Step Up! International

We all know that food has a very direct link to our well-being and mental and physical health. Similarly, our mental state determines the type of food we eat.

In an increasingly globalised competitive world, people, including young people, are having to deal with various kinds of pressures and situations, much different from previous generations. This is coupled with emotional vulnerability, bullying amongst peers, de-motivation and insecurities, and which for some, becomes too difficult to deal with. For some people, self harm becomes a conscious or unconscious act that helps them to deal with these added pressures.

Though self harm trends are more noticeable among young people, it is by no means restricted to the younger generation. Due to a combination of work pressure, family, societal and lifestyle issues, adults also experience self harming behaviour that requires self harm help. A depressed state of mind  can encourage self harm as sometimes the mind sees harming the self as a means of dealing with the underlying issues. Under these circumstances, the right kind of nutrition   intake can go a long way in shaping the behavioural patterns of people with self harming tendencies.

Nutrients

Food contains various nutrients and vitamins. Each type of nutrient stimulates different organs of the body. Studies have shown that carbohydrates stimulate serotonin production. Serotonin which is also known as hydroxytryptamine is primarily found in the gastrointestinal tract, platelets and in the central nervous system. It is a major contributor of feelings of well-being: therefore it is also known as a “happiness hormone” though it is not actually a hormone.

According to Randy Sanstone, John Livett and Lori Sanstone in their article “Eating Disorders and Self-Harm: A chaotic intersection” about 25% of Eating Disorder patients are prone to non-fatal self harm. A further quarter of people with self harm tendencies and who suffer from Eating Disorders also have border line personality disorder.  Eating disorders can create other emotional challenges including a ‘chaotic inner-self’, problems in expressing oneself, stress and anger issues.

People with eating disorder challenges, deal with the issues in different ways. Some people purge themselves, otherwise known as bulimia, which has a cycle of under-eating and over-eating leading to a sense of low self esteem and needing to purge. Some people have binge eating tendencies which can also include increasing their carbohydrate intake. This can be symbolized as a stifling of their emotions; whilst others eat very little at all (starvation) known as anorexia.

Beyond Self Harm & Eating Disorder

Therapy can help people with eating disorder related self harm. Therapy in groups or individually can assist people to understand their eating habits and the functions that food plays in their lives.  Research shows that people exhibiting self harm benefit greatly from talking therapies which also focus on the underlying issues behind the self harm and/or eating disorder, and the functions that they play in the person’s life. Medical intervention is also used to reduce self harming behaviour.

Given that self harm and eating disorder is more prevalent in schools than ever before, teachers and teaching support staff would benefit from self harm awareness training to enable them to get a better understanding of the underlying issues in order to be able to offer self harm help to self harming pupils.

Self harm behaviour and eating habits and disorders are intricately related. Research shows that focusing on the underlying issues behind these habits, however, can and does reduce or eradicate the need to self harm.

As always with everything that people want to change, the person must want to change or improve in order for any treatment to work, otherwise time, effort and treatment become counterproductive.

We have all heard by now of the rise in self harm amongst young people. For some parents this news will have come as a complete shock on hearing that one of those young people is their son or daughter.

Then starts the challenge of knowing which is the best approach to adopt in supporting your child, in supporting yourself  and the rest of the family, and of course, dealing with the self harming activity itself. This is also coupled with the challenge of knowing where to turn for help and which professional to approach!

In addition to the above, there are the added challenges of dealing with a gamut of raw emotions such as fear, guilt, sadness, anxiety, hurt, together with self blame, blaming other family members and/or the person who is self harming, in an attempt to somehow find a way through this situation and wondering why people self harm.

In these circumstances, parents can often feel quite alone, isolated and

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frustrated. With the stigma attached to self harm and some medical professional’s unhelpful approach to self harm, it is not always an easy situation and condition to deal with or get appropriate support for. The search for real help is made that much harder with websites promoting how to self harm. That said, parents self blame, however, does not help them or the situation, but rather keeps them stuck. There are a myriad of reasons why the self harming activity occurred in the first place.

For instance, it can be triggered by simple causes like exam pressure to other complex family related matters. An open flow of information and communication is definitely the key in getting to the root cause of the self harming behaviour and gaining more self harm awareness.

Self harming activities are wide ranging and not just the stereotypical cutting. Hair pulling, alcohol abuse, gang culture, self neglect and head banging are just some other examples of self harm. It is also an activity that transcends all cultures, societies, religion and ages, starting from as young as three or four years old to senior citizens in their eighties. Indeed, some parents are themselves people who self harm and may have concerns about the knock on effect that this will have on their children.

There isn’t a typical person who self harms or a typical family that people who self harm come from.

Given that self harm is generally a cry for help, the situation isn’t just going to go away by itself! Parents require an avenue and means of getting the help and self harm support and open communication to deal with it.

One source of information is seeking advice via your local GP/doctor and another is via local counselling or therapeutic interventions.

The main thing is to acknowledge that there is a situation that needs to be dealt with if the whole family is to move forward.