I was at a little bit of a loss when I was trying to think of something to blog about since I avoid pop culture (for entertainment purposes) as much as possible so I decided to just browse the internet to see if I could come up with something.

Eventually, I found a forum site called TeenHelp.org. The self harm board just stood out to me because it really made me realize how people generally have such misconceptions about it and how much of an issue it is among young people. Unfortunately, most people don’t give it the attention it deserves. It’s amazing that this is a subject that is quite common in pop culture but we’re so exposed to it that we don’t even think about it.

It’s in books, movies, television, songs, and celebrity lives. And to name a few, in no particular order, Saw II and III, Passions, 28 Days, Three Days Grace – Pain, Evanescence – Going Under, Johnny Cash – Hurt, Cut by Patricia McCormick, Eminem – Stan, Fall-Out Boy – The Hand of God, Princess Diana was at least rumoured to be a self harmer, etc… There are a number of problems with the way self harm is depicted in the media and I could go on forever, but I’ll keep it as brief as possible.

Firstly, teens who are having problems, allow themselves to identify with such media because it’s the only way they are seeing self harm being portrayed and it isn’t providing them with a legitimate solution in any sense. It’s usually a dead end of hopelessness and we usually don’t see people recovering from their self harm problem (I say ‘usually’ because I have yet to see a good ending for a self harmer in the media, but I assume there must be some out there).

Personally, I think that the fact that self-harm is in the media at all is some kind of sick marketing strategy; to appeal to kids who are in a bad situation or simply going through a tough period in their lives. The manner in which self harm is presented is clearly not intended to help anyone; only to make them dwell on their problems and continue to consume the same type of media that will fuel their negative feelings. So it goes…

Furthermore, teens who know others who self harm, or are exposed to self harm, are much more likely to start harming themselves, should a difficult situation arise in their lives, than teens who aren’t.

In regards to people and their misconceptions about self harm; this wouldn’t be an issue if the subject were dealt with in an appropriate manner. There are especially those who think people do it for attention and entirely miss the real issue.

I’m not saying that self harm should be something we hide because that’s the last thing that should ever happen. Knowledge is power, so the more we learn about it, the better for everyone, however, the excess of misconstrued information in pop culture that leads to false assumptions and misconceptions isn’t helping anyone. While I’d prefer if the media took some responsibility for what they show, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon. Meanwhile, we as both, people and consumers, need to look through a more critical eye instead of readily accepting everything we see.

So it goes.