Self Injurious Behaviours, individuals hurting themself without an intention to die.

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Self-Injurious Behaviors: Assessment and Diagnosis

Victoria E. White Kress

JOURNAL OF COUNSELING & DEVELOPMENT

Mehreen Khan

Due to the rising number of self-injurious behavior in our society, self-injury has become a very prominent area of research and study in the scientific community. The forms and severity of self-injury can vary, although the most commonly seen behavior is cutting, burning, and head banging. The purpose of this article is to define SIB (Self Injurious Behaviors) as harming oneself without an intention to die. Individuals who engage in self-injurious behaviors are most likely feeling a lot of pain, and may be experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression. There is a strong link between suicidal and depression. One of the recent researches indicates that approximately 4% of the general populations and 21% of the clinical populations without mental retardation are engaged in SIB.

SIB is classified into four categories: Stereotypic SIB, Major SIB, Compulsive SIB and Impulsive SIB.

Stereotypic behaviors are most typically seen in individuals with organic mental disorders such as mental retardation and development delay. Major SIB includes extremely intrusive behaviors that generally occur when a person is suffering from a severe psychosis, intoxication, or a severe character disorder. Compulsive SIB includes repetitive behaviors like hair pulling and skin picking of a mild to moderate severity. There are two types of Impulsive SIB: episodic and repetitive. Episodic self-injury takes place only a limited number of times throughout a person's life. Repetitive self-injuries are the reoccurring self-injuries that have an addictive quality and are in corporate into a person's life and personality.

Although there is a strong link between suicidal and depression but suicidal should only be considered if the individual indicates intent to die. A common myth is that asking individuals if they are contemplating suicide affects their likelihood to...