To ask is it still a mental health disorder if someone says they harm themselves for attention

[Worriedmother666]

Or out of being bored

Yes of course it is. Does it sound like a sane and rational thing to do?

Somebody wanting attention to the point where they will injure themselves to get it, has a mental health disorder. Not necessarily a treatable one, but that is not a mentally healthy way of thinking.

Often part of personality disorder

Absolutely. Nobody free from mental health issues would want to harm themselves.

I guess not but I feel if it’s something they can control. I don’t see what conditions it would fit.

Look at BPD / EUPD

Yes

Yes of course it is.

I eat when I'm bored, I watch a tv show, I talk to a friend,browse on here and billion other things.

Not harm myself. Because that's not a rational,healthy or normal go to when you're bored.

Using self harm as a coping mechanism for anything, including boredom or whatever is a sign of mental illness.

Self harm is not a disorder in and of itself; it's a symptom of something else. That may be EUPD, it may be depression, it may be anxiety, it may be all sorts of things.

Absolutely.

I’m sorry, I’m awful at phrasing things tactfully, but if this is you, are you ok and are you safe at the moment?

No not me it’s my sister. I’ve always believed she had depression but after she’s told me this I’m not sure what to think anymore

Yes.
When I was in the midst of anorexia a weird part of me enjoyed the attention of people begging me to eat or stop jogging, I'd enjoy telling them how little I ate or how many miles I ran.
I was missing something craving attention good or bad definitely mentally unwell.

It doesn’t really matter if it doesn’t fit into a list of conditions to tick a box, mentally healthy people do not self harm for any reason.

It could be depression, anxiety, an eating disorder - someone so desperate for someone to notice that they're hurting or miserable and need help that they're willing to physically harm themselves.

Often being in control of something and doing it 'for attention' is a blazing, light up sign screaming 'HELP'.

Self-harm can absolutely be for attention and it shouldn't be dismissed because of that; it's looking for attention because you can't articulate how awful you feel and the only way you can express it is through hurting yourself.

@Worriedmother666

No not me it’s my sister. I’ve always believed she had depression but after she’s told me this I’m not sure what to think anymore

I’m glad it’s not you, I was worried for a bit there!

I think the main worry I would have for your sister is that her cries for help become more elaborate to satisfy her need for attention and/or that she slips into suicide idealisation.

All that said, you are not her keeper and you must be careful to only give as much as you have to spare

Yes, absolutely. Self harm is an abnormal behaviour regardless of the justification.

“ I guess not but I feel if it’s something they can control.”

Everyone can control the urge to self-harm. It isn’t a psychotic disorder where people are unable to distinguish between reality and delusions.

Obviously sufferers will have a variety of motivations behind the behaviour, but feeling so low and unloved that you to choose to harm yourself to get attention/sympathy/care is no less indicative of a mental illness or personality disorder than any other.

And no happy person does it because they are “bored”. Happy people watch Netflix or bake cakes.

@Worriedmother666

I guess not but I feel if it’s something they can control. I don’t see what conditions it would fit.

Mental illnesses always look like things you ought to be able to control, from the outside (aside from really floridly psychotic episodes, but those aren’t actually that common).

Depressed people always look like they could buck themselves up, and would feel much better if they would just get out of bed and have a shower. Manic people look like they could be able to just sit down and calm the fuck down. People with OCD look like they could easily just stop doing their stupid rituals. Anxious people “should” be able to stop winding themselves up about stuff.

Unfortunately that’s not really how MH works. And attitudes like that add to the stigma.

Yes of course, and maybe more complicated than the easier to understand reasons.

You don't have to understand it in detail to know it isn't healthy and you wish your sister wasn't doing this. It may also be that she is lying to cover up how miserable she feels. Or not.

for you, is hard having family with mental health problems.

I'm going against the grain here and would say from your description that, no, it is not a mental disorder.

There are no psychiatric diagnoses in either the ICD or the DSM that list self harm alone as a diagnoseable psychiatric condition in the absence of any other symptoms or signs. We see a lot of teens who self harm but very few of them get any sort of official diagnosis without other issues alongside.

However, are you absolutely sure there really aren't any other symptoms?

In any case, the person is clearly displaying a maladaptive coping mechanism which could possibly benefit from being addressed.

Yes it is a mental health disorder

It hurts to self harm, people do that when the pain inside gets overwhelming. Your Dsis is reaching out to you

You may wish she dealt with things better, more constructively but she can't and she's telling you she can't. Because she doesn't have the emotional resources to. Try to get her to talk to her GP . Talk to a professional yourself, even if it's advice from a local charity for mental health (like MIND)

It is terrible times right now and the incidences of Eating disorders and self harm are increasing but mostly unseen as no one is seen much as people are all behind our lockdown doors. Please encourage your sister to seek help. It'll be too much for you to take on as a secret only you know.

Does she have DC? Is she alone?

If someone is in need of contact or connection and doesn't feel able to seek it in a better way, then everything is not OK.

I wish the phrase "attention seeking" could be deleted from all discussions about self harm. Better to think of it "care seeking when in need of care".

I promise you, if it is genuinely only self harm, done in a relatively safe and non risky way, in the absence of suicidal ideation or any other symptoms, then she won't meet threshold for secondary care mental health services. Not even close.

The GP may have a primary care counselling service that would see her if she was willing to engage.

No not me it’s my sister. I’ve always believed she had depression but after she’s told me this I’m not sure what to think anymore

Think that she has a feeling inside that is so intolerable that her only choice is to harm herself to alleviate it.