On one of our csaqt Twitterchats the idea that to maintain balance in all aspects of our lives we need to base it on solid underpinning. Ideally more than one thing to allow for one or more of the things that under pin the balance to be attacked or weaken.
The idea of 5 pillars was born, so what might mine be? As anybody who knows me will understand mine are, indeed have to be, based on the 5 elements. The 5 points of the pentagram.
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In many Faiths there is a tension between the concept of free will and an all powerful and all knowledgeable deity. This tension is perhaps most clearly shown with religious Faith’s response to suicide.
Almost all see suicide as a sin, an act against the deity and inherently wrong. Which is a little odd considering the promise of an afterlife they all seem to promise. Why would a deity worry about us arriving in the afterlife we are destined for a few years early?
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Hardly a week goes by with out a report in the local, and sometime national press, of somebody taking their life or attempting to
It goes without saying that each of these events represents a person who felt there was no alternative and leaves behind others deeply hurt by their loss.
Those that decide to end their lives wil have many and personal reasons for doing so, and each one represents a failure of the mental health provision in this country And or society as a whole. We are all guilty in failing that person.
For a number of reasons, linked to the same underlying issue – that of historic abuse it has to be said, I have been asked to think about what forgiveness means to me.
It has been suggested that part of recovering from the harm that was caused to me as a child, and has blighted my adult life, would be to forgive the person who abused me.
The whole concept of forgiveness seems to be rather stretched our of shape in this context, it isnt for example suggested that forgiving actually has anything much to do with saying what was done was OK or that the abuser doesn’t bare the responsibility. It seems more about accepting that focusing on the abuser rather than on your own needs is counter productive.
Words like spiders’ webs in the frost laden morning,
Glittering, beautiful but without substance, without future
Words like the damoclean sword, the promise of destruction
A modern day Dionysius, showing her power to control
I recently did an interview with some of the local press as part of the publicity for the Wall of Silence exhibition that came to Burnham-on-Sea.
It was difficult to talk about it but thought I might share some of the conversation with you.
First of all, if you could tell me a bit about what you went through
When I was about 13 I was sexually abused by a ‘family member’. Subsequent to the abuse there was a need for that person to control me, to make sure that I didn’t talk about what had happened. Tis was basically done by emotional control / threats. I remember for example being told, “Do as you are told or THEY will come and take you away”
The result of this was that I almost totally suppressed the memories, denied them even to my self.
The result was, naturally, that this had a major impact on my emotional development and ability to form and manage relationships for example.
There is a quote that sums it up well, I think
“Many remain fixed at that child level of emotional development, as though the trauma put a stop on time. Adult information and knowledge are added as they grow up, but the underlying guilt, fear and inadequacy remain and govern much of their decision-making. The governing power of these feelings is seen in the compulsion to sabotage such happiness as comes their way. Relationships are strained to breaking-point by constant demands for proof of love (which can never be believed), by chronic jealousy (which cannot be comforted), by endless emotional tests (programmed for failure) and by sexual dysfunction (since pleasure is not allowed to the guilty).”
― from “Rescuing the Inner Child: Therapy for Adults Sexually Abused as Children (Human Horizons)”
Just over 18 months ago my father died. I was fortunate that I was able to spend time with his in his last few months and we were able to talk, not just about his illness and what he wanted at the end, or didn’t want to be more accurate, but about memories, both good and bad, times spent together and apart. Some things he said didn’t make too much sense at the time, but now I can see and understand what he was trying to say to me.
In his last few weeks I would sit beside his bed, and talk. I’m not sure he heard me, or if he did was able to understand but my presence seemed to calm his somewhat. In his last few days he seemed to become more agitated and while I wouldn’t say distressed certainly confused about where, or indeed who, he was.
This wasn’t a simple not knowing that he was in a hospice, or exhibiting the memory loss associated with dementia. No this seemed to be something more than that. Almost as if the world he was experiencing was very very different to the one we live in and he was struggling to make sense of it. Struggling to adapt to the new environment where all the learnt skills and expectations were of no use.
Imprisoned in time, a boy, a young teen
Stuck in a moment, an event, a trauma
No door to exit, no windows to gaze out of
Silently Screaming as memories swirl and constrain
Betrayal by one who should have gave love
Innocence taken by one who should defend it
Trust destroyed by one most trusted
Memory too hard, too dangerous to keep.
Shackles of the mind, self-imposed on by the boy
Memories denied, hidden and rejected
To change the past, undo what was done
Something that couldn’t, mustn’t, have happened
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Things have moved on a bit since I last thought about this.
I was asked to talk to social services, who informed me that they would want to consider what action they would take based on my story and that the natures of things was that they might have to also refer this to the police.
So the question became do I talk to them, to tell them my story or not? It is not in this case a simple equation of who will be harmed by my actions and what offset benefit might there be. It is a question of where responsibility lies.
The core of the problem is that if I was to open up to them then the control of what happened with information, and what the consequences were, would no longer be in my hands, and it would be me of my own free will giving that control over to them. How does that sit with the ideas of personal responsibility imbedded in the injunction to ‘harm none’?
This post looks at how well some of the perceived characteristics of people who self-harm, Age and Gender, fit with the reality of Self Harm in the community.
For most non experts, and undoubtedly a few experts as well, the perception of people who self=harm is one of almost exclusively young, teenage, and predominately female. This is not surprising as the language, images and targeting of both press reports, Support and information organisations web sites as well as academic papers reinforce that perception.
While it is obviously difficult to fully and accurately understand the demographic makeup of the people who shelf-harm, it is often a secret activity, we can, I suggest, get a first level approximation of the issue from those presenting to hospital emergency departments.
Statistics from the south west of England do not support the stereotype that it is teens and young people – 15-29 that are the majority group.
In fact the 30-44 age range present at hospital in almost identical numbers with the 45 – 74 age group reaching 50% of the numbers of the younger groups.
The same statistics also show only a excess of females presenting in the 15-29 age group but with the gap narrowing in the older age groups
I think form this it if fair to say that self-harm impacts both genders and all ages, and while young females do seem to have a higher prevalence of self-harm the statistics do show that the perception of self-harm as a predominantly young female issues is far from the truth.