A new documentary is sharing people’s experiences of self injury, as well as the stories of their recovery.
Self Injury: Stories of Recovery and Hope emerged as part of a research project of Stephen Lewis, a professor in the psychology department at the University of Guelph.
“We used a research approach called participatory video. And essentially what that involves is you invite people who have lived experience of a topic of interest. Obviously in this case it was self-injury. We invited individuals to take part in this study whereby we would come together as a group and we’d meet…and we’d have discussions about sort of, what are some of the things that are relevant to you,” he said.
“We wanted to make sure that the video that we created was driven by their concerns, what mattered most to them. Through those early conversations, what came out of that was that they really wanted to focus on a video that would illustrate the differences that people might have in terms of what recovery might look like. Obviously differences in terms of the self-injury experience in and of itself, but they also wanted to showcase that it can get better. That yes, the recovery is not straightforward. It’s certainly not linear. It’s complex. It can take time, it takes effort. Importantly, it’s possible. And that was one of the central things they wanted to really highlight in this video.”
Lewis said stigma around self injury makes it difficult for people to seek help.
“Unfortunately, this is one of those behaviors, one of those mental health difficulties, which is subject to tremendous stigma,” he said. “We did a multinational study several years ago with some colleagues, and one of the things that we found was that compared to mental illness, self-injury may indeed have a greater degree of stigmatization, and that’s important to bear in mind because it makes it very difficult for a lot of people to reach out for support.”
Lewis said that conversations around self injury can be challenging, but there are things that can be helpful in navigating them. He says its important not to overreact if someone confides in you about self injury.
“Remain calm and convey a sense of compassion and a real interest in just understanding what it’s like for them. So part of that is active listening, really trying to listen to what it is that they’re experiencing and communicating and reflecting back, perhaps that these conversations, even talking about self-injury, they’re hard to have and we can validate that.”
He says its also important to approach conversations with a respectful curiosity.
“What I mean by that is sort of placing that individual as the expert. So you know, you might ask a question like, ‘I’d like to understand what it’s like for you to have to go through this, or to have gone through this or to experience this or that.’ So that way it’s non-judgmental and it’s a real genuine desire to understand what it’s like for them.”
Lewis has been involved with creating a website called Self Injury Outreach and Support, which contains resources for those impacted.
“We have collective stories and words of inspiration and hope from people who’ve been there. And so we post those stories that people share with us so that people can see that there’s other folks out there who maybe have gone through similar things, but they’ve come out of sort of the darkness,” he said.
“One of the common reasons for the behavior is to cope. So we have on the website then different coping strategies that people can perhaps employ to try and find what might be an alternative that works best for them.
We also have there, resources for other people who can play a key support role…maybe it’s family, maybe it’s parents or caregivers, maybe it’s a romantic partner, a a close friend. If it’s in a school context, maybe it’s a teacher. Maybe it’s a mental health professional, medical professional…we have guidelines and resources for all those different stakeholders so that way they too can go online, find information about how to have these conversations, what might someone who might be presently struggling need in terms of support.”
Resources
Self Injury Outreach and Support: https://sioutreach.org/
BC Help Starts Here – Self Harm Page: https://helpstartshere.gov.bc.ca/mental-health/self-harm
Healthy Minds BC – Suicide Prevention and self harm video series and resources: https://healthymindsbc.gov.bc.ca/resources/suicide-prevention-and-self-harm-video-series-and-resources/