Treatment For Self-Harm At Ohio Recovery Center

Self-harm involves cutting yourself, burning yourself, or otherwise inflicting pain on yourself as a coping mechanism for intense fear, anger, anxiety, or another difficult emotion. Although self-harm usually involves external injuries, it can also involve internal injuries or emotional pain through excessive substance use, high-risk sexual activity, and more.

Due to the health risks involved, including the tendency for untreated self-harm to escalate unknowingly, seeking treatment as soon as possible can help prevent you from experiencing serious injuries and worsening mental health. 

Short-term residential mental health treatment at Ohio Recovery Center can help you stabilize during a crisis or prevent a crisis from occurring. Our compassionate team of medical and clinical professionals understands what you’re going through and is ready to help, providing personalized, comprehensive treatment and 24/7 supervision and support.

Self-Harm Treatment At Ohio Recovery Center

Primary mental health treatment at our state-of-the-art facility in Van Wert can help you gain control of your life after experiencing self-harm or other mental health issues.

Our 55-acre campus in the peaceful countryside was designed with our clients’ full range of recovery needs in mind, including their comfort, safety, care, and holistic healing.

Our residential program lasts approximately 14 to 18 days, beginning with a full assessment provided by our psychiatric team to determine your treatment and support needs during your stay. We can provide a diagnosis if an underlying mental health condition, such as depression or borderline personality disorder, is influencing your behavior.

Treatment options include those recognized by leading researchers and mental health treatment providers as the most effective in treating self-harm, including cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy. Sessions may take place in individual and group settings.

Underlying mental health disorders often respond well to pharmacotherapy, which we offer as part of our medication management services. These services ensure that you’re taking the right medication and dosage to achieve the desired results.

Support groups at our facility help you connect with peers with similar experiences, challenges, and successes in recovery. Other holistic approaches include group meditation, yoga classes, family psychoeducation and counseling, and numerous wellness and social activities.  

Medication

Medication may be prescribed for underlying mental health disorders, which a psychiatrist can diagnose. For example, an antidepressant may reduce harmful urges in a person with depression.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy, also known as talk therapy, can help you learn, understand, and control how you deal with stressful situations and difficult emotions. Evidence-based forms of psychotherapy that may help with self-harm include cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy.

Other Treatment Options

Inpatient treatment, such as that provided at ORC or a psychiatric hospital, can help ensure your safety and assist you in achieving stability during a crisis. This more intensive level of care also provides a wide range of treatment options, including support in learning, adapting, and practicing healthy coping skills.

Learn About Self-Harm

Self-harm involves deliberate attempts to inflict pain on or injure yourself to cope with painful emotions. It is also called nonsuicidal self-injury, as people who self-harm often do so without the intention of taking their own life.

A person who self-harms may feel a sense of relief or catharsis following self-injury, but these positive feelings are soon replaced by guilt and shame and a return of painful emotions. This can worsen your mental health and well-being in the long-term.

Untreated self-harm can also result in unintended serious injuries, which is another reason why seeking help is so important.

Types Of Self-Harm

Self-harm looks different for different people and may involve a range of behaviors.

Examples of self-harming behaviors include:

• cutting the skin
• burning the skin
• hitting walls to the point of injury
• picking at wounds
• pulling out hair

These self-injurious behaviors are deliberate, or done with the intent of hurting yourself. Risky behaviors, such as excessive alcohol consumption, may also qualify as self-harm.

Diagnosis

Self-harm is not a mental illness but can be a sign of one. A mental health treatment program can provide psychotherapy and other evidence-based options to reduce your risk of self-harm in the future, while also diagnosing and treating any underlying mental health issues.

Signs Of Self-Harm

Family members and friends might see signs of self-harm in their loved one before that person has talked about their self-harming behaviors.

Signs of self-harm may include:

• wearing long sleeves or pants in warm weather (to cover self-injuries)
• talking about negative feelings or low self-esteem
• having poor impulse control
• experiencing frequent bruises and wounds
• having scars, wounds, or burns that occur in patterns

If you see these signs in someone close to you, talk to them about their mental health. You may be the caring person they feel comfortable confiding in.

Risk Factors

People with mental health issues and conditions such as bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders have a higher risk of self-harming behavior. Self-harming behavior can also increase your risk of suicide.

In 2020, there were about 187,000 emergency room visits for self-injury in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Adolescents and young adults in the U.S. may have a higher risk of self-harm compared to other demographics.

The number of emergency room visits may only include serious self-inflicted injuries, with the number of overall self-injuries being much higher.

Find Treatment At ORC Today

To learn more about short-term residential mental health treatment at Ohio Recovery Center, please contact us today.