Why do people cut endorphins

Some people do it as a way of expressing their distress, taking back control or escaping from situations they find troubling. Some people find self-harm gives them a sense of relief. Whatever the reason, self-harm is normally a sign that a person is feeling intense emotional pain and distress. For young people, many stressful things stressors happen all at once.

Unless the problems that are causing the self-harming behaviour are addressed, people will continue to use it as a way to cope. Unfortunately, self-harm can be dangerous — it can lead to serious injury and even accidental death.

It can also lead to a higher risk of developing physical and mental health issues, substance misuse and unemployment. Some people who self-harm have feelings of shame, self-loathing and helplessness and may have suicidal thoughts. Many people who attempt suicide have a history of self-harm. This page has been produced in consultation with and approved by:. A person with agoraphobia is afraid to leave familiar environments, because they are afraid of having a panic attack.

The Alexander technique stresses that movement should be economical and needs only the minimum amount of energy and effort. Know that you are not alone, push through the anxiety of sharing to get help. Know it will shift and change, and that these feelings are not forever. Well-managed anger can be a useful emotion that motivates you to make positive changes.

There are many people you can talk to who can help you overcome feelings of wanting to lash out. Content on this website is provided for information purposes only. Information about a therapy, service, product or treatment does not in any way endorse or support such therapy, service, product or treatment and is not intended to replace advice from your doctor or other registered health professional.

The information and materials contained on this website are not intended to constitute a comprehensive guide concerning all aspects of the therapy, product or treatment described on the website. All users are urged to always seek advice from a registered health care professional for diagnosis and answers to their medical questions and to ascertain whether the particular therapy, service, product or treatment described on the website is suitable in their circumstances. The State of Victoria and the Department of Health shall not bear any liability for reliance by any user on the materials contained on this website.

Skip to main content. Home Depression. Self-harm and self-injury. Actions for this page Listen Print. Summary Read the full fact sheet. On this page. What is self-harm? Getting support for self-harming behaviour Seeking help for suicidal thoughts How do I know if someone is self-harming?

Supporting someone who self-harms Self-harming behaviour is treatable Finding alternatives to self-harm Who is at risk of self-harm? Why do people self-harm?

What are the risks of self-harm? Where to get help. Self-harm is normally a sign that a person is feeling intense emotional pain and distress. Getting support for self-harming behaviour If you are self-harming and you are worried, try to talk to someone you trust — like a friend, family member, doctor, teacher or school counsellor. You can: See a doctor , counsellor or psychologist. If you have a mental health condition, your GP can work with you to draft up a mental health treatment plan, which can include counselling sessions at a low cost.

Contact eheadspace to talk to a counsellor. You can do this online or over the phone Tel. Visit a headspace centre — there are centres all over Australia where young people 12—25 years can get health advice, information and support — usually free or at a low cost.

You can talk to a counsellor about anything at any time. Because of this, cutting is a behavior that tends to reinforce itself. Cutting can become a teen's habitual way to respond to pressures and unbearable feelings. Many say they feel "addicted" to the behavior. Some would like to stop but don't know how or feel they can't.

Other teens don't want to stop cutting. Most of the time, cutting is not a suicide attempt. But sadly, people often underestimate the potential to get seriously sick or hurt through bleeding or infections that go along with cutting. Powerful overwhelming emotions. Most teens who cut are struggling with powerful emotions. To them, cutting might seem like the only way to express or interrupt feelings that seem too intense to endure.

Emotional pain over rejection, lost or broken relationships, or deep grief can be overwhelming for some teens. And many times they're dealing with emotional pain or difficult situations that no one knows about. Pressure to be perfect or to live up to impossible standards — their own or someone else's — can cause some teens unbearable pain.

Some teens who cut have been deeply hurt by harsh treatment or by situations that have left them feeling unsupported, powerless, unworthy, or unloved. Some teens have experienced trauma, which can cause waves of emotional numbness called dissociation.

For them, cutting can be a way of testing whether they can still "feel" pain. Others describe cutting as a way of "waking up" from that emotional numbness. Self-inflicted physical pain is specific and visible. For some, the physical pain of cutting can seem preferable to emotional pain. Emotional pain can feel vague and hard to pinpoint, talk about, or soothe. When they cut, teens say there is a sense of control and relief to see and know where the specific pain is coming from and a sense of soothing when it stops.

Cutting can symbolize inner pain that might not have been verbalized, confided, acknowledged, or healed. And because it's self-inflicted, it is pain the teen controls.

A sense of relief. Many teens who cut describe the sense of relief they feel as they're cutting, which is common with compulsive behaviors. Some people believe that endorphins might add to the relief teens describe when they cut.

Endorphins are the "feel-good" hormones released during intense physical exertion. And they can be released during an injury. Others believe the relief is simply a result of being distracted from painful emotions by intense physical pain and the dramatic sight of blood. Some teens say they don't feel the pain when they cut, but feel relieved because the visible SI "shows" emotional pain they feel.

Feeling "addicted. Though it only provides temporary relief from emotional distress, the more a person cuts, the more he or she feels the need to do it. As with other compulsive behaviors, the brain starts to connect a momentary sense of relief from bad feelings with the act of cutting.

Whenever the tension builds, the brain craves that relief and drives the teen to seek relief again by cutting. So cutting can become a habit someone feels powerless to stop.

After all, self-harm can cause serious damage, or even death. In Arnold's own experience with self-harm, through self-inflicted cutting, she found that the relief offered was only temporary:.

The problem was that the embarrassment of cutting, the knowledge that these marks would become permanently tattooed into my skin, and the fears that someone would discover my secret, meant that any relief was short-lived.

All too soon, I was feeling worse than before, leaving me vulnerable to repeat episodes of psychic pain, followed by even more cutting. It's often difficult for people who don't self-harm to understand why anyone would.

But knowing about this bit of neuroscience might help make self-harm a little less mysterious: whether it's a good idea to exploit it, the connection—the physical wiring of the brain that ties emotions to physical sensation—is real.