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Question: Answer: The phenomenon you describe is referred to as self injury. It is a mechanism that some people use to try to cope with an overwhelming emotional feeling of pain, often accompanied by a very distressing state of over-arousal. When people self injure, they turn an unbearable and difficult to describe “inside” sensation into a tangible and measurable “outside” sensation. Some people report that self injury makes them feel more “real” at times when they feel unreal. There are a variety of psychological mechanisms that can contribute to this. An excellent first reference can be found in the Self Injury Fact Sheet on this web site: http://www.m-a-h.net/library/selfinjury/article-si-facts.htm The books linked to that page are excellent comprehensive references. Do you have a question relating to a mental health issue? Do you have a question relating to abuse or multiplicity? Do you have a question about medication? Once a month a new question will be answered and posted on this column. A special thanks to Dr. Yank for donating his time to answer the questions. Send your question to ShrinkTime. As time is limited all questions can not be answered but will go into a pool of questions. If your question has been asked previously, a reply will be sent redirecting you to the answer. Return to the main page. Eventually you will be able to search archives. top
© Copyright 2003-2005. All rights reserved. Contact: ShrinkTime Last edited: 05/17/03.
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