client remove the habit or behaviour and regain total freedom.
Experts told the BBC that increases in admissions were partly due to a rise in young people self-harming, but also reflected better recording of data by hospitals.
They said a cultural shift was needed in society to ensure teachers and parents were not afraid to address the topic of self-harm among boys.
Hypnotherapy help is not far away. If you self harm or know someone who does, find our closest NCH therapist by clicking here.
