[Report File] Children who hurt my body... Why you should cover them without blame

More than eight months have passed since last January, when the first corona19 confirmed in Korea.

As the corona is prolonged, we often come across news that'there is an emergency in psychological quarantine'.

'Corona blue', which means depression and helplessness,'corona red', which means fear and anger, and'corona black', which means that it is not melancholy but completely dark, have even emerged.

It is not an exaggerated word that the expression'there is an emergency in psychological quarantine' is not an exaggeration. According to the recently released data from the State Administration of the Health and Welfare Commission, the number of people who visited the hospital with mood disorders (typically with depressive disorder) in the first half of this year increased by 24.2% from the same period last year. I did.

By age, it is said that the proportion of teenagers and 20s was particularly high.

Suicide is a social phenomenon of concern as the feeling of depression increases.

Another national government data showed that the total number of suicide attempters from the beginning of this year to last August was 15,090, an increase of 10% compared to the same period a year ago, and suicide attempts increased in teens, 20s, and 30s. .

This is a time when psychological quarantine is more important than ever.

When we are concerned about depression and suicide, and when we say that we need to build a psychological quarantine system, there are issues that we overlook but must consider together.

It is self-harm by teenagers.

I'll show you one stat.

This is the current status of support services related to suicide and self-injury of the Youth Counseling and Welfare Center, a youth counseling organization.

▲ (Source: Korea Youth Counseling and Welfare Development Institute, Unit: case)

From 2017 to 2019, the number of counseling for adolescents complaining of suicide issues increased 1.9 times, and the number of counseling for adolescents complaining of self-harm increased 4.7 times.

Looking at the number of cases alone, youth self-injury counseling has surpassed suicide counseling since 2018.

Although statistics on self-harm in 2020 have not yet been released, in light of the previous announcement that the number of suicide attempts by teenagers increased, this year, when companionships were cut off due to corona and trapped inside the house while taking remote classes, did adolescents' self-harm attempts increase significantly? I am concerned.

There may be some people who are curious at this point.

I know that teenagers do a lot of self-harm, but can't you have any doubts about what and how self-harm is?

If so, please watch the video below first.

It is as short as 1 minute and 47 seconds.

After seeing, do you understand what self-harm is?

Adolescents and experts say that self-harm is a choice not'to die' but'to live' or'to live'.

However, in general, it is difficult to understand the explanation of'because I want to live'.

Let's go back

time.

It was in 2018 when our society began to recognize self-harm of youth as a social problem.

This is because teenagers have started posting so-called'self-injury certification shots' on SNS such as Twitter and Instagram.

Shocking photos and videos such as wounding a wrist with a sharp object or drawing blood with a syringe were posted on sns one after another.

Because of this self-injury certification shot, self-harm was perceived as a'fashion' of youth.

There was also a gaze that looked at the self-harmful youth like a'gwanjong' who wanted to get attention.

But this is all misunderstanding.

Ahn Byung, a psychiatrist who is an expert in the field of adolescent psychiatry, I think the following interview by the teacher will help you understand.

"What is the difference between self-harm and self-injury imitation. There are friends who imitate self-harm. Actually. Why? I want to try it. Then, what is the difference between the two. The difference between self-harm and self-injury imitation is in one word, and they want to show them. It could be the purpose of a certification shot..

Timid kids, even some kids, use alcohol sterilization 5 times because I

'm

afraid they'll get infected, so I lightly open this with the tip of a knife, but I can't bleed. would seek the help of a red felt-tip pen, not with the help of a teacher. ppalganpen then brought up by taking me a little hard to take shape. these children once or twice, and I'm not, it hurts. this is self-inflicted imitation.

this to obtain the comfort of mind It's self-harm, it's different from the previous one. The children in the back are hidden.. I don't show it to others. In true self-harm, it doesn't go that way.. Children try to show it. No, that's a lot more wrong reactions from adults. That’s why we have to separate the two."

The self-harm we are trying to talk about is not imitating self-harm, but'real' self-harm called true self-harm.

With the help of various organizations, the report team was able to meet the teenagers who were really self-harmful, and listened to the honest stories of the children through face-to-face, social media, and telephone interviews.

