Parent NSSI

True or False?

Kids cut themselves for attention.

Self-injury can have a calming effect.

If a person cuts themselves it means they are trying to commit suicide.

Cutting behavior usually starts in middle school.

Only females self-injure.

Non-Suicidal Self Injury

Questions Answered

Pinching

Deep scratching

Cutting

Punching/Slapping oneself

Burning

Interfering with wound healing

A form of intentional self-injury and self-mutilation without the intent of suicide.

What is NSSI?

Hair pulling

Movement

Touch

Oral

• Guilt

• Anger and frustration

• Empathy, sadness, sympathy

• Shock and denial

What might I feel if I learn

my child is self-injuring?

Healthy Coping Skills

Smell

Sound

How should I talk to my child about his/her self-injury?

• Address the concern as soon as possible

• Use your concern to help them realize the impact of injury on self and others.

• Validate your child's feelings

• Do not pressure them to talk. You child may have difficulty verbalizing his/her emotions.

• Encourage the use of healthy coping skills

Vulnerable person

Coping skills

Self harm happens more often in people who have:

• Family members who have self-harmed
• Lived through difficult negative or very difficult experiences.

High emotional reactivity

Unhealthy

• Self-harm
• Drinking, smoking
• Risk-taking

Healthy

• Calling a friend
• Exercising
• Listening to music
• Writing in a diary

How do self-harming behaviors develop?

Stressful event or situation

Internal stressors

• A lack of feelings. Feeling numb or empty
• Too many distressing feelings like anger, anxiety, or depression

External stressors

• School-teachers, school work, peers
• Relationships-family, friends, romantic
• Home-parents, conflict with siblings, drastic changes

How do I know if my child is self-injuring?

• Cut or burn mark on arms, legs, abdomen

• Discovery of hidden razors, knives, or other sharp objects and rubber bands

• Spending long periods of time alone, particularly in the bathroom or bedroom

• Wearing clothing inappropriate for the weather, such as long sleeves or pants in hot weather.

• Cornell Research Program on Self-Injury and Recovery

• Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario

• Bruce Jacobs, Ph.D. New Mexico State University

• Janis Whitlock, MPH, Ph.D. Cornell University

• Jennifer J Muehlenkamp, Ph.D. & Patrick L. Kerr, Ph.D. "Untangling a Complex Web: How Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Suicide Attempts Differ" The Prenvention Researcher, February 2010

Parents do play a powerful role that can lead to triggers for self-injury, but can also lead to the development of positive coping skills.

Presentation References

Youth with high emotion sensitivity and few emotion management skills may be particularly sensitive to stressful dynamics within relationships.

No person causes another person to act in a certain way.

Is my child's

self-injury my fault?

Community-based resources

• Crisis hotline 512-472-HELP
• Lone Star Circle of Care
• Austin Oaks Hospital

School-based resources

• Grade-level counselor
• CIS
• Family Resource Center
• Parent Support Specialist
• Social Service Specialist

Who can I contact for help?

Take your child seriously.

• "I know how you feel." (Can trivialize problems.)
• "How can you be so crazy to do this to yourself?"
• You are doing this to make me feel guilty."

• Avoid power struggles

• Yelling, lecturing, harsh and lengthy punishments, invasions of privacy, threats, ultimatums.

Practice using positive coping skills together

What are some things I should

avoid saying or doing?

Keep lines of communication open

Don't expect a quick fix.

How can I

foster a protective home environment?

Respect the development of your child's individuality

Avoid over-scheduling your child and putting too much pressure on him or her

Model healthy ways of managing stress

Provide firm guidelines around technology usage

Intrapersonal

consequences

• Sense of relief, calm
• Temporarily reduced stress

• Frustration, disappointment
• Increased distress

• Distressed, yet hopeful
• Difficulty implementing adaptive problem-solving

Cognitive state

during behavior

• Hopeless, helpless
• Inability to problem solve

Behavior

frequency

• High, chronic, repetitive

• Low, typically 1-3 episodes

Lethality of

method used

• Low

• High

• To temporarily escape from psychological stress
• To create change in self or environment

Intent/Purpose

• To permanently terminate consciousness
• To escape unbearable psychological pain

NSSI

Suicidal Ideation

Muehlenkamp and Kerr

What's the difference between NSSI and Suicidal Ideation?