Self Injury links, sites and resources

The very name of this page is controversial, so I wasn't sure what to call it. A cursory inspection of the literature from those who self harm will quickly show that the terminology  is open to some debate. Some object to the term 'self mutilation' - on the grounds that it is overly graphic, and tends to medicalize and pathologize of those who engage in this behaviour. 

There's also a list of papers with some resources online

The material on this page is in approximate alphabetical order. This list is by no means complete. I've tried to include sites where there is a reasonably large range of material, but there are a number of initiatives for self harmers which I know are going on in the UK which don't seem to have websites - if anyone can find more material which deserves inclusion please let me know.  Likewise, if you find any of the material objectionable please let me know too. Self harm is a contentious area and like many issues in mental health the relationship between self harmers and health professionals has often been a fraught and unhappy one. Self harmers contend that they have often been subject to coercive and dehumanising treatments, been patronised, told their problems are manipulative, attention seeking or evidence of a potentially stigmatising diagnosis like  'personality disorder', 'paranoid schizophrenia'. Furthermore, there are many complaints that staff in casualty A&E and 'Emergency Rooms' (US) have been unsympathetic when dealing with injuries and have treated sufferers inhumanely and  Thus, it's particularly crucial that the accounts from sufferers themselves are taken seriously. 

As usual with lists of links, these tend to get out of date quickly. I will be checking and updating them but  sites do go offline sometimes. Don't worry, try another. Many of the sites on this subject are linked together anyway. There has also been an enormous expansion in sites relating to this issue just over the last year or so that I've had this page live and running

I have tried to set all these links so the open a new browser window. if you get into trouble or the site won't load, just close the window and you'll be back here as if by magic.

Here's the list so far:  Please note that some of these sites have recently gone down or moved  I'm still looking for them to see where they've gone. If  I find them updates will follow shortly.

Are you a cutter?  "The cutting started my Junior year of High School. It started small, as it usually does. I had never heard of self-mutilation. I didn't know that it was something that 1% of the population actually does! I had never met anyone who did this, and my view on it at the time was..."god, how could someone even do that to themselves!" A site with personal stories, information and lots of other things, including the author's own ongoing story.

Blood Red  - part of the healthy place self injury community there's a related site here too - A healing touch. These sites have an informative and interactive theme - visitors are encouraged to put their own stories in - there's a comprehensive archive of visitors personal experiences. Well worth a look.

Bodies Under Siege webring The name corresponds to Armando Favazza's book but it doesn't look like Favazza himself is involved - but I might be wrong. A good many of the member sites return error messages when I clicked them, but there is a lot here which is worth exploring, including useful lists of media coverage of the issue. Controversially, there is a lot of material relating to suicide prevention in the list of help resources.

Bristol Crisis Service for Women - probably one of the UK's original helping and campaigning groups - the most authoritative and best loved who have done an enormous amount to put self harm n the agenda. They also publish a load of useful practical materials on the issue, for sufferers, their friends and family, volunteers and health professionals and anybody else. All down to earth, feminist inspired and thankfully free of US happy-humanist mawkishness. All at affordable prices too. Great. Imagine my delight on discovering they had a website.

CYC-Net.org's self mutilation reference section contains a useful bibliography on the subject.

Joy's community: "Whether you self-injure, you know someone who self-injures, or you are simply taking the time to educate yourself on the subject, the information you will find here and the many other resources out there is valuable. Help is out there."

Mirror-mirror.org: This site s mainly about eating disorders but it does have some useful stuff about self injury and some suggestions as to how sufferers can help to reduce their self cutting - "Self-injury is probably the most widely misunderstood forms of self harm and there are many myths associated with it, which can make it difficult for people to reach out and ask for help."

The National Self Harm Network says "Our priority is to support survivors and people who self-harm. We also support the people it indirectly affects, like family and friends, they can discuss the issue and gain effective support in our forums"

The National Children's Bureau is taking an interest in self harm and has a number of pages with useful information and links and other resources which seems to be pretty detailed. Well done NCB! There are also some other parts of their site that are worth visiting.

Self injury - you are not the only one seems also to have the title 'secret shame'. A fascinating site which is written from an 'insiders' perspective, and is also academically informed and up to date - good information on other resources and publications too. "It's likely that you're keeping yourself alive and maintaining psychological integrity with the only tool you have right now." I've learned a lot here - the authors are obviously well up to date on all the recent stuff that has been happening and recent material published.

www.self-injury.net starts out with a list of useful information and provides a great many links and useful things to see. Well worth a visit, as they used to say on Blue Peter when  was little, though not about self injury! Also contains a sort of digest of all the stuff people have sent in about their own self injury. 

www.selfinjury.org.uk seems to have expanded dramatically lately. A huge collection pf pages, attractive graphics and lots of useful information, video clips to download, and all done very tastefully in the kind of style I would do if I could actually use some of the webdesign software that's sitting on my computer rather than grotty old Front Page. Incidentally I knew the person responsible before I saw this site and I was even more impressed. Lots of useful links too. When I looked at it they were all live too! Brilliant.