[lily.]

I have a friend who used to do it, and he still bears a LOT of scars.

It's not for attention. It's like every other mental health issue though.. it has stigma attached to it. Unfortunately a lot of people don't want to take the time to understand why people do it.

There's a series of ads being shown up here.. (not sure if they are in the whole UK). They are the "See Me" ones.. Ziola will have seen them I'm sure, and they are aimed at removing the stigma attached to self-harming and similar mental health issues.

However, in saying that, a lot of people who self-harm are teenagers, and it's easy for me to be all understanding and compassionate, but when you are young and your classmate is doing it, it's easy to pass judgement because you aren't old enough to really know what else to do. Did that sound patronising? If it did, I'm sorry.. I'm just thinking of how I used to be when I was younger... I was reasonably happy as a child and didn't really know how to handle serious issues til I got a lot older. However, I'm sure there are young people who are a lot more mature than I was.. I'm the first to admit it took me a while to mature. (I might even still be doing it!)..

Seriously though.. if someone is self-harming, there is help out there for them, and I would hope they would have the courage to get it so that they can get on with their lives and get over their issues.