Lifelines: Coping with self harm

RUSSELL is in his 30s. He has fame, popularity and wealth. He has also been plagued by self-doubt and, in his teens and 20s, admitted to self-harm. “I get fixated when I’m bleeding," he says. “When I cut myself, the drama of it calms me down."

Colin, too, has the world at his feet, but is “a hair puller-outer". At the age of 13, he pulled out the entire front section at his forehead, strand by strand. “I loved the sensation. Just right before it has left the follicle – that moment, right before it has left. I just love it."

Kelly, a celebrated athlete, was training for the Olympics in 2003 when she was repeatedly plagued by injuries. “I made one cut for every day that I had been injured," she says. “I even thought briefly, just for a moment, about pressing the scissors harder in my wrists." She was later diagnosed with clinical depression.

The traditional view of self-harm is that it affects teenage girls, and that they usually grow out of it. And while young people are certainly more likely to self-harm, it can affect people of all ages and backgrounds. Russell (Brand), Colin (Farrell) and Kelly (Holmes) are not the only people in the public eye to admit to cutting or harming themselves in some way.

Johnny Depp still bears scars on his forearm, evidence of where he has cut himself with a knife. Megan Fox has said she went through “a phase" of cutting herself because of what she called “self-loathing", while Shirley Manson, the Scottish-born singer of Garbage, was in the middle of a European tour with the band when she confessed to coming close to suffering a relapse. “I ran to my dressing room in a flood of tears. I hated myself all over again for not being thin enough or having a perfect body,” she said. “It hurt so much that suddenly cutting started to make sense again."

Defined as ‘self-poisoning or self-injury, irrespective of the apparent purpose of the act', self-harm can include cutting, burning, scalding, banging your head or some other body part against a wall, hair-pulling, biting and swallowing or inserting objects. And although much of it occurs in private, meaning the true extent can only be guessed at, the latest figures from Scotland indicate there were 12,741 acute hospital stays due to self-harm in 2009-10.

Artist Frank To started cutting himself as a response to a bullying campaign at school, and finally sought help for his problems after a failed suicide bid. “I was 15 and my hormones were all over the place," he says. “I was being picked on because I've always been a bit different. I was quite artistic and wasn't afraid to show it. Also, I was never great at PE, not fast, not strong, so that didn't help either."

The bullying, at a school in East Renfrewshire, was mainly verbal and psychological. “But you can only put on a thick skin for so long before it starts to affect you,” says To.

“I remember I was mainly using my father's razors. First of all, I started cutting my arms but eventually it started moving towards my body, up the rib cage – slashing and cutting. I still bear some of the scars on my arms. I didn't cut that deep but it was just a relief. When you're psychologically in pain, you want to get out of that mindset and the physical pain does that."

He received counselling, but more important, he says, is that he started to express himself through his art. “All the things I wanted to express came out through my drawings and paintings. That helped me turn the corner. The bullying has been a drive for me to keep pushing myself. There was a point when I was really suicidal. I keep thinking if I had gone through with it, I would never have known the potential of my life."

Tony McLaren, national coordinator at Breathing Space, the support line for those experiencing depression and anxiety, admits the perception of self-harm can miss some of those most at risk. “Traditionally it may be thought that it’s all women, but men can also choose to self-harm. It’s also seen as something that affects younger people but we know that many men and women who are older choose to self-harm as a way of expressing themselves.”

Neither is it necessarily a route to suicide, though it can be. “For many who have committed suicide, some will have self-harmed, if not all, but for many people who self-harm it’s their way of coping with a particularly traumatic period in their lives.”

If a loved one is worried someone close to them could be self-harming, he says to look out for them becoming withdrawn, quiet or not participating in the usual way. “And don’t be afraid to challenge that behaviour,” he says. “Ask them what’s wrong. You might think it will make people want to commit suicide but I think it’s the opposite: it will create an environment where people feel safe to speak to you.

“Some family members panic,” he adds, “and want to lock someone in a room and take all sharp implements away. That is futile because someone will always find a way of causing themselves harm. I would suggest to any family members that they keep the avenues for communication wide open. Be empathic. Hear what they have to say. Don’t tell them what to do. Be non-judgmental, caring and supportive. Don’t be angry – that will only make those feelings of self-loathing worse.”

For To, now approaching his 30th birthday and dealing with the recent death of both his beloved grandfather and two close friends, his creative work has taken him back to the very personal issue of self-harm. “I've chosen a model who has gone through the same experience, but her self-harm was anorexia. The work is three portraits of her staring defiantly at the audience to emphasise that she has overcome all obstacles. She also has this circle round her – a bit like a halo – which means coming full circle.

“It's nearly 12 years ago this all happened. In the Chinese calendar, it was in the Year of the Dragon that I started getting bullied and this year is the Year of the Dragon as well, so it's making me think about what I've achieved in the last 12 years."

• Glasgow Art Show, Thistle Glasgow, Cambridge Street, Glasgow, 23-25 March click here to visitwww.glasgowartshow.com

• Breathing Space 0800 838587 click here to visitwww.breathingspacescotland.co.uk