The meanings of self-harm behavior: internet study results

Self-harming is one of the most acute problems that mental health professionals face in their work. This explains the relevance of developing the most effective ways to work with it.

The aim of the work is a study of subjective meaning of self-harm behavior in the sample of internet users.

The methods. The materials for the study were the responses of 156 people above 18 years of age received during an online survey. The methods were the questions about subjective meaning of self-harm behavior. The data were processed by the method of calculation of a percentage each of meaning of self-harm behavior in the total sample.

The results show heterogeneity of meaning of self-harm behavior. 8.5% of the responses (meaning “an alternative to suicide”) demonstrate the actual suicidal risk. 25.4% of the responses (meaning “confirmation of reality of myself”, “stop panic attack, episode of anxiety, hysteric, obsession thoughts”, “filling inner emptiness”) show to psychopathological symptoms among respondents. 61.5% of the responses (meanings “relief of emotional pain”, “rest, sedation, stress reduction”, “cope with aggression, mental strain”) demonstrate low tolerance for emotional tension and negative feelings. 5.3% of the responses (meanings “revenge”, “raise awareness to themselves”) could be explained by poverty of the communicative skills. Etiology of some meanings is a need to be examined in each specific case

The findings indicate an importance of studying the subjective meaning of self-harm behavior. Its allow us to highlight several areas of work. (1) Psychiatric treatment of psychopathological symptoms. (2) Prevention of suicidal risk. (3) Training in emotional self-regulation skills. (4) Depending on the meaning of self-harm behavior, optimal psychotherapeutic approaches will vary.