Slide 1 of 4: Introduction
Authors: Ronald J. Comer, Princeton University and Jonathan S. Comer, Florida International University
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Slide 2 of 4: 42.1 Self-Cutting and Other Self-Injurious Behaviors
This video looks at the issue of non-suicidal self-injury, which the framers of the DSM-5 proposed be studied further for possible future DSM inclusion. In the video, experts in treating this behavior speak about the rising numbers of young people intentionally harming themselves. They discuss possible reasons for this behavior and how the activity can become compulsive. In the video, you will also see the damage that self-injurious behavior can cause.
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Self-Cutting and Other Self-Injurious Behaviors
[MUSIC PLAYING]
KAS ROUSSY: The images are difficult to look at, young people deliberately harming themselves through practices like cutting. It's happening more frequently among 10 to 17-year-olds, who are experiencing some sort of difficulty in their lives.
GAIL: has this kind of trick that it does with you where it feels like it's helping, where it seems like it sort of relieves you a little bit when in actuality, it's causing just more problems and more sadness and despair.
[PHONE RINGING]
KAS ROUSSY: Gail has been counseling kids in distress for 15 years, dispensing advice at this help line in Toronto. We can't use her last name for confidentiality reasons. She says over the years, the number of calls from kids who are self-harming has gone up. And most of the calls she gets are from girls.
GAIL: reasons that girls tend to turn to self-harm more than boys, I don't think we really have a clear answer about that. More girls maybe are reaching out and talking about it.
KAS ROUSSY: A new report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information seems to back that up. When it looked at hospitalizations among children and teens over a one-year period, it found that one quarter of 10 to 17-year-olds were there because of self-inflicted injuries. Most of them are girls, and an increasing number of them were harming themselves by cutting.
KATHLEEN PAJER: These kids who are showing up have really a very short list of coping strategies. And cutting or hurting themselves, for some kids, is at the top of the list.
GIRL: There's a really long one right over here.
KAS ROUSSY: Counselors say negative emotions like sadness, fear, anger, or despair can trigger intense feelings of self-harm, with the false belief that hurting yourself relieves psychological anguish. For some young children, self-harm becomes addictive.
KATHLEEN PAJER: Pain becomes a reward to them.
KAS ROUSSY: Experts say that social media may also be playing a role in why more kids are intentionally self-harming, pointing to an increase in cyber bullying and other forms of online humiliation.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Slide 3 of 4: 42.2 Check Your Understanding
Instructions:
Answer the questions based on the video and your reading of the entire chapter.
Slide 4 of 4: 42.3 Activity Completed!
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