RES The Pain Rush When physical pain is the pleasure you seek Hugh MacDonald & Moss Whelan, OP Contributors Self-harm or self-injury involves cutting, burning, non- lethal overdosing, or otherwise inflicting physical damage on the self for the purposes of obtaining some form of gratification or release. Cases of self-injury are on the rise these days. More and more people are admitting to willfully harming them- selves in order to cope with today’s high-pressure world. People of all ages and both genders can be inclined to self-injure, but the practice is most popular among young women. High-profile stars like Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp are coming forwards with admissions of their own past battles with this behaviour. The Pain Rush is a short documentary that investigates the motivations, hazards, and benefits of this oft-over- looked habit. The Pain Rush consists primarily of talking heads expressing contrasting opinions on the subject of self- harm. The spectrum of interviewees includes active and recovering self-injurers, people from the streets, a propo- nent of self-mutilation, and an expert in recovery. The opening visual is a split screen of someone going through the routine of cutting and bandaging himself. The “cutter” talks about the experience, about why he does it, and what it feels like as the expressions of pain and pleasure flit across his face. Other self-harmers in various stages of recovery show their scars and express their points of view concerning the practice’ of self-mutilation. Interviews of people on the street get their reaction to the concepts of ritually and routinely inflicting physical damage on your body to cope with the realities of life. Proponents of self-harm believe that, if practiced cor- rectly, it is a great way to achieve peace and serenity in troubled times. Prime examples of this are people who choose to dangle from large steel hooks embedded in the skin. It is often considered to be a religious or mystical experience that facilitates the attainment of higher con- sciousness. The final subject is Mary Graham, one of two co- founders of S.A.RE. (Self Abuse Finally Ends) in Canada. Once a practitioner herself, Mary now draws from her experiences to help others who want to quit. In this culture of self-mutilation, where body parts— such as eyebrows, nipples, foreskins—are augmented, who is to say if it is wrong to harm yourself. Who is to say what “harm” is. There are religious beliefs that disavow the use of medicine in favor of prayer. “They shall not make bald- ness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the cor- ner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.” —Leviticus 21:5, cited by Bob Marley, and possibly leading to his death. In sports, athletes will continue to play through an injury. Football players and boxers will do themselves great damage. In war there seems to be an unending line up of young soldiers ready to-die for a cause. It has been theorized that when the body is injured, the brain releases natural opiates to offset the pain. How much of a qualitative difference is there, then, between someone who runs so far that their body is in sufficient distress and releases these opiates and someone who pur- posefully damages their body for the same “fix?” Why do we as a society praise the Olympic Athlete, who addictive- ly abuses their body as a spectacle, and shudder at the thought of a solitary person coping with life with a much gentler abuse? Why is there a line drawn between what is deemed acceptable (even sometimes “freakish” is deemed okay) and what is not. For example, body suspension causes pain and physical damage to skin, but is merely reviled. Self-injurers are often seen as “sick” but exhibit most of the same predilections. The Reasons Why People Self-Harm Many of the people who self-injure do so as a coping mechanism to deal with overwhelming emotions arising during the course of the day. When questioned as to why they do it, self-injurers commonly respond with reasons such as: opfeatures@gmail.com —to run away from feelings —to feel the pain on the outside rather than inside —to express anger towards self —to feel real —to get away from stress and responsibility Body Modification vs. Self Mutiliation One of the major differences between body modifica- tion and self-mutilation is the intent to display. Alterations such as piercings, tattoos, and even scarification and branding are done for aesthetic reasons, and the recipients of this work often proudly exhibit their artwork. Body modification by its very nature is an attention-seeking behaviour. Self-injurers, on the other hand, shy away from the limelight with the marks on their bodies. More often than not, they will choose a private setting for their activity and hide the results from others, indicating an internalized shame for their actions. However, self-harm in this form is not done as a form of punishment or to achieve feel- ings of atonement as religious self-flagellation does. If scars or wounds are ever seen or questioned, a host of flippant excuses and lies, such as “I had a fight with a cat,” ot “Don’t worry. Because of me they have a warning label now,” are used to deflect the attention. Common Myths Surrounding Self-Injury Those who self-harm are often accused of having underlying motivations driving their actions including sui- cide, having borderline personality disorder or some other mental illness, and trying to get attention or manipulate a situation in their favour. In reality, self-injury is a personal and usually private expression of emotion, not intended to incur life-threatening harm or bring attention to oneself and, while there is a psychological foundation to the muti- lation, self-injury is generally accepted as a behaviour that is learned as opposed to being seen as a medical condi- tion. Treatment for Self-Harmers Treatments for self-harm run the gamut from dialecti- cal behaviour therapy, or DBT, which focuses on positive reinforcement to effect a change in the mental state of the self-injurer, to electro-shock therapy. Some of the less conventional and less scientific methods include the closet reorganization and hitting pillows to deal with the over- flow of emotion. Others suggest less mutilating forms of pain inducement, such as snapping an elastic band on the wrist or squeezing ice-cubes, as a stepping-stone to recov- ery.