Self-Harm Treatment in Tucson, Arizona

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Comprehensive Self-Harm Treatment Program

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is the act of injuring oneself in response to severe psychological distress. At Sabino Recovery, we treat NSSI with compassion and understanding by breaking through prejudice and stigma to address the root causes of NSSI. We use evidence-based cognitive strategies to treat emotional distress at the root cause that have been shown to be the most effective. Our trauma-focused approach ensures that the care provided is comprehensive and provides the best outcomes.

What Is Self-Harm?

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is when someone inflicts pain and injury to their own body on purpose without the intent of suicide. When we talk about self-harm, we usually mean cutting, burning, scratching, and other ways of inflicting injuries to oneself that are visible to others. However, can also damage yourself by abusing substances like alcohol or drugs, engaging in disordered eating, or indulging in high-risk sexual activities.

While self-injury may bring a momentary sense of calm and a release of tension, it’s usually followed by guilt and shame and the return of painful emotions. Although life-threatening injuries are usually not intended, with self-injury comes the possibility of more serious–and even fatal–self-harming actions.

Anger, frustration, or pain can sometimes trigger the want to harm oneself. It may seem like a relief to someone who has a hard time dealing with emotions or was taught to hide their emotions. Even if the severity of injury may cause discomfort, some people think that harming themselves will release endorphins and will improve their mood. It’s possible that if someone doesn’t feel a lot of emotions, they might deliberately hurt themselves in order to avoid becoming emotionally numb to everything.

Injured people may feel shame and remorse since they think of themselves as inadequate or unable to keep from harming themselves. If this person has negative feelings as a result of feeling ashamed, the behavior may spiral out of control and form long-term habits. People are known to develop patterns and rituals when they self-harm.

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Signs of NSSI

It can be hard to identify whether someone is harming themselves since it is usually done in private due to shame and fear of discovery, which leads to it remaining hidden from others. Bald patches and scars are all possible outward indications of self-harm. Some people wear long sleeves and long pants all the time, even when it’s hot, to cover their self-injurious habits. Some people who self-harm also display other indications, such as feelings of sadness or hopelessness, which can include speaking to others about their thoughts.

Who Is at Risk?

Self-harm is most common in adolescence and young adulthood, but it can also occur later in life. People who have been through trauma, neglect, or abuse are the most vulnerable to NSSI. If a person grew up in an unstable family, for example, it might have been a coping technique to deal with negative emotions or unmet needs. Because alcohol and drugs impair self-control, people who binge drink or use illicit substances are more likely to harm themselves.

While not a primary diagnosis, NSSI often accompanies other psychiatric conditions. Examples of conditions that put someone at risk for NSSI include:

Depression
Anxiety
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Bipolar Disorder
Eating disorders and disordered eating
Substance Use Disorders (SUD)

Rates of self-harm are also higher among those in treatment for mental health disorders. Those in treatment who have a diagnosis of PTSD are more likely to engage in self-harm than those without PTSD. NSSI has several behavioral and cognitive characteristics that suggest it is closely related to OCD.

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How Our Rehab Center in Arizona Can Help

At Sabino Recovery, our team is dedicated to helping clients understand what led to the behavior and how to handle stress and negative emotions in a healthy manner. Our licensed staff has extensive experience in caring for NSSI. We treat the underlying causes and teach techniques that mitigate the distressing emotions that can lead to NSSI.

Therapeutic modalities such as group therapy and individual therapy work together to provide a supportive environment where participants feel secure and able to discuss their problems. They also enable participants to connect with themselves and others through the healing process. We assist those struggling with self-harming behaviors and work through suppressed anger, despair, fear, and disgust in order to be successful. Instances of past trauma, such as sexual abuse, mental and physical neglect, and bullying, that contribute to NSSI and related conditions can be properly processed in our therapeutic environment.

NSSI can be troubling, but it is a behavior, and behaviors can be modified. Anyone can benefit from learning how to work through difficult emotions in healthy ways. Psychological problems can be treated using evidence-based therapeutic approaches, like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Together, the client and therapist investigate difficulties with their beliefs, feelings, and behaviors in connection to one another. This method often addresses issues in the here-and-now and incorporates therapist and client discussions to build a more collaborative understanding of the issue at hand. This will result in the creation of individualized treatment objectives and methods that are reviewed and assessed frequently.

To prevent self-harm in the long term, the goal should be to treat the trauma that causes it. Self-harm is a habit that can be replaced, but treating the trauma is more important. The Somatic Experiencing method has shown that it is our inability to process and move past difficult experiences that leave us with trauma, not the traumatic event itself. Through the use of this therapeutic modality, it is possible to find where a person is in the fight, flight, or freeze response, and then work to resolve it.

In order to recover from life-altering events and their lasting effects, we may utilize Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, a treatment that heals individuals of their residual emotional anguish and distress. Today, this technique is among the most thoroughly investigated and proven therapy approaches for trauma. EMDR assumes that after a frightening incident, the event becomes trapped in the brain and remains there, with the adverse memories intact. One of its biggest strengths is that it allows people to use their own natural healing capacity. It is in our human nature to heal ourselves. Resolution can be reached by bilateral stimulation, and this can occur through accessing the trauma. EMDR may also be used to treat other issues, including anxiety, addictions, stress, and depression.

At Sabino Recovery, clients learn how to better tolerate stress and change their emotional state in skillful ways. They can then feel their emotions adapt and heal, allowing them to move on to happy, productive lives. There is a world of healthy outlets that can be explored in our holistic and allopathic services.

If you or a loved one have turned to self-harm to relieve symptoms of emotional distress, you are not alone. At Sabino Recovery, we are here for you and can help you learn to express negative feelings in healthy ways. We offer a comprehensive range of treatment options including naturopathic and allopathic services. We develop the best treatment plan for you using resources, knowledge, and decades of experience.