One in four girls WILL SELF-HARM BY AGE 25

Self-harm incident rates are rising alarmingly and social media has brought a new dimension to the problem. Clair Weaver looks at why girls are more susceptible than boys and what parents can do to help.

IT’S UNSETTLING VIEWING: a stream of photographs of cuts on wrists, abdomens and thighs. Some are bleeding, some have formed angry pink welts and others are healing into shiny white lines. They’re interwoven with bleak messages and poems about pain, failure and worthlessness. “Slit your wrist and cut your thighs. Fake a smile and dry your eyes. Hate yourself and hate your life. Welcome to my world of lies.” Some cover their injuries with bandaids and hollow platitudes: “No really, I’m fine”, “I’m okay” and “I’ll stop”. A sense of helplessness, angst and despair hangs heavily over a sub-culture of teenage girls documenting their own acts of self-harm on social media. While many people would struggle to comprehend the compulsion to deliberately hurt yourself, self-harm has become an increasingly significant…

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The Australian Women's Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2015

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