Self-harming by teenage girls doubles in 20 years - The Times

[TimeLady]

Lead story in today's Times

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/self-harming-by-teenage-girls-doubles-in-20-years-x2vbzm87m?shareToken=aa76c3a10f27546edb439bb8a6ddcf6c

The relentless scrutiny from 'friends' with camera phones, in my book, has a lot to do with this. I'd hate to be a teenager today.

Plus I think we have also developed a mass media culture - the kinds of programmes teens watch where it is fine, nay helpful to dismantle someone's self-esteem in the guise of helping/critiquing them. Adult-sanctioned bullying

Yes, schools encouraging children to compete with each other, about everything from academic success to how many dojo points they get (by class votes, leader boards on the wall, certificates in assembly), then acting baffled when the children start putting each other down. I've had a teacher (who put leader boards on the wall about everything) tell me 'this class is so competitive (amused laugh)'. I thought, 'of course they bloody are. You've encouraged them to be.'

I realise teachers sometimes do this because of pressure they're under themselves, to get good results, and sometimes it's decided by management, but sometimes they do it when there's absolutely no justification (competition between 9 year olds for dojo points???).

And the stuff about 'if you miss X number of days of school, your grades with go down from A to B', don't people understand the difference between correlation and causation? Of course children who miss school (because of physical/mental health problems, bullying, chaotic home lives) do worse in their exams - but because of the health problems/bullying/home problems, not because of the missing school per se. Those statistics are based on between-children comparisons, because it's not possible to compare the same child's performance with good attendance, and with poor attendance. It's so disingenuous to claim it's the missed lessons alone that caused the lower grades, and just makes children who already have problems feel worse about themselves.

When was that famous picture of Richey Edwards published in the NME? Interestingly, it’s the top result in a Google image search on ‘nme richey edwards’ (WARNING: it’s graphic, in case you’re unfamiliar), despite him having been missing for a couple of decades.

Richey Edwards was 1995 IIRC.

Is this also partly down to how it is recorded in the stats? I was doing it in 1989 and just told not to be so silly by my counsellor. I doubt it was even noted. I wasn't the only one doing it either.

I'm not dismissed modern pressures either. I'm sure they are also increasing the pressure on teenage girls.

It's really really worrying. And there's just not enough understanding of mental health problems in schools. I don't what happened in 2013 but the smartphone/ porn/ bullying hypothesis sounds plausible. Also rampant sexism. I think the ubiquity of social media on smartphones works to conceal a lot of the shit that was spoken out loud in the playground in my day. So it's quite isolating.

It appears Snapchat and Instagram took off exponentially in 2012 which would explain why how you look on social media became more important than anything else. I would say they also appeal to a younger demographic so content bounces around in a haze of what is so important before your life has real responsibilities or your decisions have actual impact. Suddenly, your lipstick choice is make or break. Coupled with the rise of the influencer and the mainstreaming of porn aesthetic it’s all a perfect storm of making young people feel like shit about themselves whilst ensuring they have to engage and conform as they feel they can’t be left out or left behind.

Self harm was very common when I was younger but I don’t think it was taken very seriously.

I don't think social media is the principle contributor at all. It's the unrealistic expectations upon young people which are also underlined by the anything goes ethos of people who used to reinforce boundaries: teachers, nurses, vicars, doctors, etc. When our sc were at state schools, supposedly good ones, the staff were on a different planet and certainly did not support our family values of: hard woek, good jobs, savings, getting engaged, married and having children in that order, no recreational drugs. One head had two behaviour rules: one for the supported girls which was punitive and one for non supportes girls who could do what they liked including bullying, assault, thieving, pyromania and general anti social behavour. It was mayhem. DD had a little cutting episode at 12. We moved her to another school and things improved u til GCSEs.

Also I think it's the role of teachers to educate not provide mh support. They have enough to do already. MH support needs to be provided by qualified hcps and the NHS needs to be properly funded to provide it.

I really don't think it's all about image - not taking into account dd's friends - some of whom have short hair btw.

