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FEMALE AND MALE YOUTH AND SELF HARM

Tonight on the ABC 7.30 Report a young woman spoke out about her problem with acts of self-harm. She was indeed brave to talk about this emotional obsession that has been with her on a daily basis for some time.

In her youth she was a rising athlete but then body image became a problem and, by the look of her early photographs, she was suffering from Anorexia Nervosa at that time.

This then went on to develop into extensive acts of self harm on a daily basis. She stated that the pain from the self harm was a relief from the emotional trauma she was suffering psychologically. Very often she had to be admitted to hospital for suturing and one time she cut herself to the bone. She has taken a year out from her nursing studies for intensive emotional and psychological support and therapy.

The photographs of the very deep scars all over her legs and arms were indeed very difficult and shocking to see. I was left wondering what the rest of her body would be like. Her name is Nellie and she has not self harmed for two months.

The researcher who is currently studying self harm acts was surprised by the number of youth involved in acts of self harm.

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on July 27, 2012 at 9:39am

Oh My Pamela! My heart goes out to you. It must be just so difficult for you and all of your family. Please keep in touch with us all and I wish you well in this enormous struggle.

I had read about this issue in books but I never knew the extent of the problem. We only saw the devestating affect that it had on Nellie last night and I did not think of the affect that it would have on the family.

It took courage for you to share this with us.

My kind regards to you and your family

Caroline

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on July 27, 2012 at 5:25pm

I have noticed that swimmers, who in their early teens are slim and do well at the swimming trials. Then as they continue to train and do weight lifting etc. their body shapes change enormously for little gain in their speed. Then when they give up swimming they seem to continue to eat the same amount but because they do not expend the energy they previously did they tend to put on a lot of weight. There were several examples this year who wanted to make a comeback and had to lose the excess weight to get them in shape to make a bid at getting the times needed to be selected. My question is "Do these swimmers have concerns re body image when they put on all this weight?"

Could the same happen to young athletes? If so, how do they manage to come to terms with these sudden changes in body image emotionally?

The young gymnastic team could also have body issue problems because of the very strict diets they are expected to keep to so that they can continue to compete. This must be a constant stressor and can lead to emotional and psychological problems.

I was also looking at the young diver for Australia. She was so young, slim and petite the first time we saw her at the Olympics. I saw her the other day and I did not recognise her or the body shape she now has.

Just some issues and questions for us to ponder on.

Kind regards

Caroline

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on July 27, 2012 at 7:15pm

If you feel the next question is too personal please do not hesitate to say so. But I was wondering, Pamela, how the other twin copes with the situation with her sister?

My kind regards

Caroline

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on July 27, 2012 at 10:08pm

Thank you Pamela for the site for the research article on this important and very sensitive issue. For anyone interested I would strongly recommend reading this article. It is well written and identifies some new variables of interest for inclusion in further future research. It also addresses the potential limitations of the study due to the proportion of the sample where parental consent for participation was with-held.

It was surprising to find the age at which self-harming individuals commence this practice and the proportion of older individuals who reported self-harming acts.

Kind regards

Caroline

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Cox on July 28, 2012 at 8:08am

We have allowed the Left to take Society in a Direction where the Compass of Stability and a future to look forward to have been in the eyes of many in their teen years been stolen and denied to them as a possibility,then when times get tough they close up within themselves and spiral down into deep depression though not necessarily as we older generations recognose it.

Think about it in Primary Schooling we have allowed Children to be Lied to that the World is coming to an end because of "Climate Change",Just what effect does that sort of mindwashing have on someone so young.

Add in subliminal messages of Violence and lack of Moral Compass in Music,Movies ,Games and who knows what else to twist the direction forward through life and we wonder why some either Harm themselves or Others.

It is a combination of many things but we who are old enough should recognise who is responsible and the influence of such basically Evil people should be removed for they are in truth Killing our Kids.

Such Social conditioning was probably brought to an Artform of Evil with the Hitler Youth in Nazi Germany and many of todays problems can be effectively researched and countered by studying how the Nazi's influenced the youth in their day as the Human Being has not suddenly metamorphosed into a Martian we do not recognise though it may seem so at times.

What is happening in the area of Self Harm is Orchestrated just as is the Violence against others and we must study the methods they use to effectively counter them for what is occurring is not simply by chance but in many ways by design,That we have to recognise as like with any problem to fix it you must acknowledge it,and in too many cases it is not your fault.

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on July 29, 2012 at 9:49pm

I am busy doing some reading on this subject and have a busy week planned with appointments at the LGH. But will come back to this subject in due course.

Kind regards

Caroline

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Permalink Reply by Rob Moore on July 30, 2012 at 6:50pm

When I was a late teenager, my sister had a brush with anorexia and while she is ok now - I think it is like an alcholic on the wagon- a lifetime job.

It was a scary period and now as a parent- we all sympathise with those like Pam who are faced with similar challenges.

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on July 30, 2012 at 9:43pm

I had a sister (the 2nd youngest of 10) who I believed, in hindsight, suffered from anxiety and depression which seems to be highly correlated with individuals who self-harm. To my knowledge she did not cut herself but her self-harm was in the form of running away from home whenever she could. According to my youngest brother she was raped at the age of 12 by a neighbour. She was rewarded for this behaviour with money from several neighbours. When the emotional turmoil became too much for her she would leave home and at one time the police brought her back home as an older man reported that she was soliciting passers-by at the railway station.

