Self-harming behavior

Cleansing the Soul by Hurting the Flesh: The Guilt-Reducing Effect of Pain

Published: March 9, 2011
self harm

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Lent in the Christian tradition is a time of sacrifice and penance. It also is a period of purification and enlightenment. Pain purifies. It atones for sin and cleanses the soul. Or at least that’s the idea. Theological questions aside, can self-inflicted pain really alleviate the guilt associated with immoral acts? A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, explores the psychological consequences of experiencing bodily pain.

Psychological scientist Brock Bastian of the University of Queensland, Australia and his colleagues recruited a group of young men and women under the guise they were part of a study of mental and physical acuity. Under this pretense, they asked them to write short essays about a time in their lives when they had ostracized someone; this memory of being unkind was intended to prime their personal sense of immorality—and make them feel guilty. A control group merely wrote about a routine event in their lives. [continue reading…]

The growing wave of teenage self-injury

Published: May 7, 2008

 The New York Times has an article on the disturbing and hard-to-treat phenomenon of self-harming behaviour that experts say is increasing among adolescents and young adults. 

 

 

 
“It expresses emotional pain or feelings that I’m unable to put into words.”

“It’s a way to have control over my body because I can’t control anything else in my life.” 

 I feel relieved and less anxious after I cut. The emotional pain slowly slips away into the physical pain.”

Mother-daughter conflict, low serotonin level may be deadly combination

Published: March 11, 2008

self-harm.jpg A combination of negative mother-daughter relationships and low blood levels of serotonin, an important brain chemical for mood stability, may be lethal for adolescent girls, leaving them vulnerable to engage in self-harming behaviors such as cutting themselves.New University of Washington research indicates that these two factors in combination account for 64 percent of the difference among adolescents, primarily girls, who engage in self-harming behaviors and those who do not. [continue reading…]