Self harm is a behaviour, not a disorder. There isn't a predictable relationship between the rate of self harm and the rate of underlying psychiatric pathology.

Self harm is a behaviour, not a disorder. There isn't a predictable relationship between the rate of self harm and the rate of underlying psychiatric pathology. We have reasonable evidence to suggest that self harm tends to be socially contagious, occurring in socially-connected clusters rather than consistently across the population; young people whose friends engage in self-harm are dramatically more likely to engage in self-harm. It might seem contradictory, but it is entirely plausible to argue that the internet is causing a self-harm epidemic rather than a mental illness epidemic. Obviously that would still be a serious problem, but it would lead us to very different conclusions and interventions. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.691438/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.6914...