The Psychology of Self-Injury: Exploring Self-Harm & Mental Health

Wow thank you so much for agreeing to interview Allison, I have lived experience with NSSI, and I was always feeling like my experience was different than everyone else’s because I didn’t happen upon NSSI accidentally, but I deliberately chose to use NSSI—and it was always premeditated. Also, I wanted scars (I think I may have been the person you mentioned in the podcast in regarding a response you received to an episode on scarring in Season 2!) I so resonated with what Allison was saying in regards to feelings when scars fade—as I was sad when mine started fading and would experience urges to NSSI wanting more prominent scars again. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for this episode and it was validating to hear that I am not the only one with this experience regarding NSSI scarring.

As a nurse, mother of teens & mindful family/community member, my desire to educate myself on NSSI (or SH) for awareness & to be an advocate lead me to this podcast. It’s everything I was looking for & more. It explored the topics I wanted to learn about then answered questions I didn’t even know to ask. Each episode contains a thought leader in this field along with their social media accounts to follow, their websites that contain even more resources & current research their working on. After only a few episodes, I began to feel more confident on how to care better for my patients with SH history & on being resource for any young person in my life in crisis. If someone came to me today & needed help, I would know where to send them or find answers. The info is straightforward. As a parent, I can imagine some of the info or stats could be hard to hear if you’ve just discovered your child is engaging in SH. While it’s respectfully & mindfully discussed, it’s not sugarcoated. Be emotionally prepared for sensitive topics, take breaks if it gets too emotional, have a plan for self care as you process the info. Then come back & keep listening. Because information is power. And a well informed, supportive parent is protective against worse case scenarios in kiddos (I learned that from this podcast). There are plenty of hopeful statistics & encouraging tidbits as well. Like they say, the unknown is usually scarier than reality. I’ve only found a handful of audiobooks on the topic, but this podcast was better than any book I could have imagined. Thank you Dr. Westers! Keep it up!

This the best podcast I have heard on this subject!

This podcast has helped us tremendously in our journey with self injury in our teen daughter. It is a very lonely place to be in at times, and most people do not fully understand. This is exceptional info and all the guests have so much experience to offer. Well done!