Most of you celebrating Self-Injury Awareness Day (SIAD) 2013 are well aware of what self-injury is and are self-injurers yourselves or love somebody who self-injures. This is our day to let the world know and get a peek into what self-injury is and what it means to be a self-injurer.
It's a mistake to assume all of you raising awareness are teens. People assume self-injury is a teenage problem or a female problem. There are a number of different statistics on the Internet about self-injury but the latest aggregated research shows there's little to know differences in the prevalence of self-harm between males and females. While most self-injurers do begin in their teens (about 90% begin in adolescence or pre-adolescence) you'd be wrong assuming none continue into their 20s, 30s, 40s, or even older.
There are so many myths about self-injury. That it's mainly seeking or a failed suicide attempt or done for the purpose of manipulation. Self-injurers have to deal with these assumptions by the misinformed and Self-Injury Awareness Day is when we can raise our voices and speak the truth.
Even within the self-injury community some assumptions are made. That self-injury is an addiction, there are comparisons to smoking or drinking from time to time. That people who bare their scarred arms are attention seeking. That those who are not quiet about their self-injury are attention seeking. Read more »
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