The Book Scars by Cheryl Rainfield

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Recommended: historical outooks on mental illness

Self-harming has always been a sensitive and harbored topic for the people worldwide. They see the concept of self-injury from text books, media, novels, and celebrities. Cheryl Rainfield, the author of the book Scars, has delivered a significant and strong message about self-wounding through the main character, Kendra, and her story. With the use of imagery and the alternation of Kendra’s past and present, Cheryl Rainfield has revealed the struggles that lead to Kendra’s way of living such life. Not only in fictional books, there are people in everyday life fighting to live by abusing themselves. Demi Lovato, an US-UK famous singer who is known for her strong, warm voice, an optimistic spirit and a bright smile that always appears on her face, is a victim of self-harm. Demi had eating disorder and cuts on her body as the evidence of all the hardship that happened to her. Even though she had finally found help and gotten over her fear, it is still a heart breaking surprise to everyone that knows and loves her. As stated above, self-harming is a sensitive subject that is defaulted as a wrong and crazy action. It does not matter how life goes or how worst things are, nothing would ever be bad enough for a person to hurt and harm themselves, because it is a sin. However, all people have is a misunderstanding, and such misconception has made people indifferent and the situation get worse for the victims.

Self-harm, or also known as attempted suicide, or parasuicide, is a way to physically express emotional distress. For people who do self-harm, it is a way to cope with their problem, to distract them from the emotional pain. In simple words, it is a quick temporary band-aid for their inner wounds. After hurting themselves, people wou...

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...called experienceproject.com is an online diary where people can anonymously share their stories either to get or give advice to others.

Self-harm is not a crazy, attention seeking, or shameful act. It only is a way of coping with stress and pressure in life that one has. To some people, it is a way to keep them living. They release their emotional pain by causing physical pain on their body. Kendra cuts to run away from her fear. Demi Lovato stopped eating and started cutting because she get judged on her appearance and weakness. However, self-harm is just a bandage to a wound that needs stitches. It may bring temporary relieve yet worse long term effects. Having wrong conceptions and making self-harm an embarrassing topic when discuss only push people in deeper pain. People deserve to feel better and they definitely can get there without hurting themselves.

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