The Latest on Self-Injury

As parents, we are called to be diligent about monitoring the attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and health of our children and teens. One recent study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association reports on one type of behavior that we to be aware of, and which requires our intervention. The behavior is self-injury. Non-suicidal self-injury is the act of harming your own body on purpose, such as cutting or burning yourself as a way to cope with stress, sadness, emotional pain, and anger. The study reports that self-injury has been on the rise among children and adolescents, at about a three-point-five percent rate since two thousand. It is more prevalent among our girls, and self-injury has been reported in ten percent of our youth. Parents, if you discover that your child is engaged in self-injury, seek the help of a qualified and experienced Christian counselor. We want our kids to learn to run to Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, when life becomes overwhelming.