Wetenschapsforum

Er zijn vele vormen van zelfbeschadiging, zoals snijden, krassen of branden van de huid, hoofdbonken, krabben of haar uittrekken en het innemen van schadelijke stoffen.

Mensen beschadigen zichzelf om zeer uiteenlopende redenen. Bijna altijd is het een manier om met ondraaglijke gevoelens om te kunnen gaan, een overlevingsmechanisme. Meestal is er sprake van een laag of negatief zelfbeeld. Belangrijke oorzaken van zelfbeschadiging zijn seksueel en fysiek geweld, emotionele verwaarlozing, verlies van belangrijke personen en gebrek aan steun uit de omgeving. Zowel mannen als vrouwen beschadigen zichzelf, al komt het vaker voor bij vrouwen. De meeste mensen ontwikkelen zelfbeschadigend gedrag in hun puberteit, vanaf hun 14de jaar.

The sight of their own blood plays a key role in the comfort that some non-suicidal people find in deliberately cutting themselves. That's according to a new study by Catherine Glenn and David Klonsky that suggests it is those self-harmers who have more serious psychological problems who are more likely to say the sight of blood is important.

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Just over half the participants said that it was important to see blood when they self-harmed, with the most common explanation being that it helps relieve tension and induces calmness. Other explanations were that it 'makes me feel real' and shows that 'I did it right/deep enough'.

The participants who said blood was important didn't differ in terms of age and gender from those who said it wasn't. However, the blood-important group reported cutting themselves far more often (a median of 30 times compared with 4 times) and they were more likely to say they self-harmed as a way of regulating their own emotions. The blood-important group also reported more symptoms consistent with bulimia nervosa and borderline personality disorder.

'Overall, these results suggest that self-injurers who report it is important to see blood are a more clinically severe group of skin-cutters,' the researchers said. 'Therefore, a desire to see blood during non-suicidal self-injury may represent a marker for increased psychopathology.'...