Follow up comment piece today, by Anne Longfield, children’s commissioner for England

Parents must limit smartphone use to tackle self-harm

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/parents-must-limit-smartphone-use-to-tackle-self-harm-8j2rh6dtl?shareToken=c60a323b11a10cbbfbaf250c9a6ee0b2

the states on self harm are one of the most alarming things in young peoples services at the moment there are not enough resources in the UK to deal effectively with this and the campaigns are limited for it. if only a major newspaper or media outlet would devote the same amount of resource to raising this much bigger issue then poeple might start to notice.

Bespin
The Times have been covering this for days - and as well as this, have have just published a major investigation into the rape and abuse of girls for citizenship. Their coverage of issues relating to girls and women has been excellent recently. There are some good letters heading their letters page about this as well.

I agree with Miri - i do think kids are a lot more aware of self-harming these days and I would imagine there are a proportion of kids who do it to make themselves look interesting/tortured souls.

miri1985
I agree that there's a definite element of 'social contagion' with this. When you work with teenagers, on occasions you can see it happening within groups - a friendship group, a year group or a school. And social media becomes a tool that's used to 'promote' and 'enforce'.
I'm always cautious about saying this as there are so many additional factors including family issues, bullying and individual issues as well but we really can't keep ducking this.

womanspeaking

There is definitely a group of self-harming/suicidal/anorexic girls in DS's school

There's also a group of transboys

TransplantsArePlants
I read a piece by a senior police officer talking about terrorism who commented that there were significant issues with teenage girls and online grooming. I am so glad that my children were able to navigate puberty without a limited influence of social media - for all the positives, there are are some very dark issues that children are being exposed to.

My DD age 11 is very exercised about mental health in her age group to the point where she has been asking school to provide more education on body image/ eating disorders/ depression etc. She said to me a few weeks ago that what she really really hates is the kids who self harm because they think it is trendy and compare their scars in school playground. She knows that a depressed self harmer will be hiding their scars but definitely thinks it is a ' thing' at the moment. I guess that mobiles not only mess kids up but also give them access to what current trends are, hence the need to all look the same and act the same.

I'm hazarding a guess here, but presumably sharing images of your self-harm injuries is something that goes on too? A way for lonely, bullied or mixed-up kids to become inducted into an on-line gang (of strangers)perhaps?

She said to me a few weeks ago that what she really really hates is the kids who self harm because they think it is trendy and compare their scars in school playground. She knows that a depressed self harmer will be hiding their scars but definitely thinks it is a ' thing' at the moment.

I've been told this by a few other people and I find it so bizarre. It's about 15 years since I last did it and I still wear long sleeves all the time because of the scars. Someone seeing them at school would have been a nightmare for me - it was shameful rather than trendy.

That said, I'd argue that someone who cuts because they want to fit into a group or thinks it makes them more interesting has MH issues of their own. It isn't something that a reasonably happy person would do. Your DD sounds like a really kind and supportive person to care so much about these issues. :)

That said, I'd argue that someone who cuts because they want to fit into a group or thinks it makes them more interesting has MH issues of their own.

I’m not sure, I think sometimes it’s just upping the ante on normal teenager stuff. And normal teenager stuff isn’t ‘MH issues’, though I think it sometimes gets reframed as such.

It seems to me that girls have won, to a large extent, the fight to be seen as just as good as boys academically. And that pressure to achieve is immense

Except they haven’t won at all. As soon as girls slightly overtook boys academically there was a backlash claiming education was rigged in their favour.

Besides it doesn’t translate to them earning more. Basically they are doing all that work for what?

I have 17 yr old and 15 yr girls. Neither are self harming or have mental health problems or eating disorders. They use Instagram and snapchat. The only thing that comes to mind is they didn't get smartphones till the first was almost 15 and the second was 14. We are not in the UK however. They both are active athletes, although average, but I have read sport has a protective affect on girls mental health and body image. They both weight train for example. I am currently undergoing cancer treatment and we have all just swung with it and they seem balanced and are not freaking out, just trying to help in ordinary ways. I have reached out to their school to make sure they get plenty of support after the summer. But I don't know what to think. I know we are not out of the woods yet but then seem pretty emotionally stable.

Do you think UK culture is more vulnerable for some reason, even though developing nations everywhere are struggling with smart phones, social media and academic competition?