‘Steep rise’ in teenage self harm

Hello Everyone

I’ve started to notice a lot on the news recently about the steep rise in teenagers self harming. I really just wanted to know what your views on this are. As many as 1 in 10 teens are now self harming but why is this happening? .

I feel like the main causes, although there are bound to be others are social media, bullying and stress overload. It’s used to help with coping in difficult and overwhelming situations and obviously the stress teens are under now to do well in exams plays a huge part in their mental health. I think more money should be allocated to mental health services like CAMHS because they are lacking in funding and the money that’s now given has significantly dropped to how it used to be. The connection schools have with mental health services and school nurses has definitely changed as I know from personal experience. I think schools should have easier access to someone they can get advice from like mental health professionals. In some way, exams and stress need to be given more thought into how they could be improved as the whole exam season always strikes a lot of problems with teen mental health. I feel like there’s a lot of waiting on waiting lists for mental health clinics and actual support but not a huge amount of support while your waiting so maybe that should be looked into but with more funding and less missed appointments these wait times could be reduced. I think the services that you can get referred to are amazing but it’s unfair that they’re lacking in funding when physical health and mental health are both just as important. I did struggle with wait times and for a little while I was left with no one to turn to so that’s why I think maybe more should be done during wait times. These mental health services are under so much pressure with the rise of mental health and it’s an issue very close to my heart.

What i’m Interested to know is:
What do you think the reasons for this are?
What do you think should be done about this?
Is there enough support for teens out there?
Do you feel like mental health and physical health are both just as important?
Did you feel supported through your mental health problems?

Comment any opinions, questions etc.
I look forward to reading your responses on this issue

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Comments

[Deleted User]

Very good post! But I have no idea what the principal issues are that cause teeangers to self-harm. There are too many variables, even the news on TV is depressing. Often I avoid TV news, preferring to read it online. eg. BBC News.

What I can do is point you to look for answers in @The Mix marvellous collection of articles, 4 pages of them here!

https://www.themix.org.uk/mental-health/self-harm

My family, being my 2 aunts and someone a bit older supported me through the hell I was going through, and a very good British doctor who has since moved surgeries. With their help it's been 8 months since I sh'd. Every day since moving countries to become expat, I'm getting stronger.

Siena

Hey i agree with everything you said above. Social media and exams can just put overwhelming pressure on people to be much better. Though i also think its because mental illness is less of a taboo now -than it used to be -so people are more willing to go to their gps ect and also because parents are maybe more aware of mental illnesses now its more speaked about so know the smyptoms more

And mental illness is defenilty as important as phsyical. A paremedic said to me “this as important as someone having an heart attack, if not more”. It was validating

i felt supported from mental services when i was 15

Former Member

Floxy said:

Very good post! But I have no idea what the principal issues are that cause teeangers to self-harm. There are too many variables, even the news on TV is depressing. Often I avoid TV news, preferring to read it online. eg. BBC News.

What I can do is point you to look for answers in @The Mix marvellous collection of articles, 4 pages of them here!

https://www.themix.org.uk/mental-health/self-harm

My family, being my 2 aunts and someone a bit older supported me through the hell I was going through, and a very good British doctor who has since moved surgeries. With their help it's been 8 months since I sh'd. Every day since moving countries to become expat, I'm getting stronger.

Thank you for reading, interesting to read your response!
I will definitely have a look at those pages, this was something close to my heart and I know how i feel about it but i wondered about everyone else’s views.

I agree all I ever hear is something to do with mental health on news, the other day my dad was watching it and he said to me Lauren your one of that number.

Former Member

Shaunie said:

Hey i agree with everything you said above. Social media and exams can just put overwhelming pressure on people to be much better. Though i also think its because mental illness is less of a taboo now -than it used to be -so people are more willing to go to their gps ect and also because parents are maybe more aware of mental illnesses now its more speaked about so know the smyptoms more

And mental illness is defenilty as important as phsyical. A paremedic said to me “this as important as someone having an heart attack, if not more”. It was validating

i felt supported from mental services when i was 15

I couldn’t agree with you more Shaunie.
Excellent response, very interesting to read! I like the quote from a paramedic it’s so true. It’s interesting to hear about peoples different experiences with support

Former Member

Hey everyone,

This is a very interesting question indeed. A proposal from me to add to the research you seem to be doing:

Education is becoming increasingly focused towards a stressful, anxiety inducing academics system, as opposed to helping raise our young people to be understanding and skilled.

I hope I'm not alone in thinking that this doesn't really feel natural and doesn't work for a large number of young people. The ironic thing is that even employers go out of their way to say young people aren't prepared for the real world.

Obviously, this would be a problem from a mental health perspective because if that system isn't right for you, you're stuck being made to feel bad for years while growing up.

Thoughts?