Her self-harm behaviours led to an abortion at the age of 14 years, after she had left home for good. She continued in be a prostitute and became a Heroin addict. She had 2 children one who lives with his father in another state and one who was fostered by a single female who was the most wonderful and caring person.

All of this came to my attention when I was writing my life story for my children. I wanted to contact my sister and that was when I found all this out from various members of my family. It turned out that she had been missing, presumed dead, and an Inquest was held in April last year when my sister was declared dead and the case left open as it was suspected that she may have been murdered. Because I was writing about my sister I was able to contact 2 siblings who were able to attend the Inquest and they met one of my sister's children for the first time as well as her foster mother. My heart hurts whenever I hear on the news that a decomosed body has been found in bushland in NSW.

I wrote the Final Chapter of my life story for her and titled it 'Our Lost Sister' from information supplied by nearly all of my siblings.

I have been doing a lot of reading on the neurobiology of the brain (my son's partner is doing post-graduate study in Psychology) and was amazed at how our knowledge has expanded in neuro-physiological pathways in the brain that affect behaviour. The complexity of these pathways is astounding and it is easy to see that a reduction in just one chemical transmitter in the brain will affect behaviour. My sister was highly anxious from a very very young age and I now have a better understanding of why she was the way she was. But no support was available at that time........

Sadly

Caroline

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Permalink Reply by Martin Essenberg on July 31, 2012 at 7:50pm

Some years ago I was in a medieval group that fought with sticks (SCA). I ended up in Nambour and met a number of young men who were into cutting their faces with razor blades. I introduced them to fighting where before and after combat you bowed to your opponent and called them "my Lord" .

One later confided in me that before being involved he had been thinking of committing suicide. He was our best fighter. His self esteem improved and when I last saw him had a girl friend and a child.

Our commercial professional sports and capitalist society don't give a lot of people anything to live for. In the old days a boy could be given an axe or sword and sent off to invade some other place and make a name for himself or die trying. A Win/Win situation. Now we have nothing except possessions.

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on August 1, 2012 at 3:28pm

Do not you think that our commercial professional sports give them a lot of money and our capitalist society gives them a lot of selection re how they spend that money? Some invest wisely and some buy self harm items e.g., drugs and alcohol. Some something to ponder on Martin.

Kind regards

Caroline

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Permalink Reply by Dr Caroline Wright on August 9, 2012 at 11:57am

I have spent some time researching self harm behaviours and it appears to manifest itself in the early teen years when there is a change from reliance on family relationships to reliance on peer relationships.

In qualitative research studies it was found that parents struggled to understand, come to terms with and to cope with their child's self-harm behaviours. Parents required advice and support from outside services to help them manage self-harming behaviour and its personal impact as well as developing coping skills to deal with negative attitudes towards adolescents who self-harm. Parents felt anxious, powerless, alarm, repulsion, anger and frustration at the self-harming behaviour of their child.

From a quantitative research perspective most studies had very small sample sizes (in the 30's) which although enough for statistical analysis, the results could not be generalised to self-harming adolescents.

One study stood out among others and that was conducted in South Australian rural and remote areas in that state. Questionnaires were sent to 560 randomised subjects with 388 responses (69.3%). The study was concerned with individual, family and community factors that affected self-harming adolescents internalisation problems (depression and anxiety). Only individual and family factors were found to be a predictor of self-harming behaviours. Although the community factors (teachers, peers and social networks) were not significant predictors of depression and anxiety in adolescents I would question that such a finding would be expected as adolescents who were depressed and anxious would be less likely to form these relationships. In other words this variable would not be a predictor but an outcome variable.

Adolescents are usually unable to explain why they self-harm or events that triggered such behaviour.

An important word of advice to parents was that no parent could control any adolescent's self-harming behaviour and that somehow they needed to find a balance between the need to monitor behaviour versus respecting behaviour. A tall order indeed.

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Permalink Reply by Martin Essenberg on August 9, 2012 at 8:21pm

Commercial professional sports give some sports people money but how does this help the self esteem of the 10% of people in the wide bay electorate who are unemployed?

How does it help the workers doing s*** jobs in Murgon or Gympie.

How high is the esteem of a person forced to go to year 12 in the belief that they will get a good job but ends up doing work for the dole at St Vinnies or perhaps working in a sandwich shop.

Young people get conned into thinking that the world will be their oyster and then think they are to blame when it turns out they have no hope of a good job. The girls can always get pregnant and go on single mothers pension. I have seen the boys who get into drugs or alcohol because this will at least blot out their failure.

It would all work out if the illusions presented by TV and successful sportspeople and actors were real. Bu the illusions are just that and many of the succesful athletes are addicts to steroids or other drugs.

It would be kinder to tell young people at school that it was not their fault that society NEEDED people to do shit jobs and NEEDED to have 5% unemployment to keep the unions in check and that society needed THEM to be nobodies. Then they would have no dreams to be shattered and not believe it was themselves that failed.