How Harming One's Self Lessens The Chance Of Serious Problems Such As Suicide?

While it is believed that depressed patients should be stopped from hurting themselves, experts suggest other to those who are not in immediate danger. A new approach is being delivered as an option to prevent one's mental state from becoming worse and this involves providing sterile razor blades and allowing them to hurt themselves.

Apparently, experts found that stopping depressed patients from hurting themselves is not working. Instead, they allow them to do so as this prevents sufferers from further hurting, developing blood poisoning, and even death.

Patrick Sullivan of the University of Manchester suggested that restricting could only lead to more severe problems as many of those who are depressed suffers from abuse of trauma and stopping them can only intensify their emotions. "This increases the risk that individuals will self-injure covertly, in more dangerous ways, or attempt suicide," he said. "In some cases this can be fatal. This occurs in spite of high levels of observation."

Sullivan's new approach is called "harm minimization" and it is widely used for those who are treated from substance misuse. Its goal is to avoid serious consequences by providing depressed patients another alternative which does not lead to death. However, Daily Mail Online reported that there were already critics arguing about its efficiency. Instead of reducing or stopping addictions, they imply that it could only send mixed messages.

But Sullivan firmly believes that depressed patients or those who are self-harmers, who are provided with sterile cutting educate them on how to harm "more safely" as it decreases death rates. On the other hand, Independent reported that Sophie Corlett, the Director of External Relations at Mind, said that such harm-reduction method is not a new idea. However, it is more important to focus on helping those who suffers by understanding and providing them treatments that would best work for them.