Speaking Of Self Harm

WE'VE launched a campaign to encourage YOU to talk about self-harm and reduce the number of young people who are hurting themselves.

What is 'Self Harm'???----------------------

The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as 'deliberate injury to oneself'.

More than half of 11-14-year-olds across the UK hurt themselves or know someone who does, according to the NSPCC.

The charity's also says that figures eight out of 10 in 18-21-years-olds.

#HarmLESS has already got the backing of celebrities and the public.

Jess, who we aren't naming in full - to protect her identify, started self-harming when she was 13-years-old.

She said:

"It started in 2010, someone had found a photo of me, when I was younger, and thought that I was overweight so they put it online and told people to add me and message me saying how fat I was.

“I got hooked on the pro self-harm sites and I just thought well all these people are doing it so I think I’ll have a go.

"My head was never nice to me so I thought it’s the only thing that might help, I’d tried everything else.

"It started every couple of months and then became every week and then every day and multiple times a day and the cuts were getting deeper and covering my whole body.

“I felt that I deserved it so it would calm down my thoughts.

"When I first got admitted to hospital, I was mentally deteriorating and physically as well, I was not eating, I was self-harming pretty much every day, I was not becoming safe at home and then I decided that I wanted to leave hospital so I got sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

"I think that’s what helped the most because people were around me 24/7 and whenever I was feeling like I needed to self-harm I could just instantly go to someone and they would either talk to me or do something with me to distract me.

"They always had some advice or knew what to say."

You can listen to an extended interview with Jess here...---------------------------------------------------------

• harmLESS