Watch the video below and you'll see when and for what reason our teens start self-harm and why they persist and cannot stop.

Let’s pull out one of the data introduced in the video above.

The causes of self-harm are diverse and complex, including friendships, academic stress, conflict with parents, and conflict with teachers, but there are relatively similar aspects of self-harm. It's because I want to get away from my unpleasant and uncomfortable feelings, that is, negative emotions. Of course, it would be good to get rid of bad feelings in a healthy way other than self-harm. It would be nice if you could not hurt yourself in a room or classroom alone, but expressed that it was difficult around you, but it would be good to refer to the story of the youth counselor, Teacher Seomi.

“In the case of children who do self-harm, there are a lot of emotions, but there are many cases where we can't express this in words. In fact, if we have a feeling that is too difficult or when we are in distress, it is a little relieved. There are a lot of cases where children do self-harm. Because they can't understand my heart or these things well and express this properly, parents and many people around them don't know how difficult it is.”

Until officially confirmed that their children are self-harmful, all parents in the world would not have even imagined their children being self-harmful. I believe that no matter how much the news tells kids these days, my kids won't. Then one day, you get a phone call from the school's week class (the school's counseling office), and you hear a shocking fact. How will the parents react at this time? This is the experience of Seong Na-kyung, a professional counselor at a middle school in Seoul.

"When our parents called us at school, our kids were stressed out doing this kind of thing, and when we said let's do this at home together, they said,'At that age, all can be.' I hope you don't say,'She's trying to get attention' or'Don't call me about this.' Because I want to change my self-harm habit and live well, (children) come to the counseling room."

For young people to overcome self-harm, families, especially parents, need help. Since the school is where children mainly stay, the cooperation of teachers is very important. Parents and teachers are encouraged to watch the following video so that our children can find a healthy way to avoid self-harm.

During the interview process, youths met and used the expression'addiction' several times. Like alcohol, drugs, gambling, self-addiction is strong. It is said to start self-harm at the age of 12-14, and it is a young age that corresponds to the high grade of elementary school and the first grade of middle school. From this time on, if you are addicted to self-harm and spend your adolescence, scars will remain in the minds and bodies of children. You need to help the youth so that they don't become a habit and do not become addicted.

So it's not the right answer, but I'm going to tell you the story of a YouTuber. He was a so-called'self-harmful person' who had a very difficult adolescence. My personal history is very unfortunate and painful, but the opportunity to stop self-harm is very touching. It would be great if you think about the meaning of tattoo tattoos on both wrists.

I am a reporter for 13 years, who has planned and covered youth self-injury, but at the same time, I am a youth counselor with a national certificate. Currently, I am studying and learning youth counseling in graduate school. The reason for revealing personal careers here is to reiterate the fact that self-harm is the most serious and important issue among consultants and researchers who meet teenagers in the field and contemplate the problems they face these days. I hope that this report file helped readers not to recognize the self-harm of teenagers as being'severe two diseases', but to sympathize with their pain and understand their difficulties.

● There are

Finally, I will conclude this article by introducing some methods suggested by experts that can help teenagers stop self-harm and find healthy ways.

The simplest thing you can do at home, suggested by experts, is to'name your emotions'. In counseling, children often don't know if they're angry, sad, or irritated, or what they really are feeling. I am frustrated because I don't know exactly how I feel, and I do self-harm to relieve the frustration. In that case, if you name your emotions like "I was actually angry" or "I was actually sad", the children will know about themselves. It is said that you will be able to understand your feelings. At the same time, when you are angry, you can broaden your thoughts on who you are angry with and how to solve it.

Teaching students to cope with stress can also be helpful. If you learn and learn positive ways to relieve stress in advance, not negative methods such as self-harm, you can reduce the number of teenagers who initiate self-harm. It is said that this education should be conducted from elementary school as much as possible.

In addition, there were opinions from experts that arts culture education should be activated so that youths can freely express their repressed emotions through artistic activities, and this is an area that education authorities should listen to. You need to be able to express yourself properly so that teenagers can survive. There are many ways to do it, so please help and find it together.