Education & Family

Self-harm 'motivated primarily by bullying'

sad girl Image copyright Thinkstock
Image caption The charities say young people are under increasing pressure to look good





The survey was carried out online by, ChildLine, Youth Net and Young Minds.

Rachel Welch, from, said the findings offered a useful insight into the problem.

"Self-harm is an expression of how someone is feeling, it's not the problem itself, an expression of a very difficult emotional distress.

"We've got into the habit of focusing on what young people are doing, cutting or burning, and we're forgetting it's the underlying issue we need to be digging into."


"They can't escape to their bedrooms away from bullying, because with smartphones and tablets they're never actually on their own."

'Venting frustration'


"You just get to a point where you need to do something about it, and its just a way of venting your frustration. I was thinking, 'If you can hurt me on the inside, why can't I hurt myself on the outside?'

"It was replacing emotional pain with physical pain."


"Pretty much whenever I had a really bad day at school, which was most days, I'd think I need to vent my frustrations.

"I'd come home, go straight to my room and I'd just stay in my room all night, I wouldn't want to associate with people."

Chloe is now receiving help from the charity Harmless.

Growing problem





But Prof Nav Kapur from Manchester University is keen to emphasise that there is "no epidemic".

Image copyright Jupiter
Image caption There is greater awareness of the issue of self-harm







"There's always a light at the end of the tunnel. A lot of the time I couldn't see it and I was like, this is never going to end. But it does. All you need to do is get the right help."


However, inappropriate care - and research suggests even hospitals are still guilty of that - can have long-term consequences.


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