Understanding self-harm
Page 7
Short Report
Self-harm from onset to termination
Key findings:
- Reported age of onset for self-harm ranged from 4 to 58 years. The mean age of onset was 17
- Of participants who were still harming at the time of taking part in the survey, 47% had been harming for longer than five years
- Some participants had learned the behaviour from others, but others’ first act of self-harm was an instinctive response to emotional distress
- 44% of participants had identified a change in their motives for harming over time
- When participants had found themselves harming without having the usual motives of e.g. wanting to release emotion, it was most often a case of self-harm having become routine or habitual, but not necessarily an addiction.
- Just over a quarter of participants to the survey with a history of self-harm reported having ceased to harm themselves. The most common reason for stopping was social pressure (20% of those who had stopped), arising from e.g. the participant’s understanding of their role as a parent, an employee, a wife or a husband.
Onset of self-harm
Participants reported having first harmed as early as four years of age and as late as fifty-eight. That self-harm is able to change one’s emotional state was often discovered by chance in the context of accidental injury, suicide attempt, self-punishment or while harming to elicit a response from others. In addition, participants reported that their first episode of harm was an instinctive response to distress, or a trial of a coping strategy learned from others.