Walk the Dust

A psychological model is used to explain complex ideas in a simpler way. These models are made up of concepts (“concepts that represent the inner workings of a behavior, thouught, idea or feeling—things that can’t really be seen.”) Psychological models help us to understand “their subject as a whole.”There are several models used by psychologists to better understand the “nature and cycle” of self-injury. Each of these models have some validity but use your own “experiences to judge the accuracy of each model as it applies to you.”

The Addiction Model - The first model of self-injury has many similarities to models used to explain various addictions, such as substance use, eating disorders, etc.

Negative Emotions - Negative emotions usually begin the self-injury cycle. These negative feelings may come from a large number of sources and tend to fall into three categories.

Anger, hostility, and frustration

Alienation, isolation, disconnection, rejection, and loneliness

Sadness, depression, and simply feeling bad

Most often these feelings are experienced as overwhelming, uncontrollable, or fragmenting (“a feeling of being scattered or not whole”). These uncontrollable feelings make you want to find a way to feel better fast. Event thought the lasting effects of self-injury may be “extremely detrimental in the long term,” SI does provide a short-term yet effective way of overcoming these strong emotions.

Tension - Once you decide to hurt yourself you may change to a emotional state of tension and anxiety. So, even though you may have started out as feeling angry and frustrated, depressed, etc.; now you are dealing with feelings of tension and anxiety. Part of the tension stems from the anticipation of hurting yourself. Once you start thinking of hurting yourself, you begin to anticipate the actual act of self-injury.
“Because you SI may be either desired or undesired, or both, your anticipation may contain elements of excitement and/or anxiety, either of which will make you feel tension.” The feeling excitement before self-injury comes from the fact that SI can produce feelings of euphoria and relief. So, while anticipating hurting yourself you may feel a type of stress called eustress, which is “stress or tension coming from a positively viewed source.” However, you may also feel fear or anxiety when you anticipate an act of self-injury. You may feel that you need to hurt yourself, but you don’t want to. Or you may feel anxious about the danger of hurting yourself or because you feel you are unable to control your emotions like most other people. You might even see self-injury as a last resort, an attempt “to retain a sense of sanity.”

Dissociation - This is the next stage of the Self-Injury cycle. Dissociation comes directly from the high tension level produced by strong and overwhelming emotions. Dissociation serves dual purposes: to act as a coping mechanism, and to allow you to withstand intense emotional and physical pain, reduce your experience of tension and masks the physical pain caused by self-injury.

The Self-Injury Act - During this stage you are engaging in self-injury. Cutting, hitting, burning, bruising, pulling hair, excessive scratching, etc. are the common self-injury behaviors. At this stage dissociation is usually at its hightest, masking the experience of physical pain. Also, at this time endorphins are being released, helping dissociation in limiting how much pain you can feel. It is the combination of endorphins and dissociation that allows some people to hurt themselves with a surprising lack of physical discomfort.

Positive Effects - Immediately after the act of self-injury comes a sense of relief. The endorphins that were released during self-injury are still present, allowing you to feel a sense of euphoria (joy and calmness) and well-being. Also, the act of SI has allowed you to change your negative feelings into something physical and controllable. “By performing and then nurturing the self-injury, you have turned a negative psychological state into something manageable, regaining control over your emotional and physical states. It is the effectiveness of this coping mechanism that allows SI to provide such a strong and necessary sense of temporary relief and freedom from psychological distress.”

Negative Effects - One of the problems with self-injury as a coping mechanism is that its effects are only temporary. Once the endorphins dissipate and the consequences of hurting yourself become clear, you may experience feelings of guilt, shame, and remorse. Also, the negative feelings you experienced before hurting yourself may come back at this point or shortly therafter. So, as a result of self-injury, you may feel even worse than you did before hurting yourself. And these negative emotions can be the beginnings of another act of self-injury.

The Operant Conditioning Model - The second psychological model used to explain self-injury is operant conditioning. “Operant conditioning states that what happens following a behavior (the consequences) influences the likelihood of that behavior reoccuring. According to this theory behaviors followed by positive outcomes (reinforcers) will be strengthened, wheras behaviors followed by negative outcomes (punishments). This theory of learning and behavior is called Thorndike’s Law of Effect.”
Basically this says that the consequences of an act of self-injury will affect the chances that you will hurt yourself in the future. For example, if you hurt yourself and it made you feel better, then there are better chances that you would hurt yourself again. On the other hand, if you hurt yourself and it hurt a lot more than you expected, you will less likely hurt yourself again in the future.

Reinforcement - Reinforcement is a psychological term that basically means the same thing as reward. When you experience reinforcement, you recieve a reward or pleasurable consequence for a behavior. Reinforcement makes the chances of you repeating a behavior much more likely.
Reinforcers can be both positive and negative, but they are always rewards or pleasurable consequences. In this case positive and negative does not necessarily mean good and bad, the definitions are slightly different. Positive reinforcement “means to provide a consequence that is desired.” Self-Injury produces several positive reinforcers: the feeling of euphoria produced by the endorphins, self-nurturing of wounds, physical expression of feelings. Because of the many rewards and positive consequences your SI behavior is likely to be strengthened.

The second type of consequence that strengthens behavior is Negative reinforcers. The definition for negative, in talking about operant conditioning, is the removal of something. This is the exact opposite or receiving something or a positive reward. Negative reinforcement occurs when something that is not wanted is taken away or lessened, thus strengthening the behavior that takes away or lessens the unwanted thing. For, example, if your SI behavior removes or lessens negative feelings you are experiencing, then the chances of you using that behavior again are more likely. SI often removes negative feelings, or ends or lessens dissociative states that are not wanted. Because self-injury does so well at doing this, these are part of negative reinforcement.

All of these reinforcements, whether positive or negative, help strengthen the chances the self-injury will occur again.

Punishment - When a behavior causes a consequence that you don’t like, then it’s called a punishment. A punishment, the exact opposite of a reinforcement, lessens the chances of a behavior reoccuring. But, like reinforcement, it can be both positive and negative. Positive punishment is when something unwanted presented. Negative punishment is when something you enjoy or want is taken away from you.
Both positive and negative punishments lessen the chances that you will repeat the behavior. Self-Injury has positive and negative punishments. Forms of it’s positive punishments are unwanted scars or wounds and feelings of shame, regret, etc. Forms of its negative punishments are slightly different and are not as obvious. For example: you may wear long sleeves or pants to hide your scars, so SI is keeping you from going swimming or wearing more comfortable clothes. SI may also “reduce the honesty, pride, and connection with others you experience. Because these desired things are removed or reduced by your self-injurious activities, those activities are exerting a negatively punishing consequence.