My year 8 daughter (12
soon to be13) came home yesterday and told me she had scratched her arm.
basically she had lots of little scratches on her forearm from wrist to mid forearm all done with a sharp bit of broken pencil sharpener.
she was a bit vague but we had a chat.
she said that she wasn’t really thinking when she did it, she was actually in a lesson at school so not trying to hide away. She is a bit absent minded at times and has been known to do really silly things without thinking (never to cause harm to self). For example, cut her own hair or use permanent pen on her face (all in past, not really recent).
she panicked a bit because she realised that it could be perceived as self harm and she was adamant it wasn’t that.
she talks openly I think with me about things, she is an anxious child by nature and has struggled a bit settling into secondary school too. It seems to me that a lot her issues revolve around her own anxious thoughts rather than any sort of factual real problem, ie bullying.
i just don’t know what to do, i told her that hurting herself in this way can be dangerous in terms of infection etc and kept open door to talk about anything to me.
her mood in general since has been normal, doing all her Normal things and interests and she has been engaging with family talk etc.