Children Self Harming
Listening to the news today (Wednesday) on Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ- Ireland’s national public service broadcaster) I was taken aback it’s hard to accept the fact that children as young as 7 are self harming. We then ask but how? Is it that children are corrupted by the blood-and-guts ‘rubbish’ they watch on TV and, increasingly, on videos and video games? The research evidence carried out in 1994 by The Economist August 13, 1994 suggests that, in some cases, screen violence may indeed foster actual violence, though that conclusion is not unanimous .
Even causality is unclear: some children may watch violence on the screen because they are prone to violence, not the other way round. Many parents are impatient of such niceties. They believe, simply, that young children are seeing too much violence and sex.
According to parent plus UK by injuring themselves, children and young people are asserting a form of self control on their life which they feel is otherwise chaotic and meaningless.
Self harm is a way of coping, and of channelling frustration and other strong emotions. Those who self harm do not go on to commit suicide in the vast majority of cases - it is rather as if this is a way of letting off steam, a safety valve.
It is difficult to give specific guidance on how to spot self harming because most children who are self harming themselves are very skilled at hiding the facts. They often have very strong persuasive arguments when asked if they are OK, or why they have cuts or burns on their body. But how do they end up in such situations?
Yes in some regions violence is something that the children grow up seeing each and every day, take for example Afghanistan, Darfur and Iraq (Bagdad). Despite all this the big question is; what is the solution to this problem? This ‘stigma’ is everywhere...
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