Self-Injury: When Emotional Pain Becomes Physical

Self-injury is a pattern of behavior that can be hard to understand. Some therapists have even underestimated the importance and scope of this disorder. However, statistics show an increasingly widespread phenomenon that especially affects adolescents and young adults. In most cases, they resort to self-injury to "distract" or "escape" from unmanageable feelings, or to punish themselves when they suffer from low self-esteem.