Self-harm is a way of expressing very deep distress. It's a means of communicating what can't be put into words or even into thoughts and has been described as an inner scream. Self-injury can be understood as a coping mechanism so that an individual harms their physical self to deal with emotional pain, or to break feelings of numbness by arousing sensation. For those that self-injure the physical pain is often easier to deal with than an emotional pain because it causes ‘real’ feelings. Afterwards, people feel better able to cope with life again - for a while. However it’s not unusual for the person not to understand why they self-harm, nor for them to know what deeper feelings they are connected to.
