Have you ever looked down at your own wrists? What do you see? Are your wrists clean and smooth, or are they tattered and cut? Unfortunately, it is very possible that you are one of the two million people in the United States that self harms. If you are one of the two million, what made you commit this crime upon yourself? Two million people in the United States alone, feel as though they have no other options but to hurt themselves. That is two million slit wrists. Two million affected families. Two million lives put on the line. Self harm is a social injustice that must be addressed, before it becomes too late.

According to the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, in 2011, 33,473 people were hospitalized for self-inflicted harm. Please take a moment to comprehend the fact listed above. In 2011, 33,473 human beings felt as though they were not worthy of health. Those human beings felt as though they needed to hurt themselves, to have any control over their own lives. Events that may have occurred in any of those peoples lives, made them feel as though self harm was the only option. It is not unlikely that other human beings, made many of those 33,473 people hurt themselves. No one hurts man as badly as man. It is very hard to understand what someone could do that would make another person want to inflict harm upon themselves, unless you are the person who is self harming. However, it is not hard to understand why we as a nation need to put a stop to this coping strategy. We the people have put over 33,000 members of our own species in hospitalization in just one year. Self harm is a swelling social injustice that has been destroying and will continue to destroy the youth of our nation if it is not addressed.

Many people say that self harm is a way for teens to draw attention to themselves, therefore it is not a problem that a community can solve. The lack of education in the topic of self harm is evident, as we watch parents and teachers try to pick out a singular reason for why kids are doing this to themselves. Yes, unfortunately there are too many people who do self harm just for show, which is sickening. However, it is not always like that. I know from personal experience, that one who self harms was driven to do so from a certain event. Sometimes it is what people say to you, or what people think of you. It was no more than four months ago that I experienced the demons that cause self harm first hand.

Even though self harm was something I told myself I would never do, I did. I believe personally that it was what people said to me and thought of me that created the monster. The monster is the stigma, the hatred that leads to self harm. It started with small things like people telling me I was annoying. Over time, it built into me being excluded completely. People began saying terrible things on my Ask.fm, such as 'you're ugly and you use your house to become more popular'. After consistent occurrences of exclusion and online chats that were created in spite of me, I became the problem. The small things that people had been saying about me spiralled into a spectrum of self hatred. Everything that people had said to me about what I was doing wrong, became a twisted psychological monster. I began to tell myself that I was not good enough, and that I had no other options. I felt as though self harm was the only way to prove to myself that no matter how bad they hurt me, I could control pain. I realize now that causing myself physical pain in no way helped the situation. Though I have learned from my experience, self harm should not be a ‘live and learn’ experience. Nobody should feel so poorly about themselves, because of what other people say or do. No human being should feel as they owe it to the world to cause themselves pain.

Many people may claim that self harm is nobody’s fault besides the one self harming. This thought again roots from a lack of education. Though the action of self harm is performed by oneself, it is simply the unfortunate effect of one who is not aware of any better coping strategies for dealing with emotional buildup. According to the National Health Service, social factors such as difficult relationships, difficulty in school, difficulty at work, being bullied, money problems, alcohol or drug abuse, sexuallity, or coping with cultural expectations can lead to self harm. Self harm is not a spontaneous or meaningless act that one performs just because they can. Self harm is something that a person does when they feel as though they are in between a rock and a hard place. Self harm is the result of hopelessness, self hatred, and the feeling of worthlessness. So to those who feel as though it is nobody’s fault except for the one self harming, think again. Hopelessness does not occur until other people have drained all traces of hope from one’s life. Self hatred does not develop fully, without other people strengthening the vile opinion that a person has built for themselves. The feeling of worthlessness slices into someone’s life, when other people truly make someone feel as though they do not deserve to be alive. Self harm does not occur, without the agonizing push that society offers.

Research conducted in Canada, the United States, and select countries in Europe reported consistent rates of self injury from about 20-23% of their adolescent population. Self harm has become a swelling trend as a coping strategy. If nations do not take control over this social injustice, generations to come will see human life as something of little value. If self harm continues to grow at such a rapid rate, future generations will be taught that the human body is an emotional punching bag.

Though schools around the country make valid efforts towards self harm awareness, it does not appear to be working as well as anticipated. I propose a different solution that could decrease self harm rates. Instead of thoroughly educating teens about what self harm is, schools should educate teens in substitutes for self harm. By substitutes, I am implying that schools should teach kids about healthy coping strategies. Coping strategies could consist of finding a hobby to take your mind off of stress, or even just talking to someone about any emotional distress you may be feeling. If students and teachers are knowledgeable of safe coping strategies, it is far less likely that one will turn to such a traumatic action such as self harm. Another solution to this problem could be educating the community of how to react/ support someone who is self harming.

By making self harm a less common occurrence, we can build a stronger nation with stronger society members. If our nation can learn to cope with unfortunate social encounters in a healthy way, we will become unbreakable. Our people will gain emotional strength, which can sometimes be far more important than physical strength. In the world we live in today, we may not be able to expect all members of society to treat each other kindly, but we can expect our society to learn to build mental strength and value the human body.