Escape, flee, run away – effugio. Have you ever escaped your own mind? Have you battled obsessive thoughts? Or run away from very intense psychological pressure? Do you know what it is like to live in a world where everybody judges you because you cannot do all that?

Mental discomfort – everyone deals with in their own way. What so unbearable must happen in people’s lives that they choose self-harm as a way of escaping mental discomfort?

Self-destructive behaviour occurs most often in young people. We know that girls aged 13 to 17 are extremely prone to intentional physical self-harm. But they are not the only ones who get to solve their problems in this way, fostering self-loathing instead of self-love. Some people suffer from borderline personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder or their environment puts too much pressure on them. Others want to try it out of curiosity.

This work is based on a collection of authentic stories of people who have undergone or are undergoing some forms of conscious self-injury. It maps the causes, possible triggers and stressors provoking the feelings of intense sadness, loss of one’s own value, and the feelings of insufficiency, and inducing the urge to punish oneself or simply escape these thoughts and have an empty head for a while. Some of these people have a one-time experience, for some self-harm has become a ritual to which they resort every time they are confronted with the outside world, just to feel better.

What kind of experience do you get when you harm your own body? How much pain do you feel, if any? And what happens next?

It is important to realise that a person who self-harms wants to solve the problem. But does not know how. The only way to healing is to understand people, not to criticise them!