People engaging in self-harm find support on Reddit. But is that community helping them?

A new study from the University of Georgia suggests people posting in Reddit’s r/selfharm community are likely seeking support for negative emotions.

While sharing traumatic events online can be cathartic, the researchers caution that subreddits can’t provide the same type of mental health help and support face-to-face interactions and professional help can.

“We don’t know the accuracy of the information that’s being shared in these communities about nonsuicidal self-injury,” said Amanda Giordano, lead author of the study and an associate professor in UGA’s Mary Frances Early College of Education. “A client engaging in self-harm may feel as though they have the support they need in their online community and, in turn, may not seek offline help.

“However, there’s evidence to suggest that talking to anonymous strangers online is less effective than seeking support from a trusted person offline.”

Redditors share negative experiences, ask self-harm and medical questions

The researchers analyzed a sample of 400 Reddit posts in a subreddit dedicated to the topic of self-harm. At the time, the Reddit forum contained 143,000 members and provided a window into the overall tone and attitude posters have toward self-injury.

The study found that the most common purpose for posting in the self-harm subreddit was to share a negative experience (35.5%), like a misunderstanding with a family member. About one in five posts sought answers to self-harm-related questions like how to hide scars. And 14% of posts included medical questions like how to clean and manage wounds.

More users framed self-harm as a problem rather than a solution. But the number of posts expressing an intention to stop engaging in self-harm was nearly equal to those expressing no intention to stop.

"[Posters] were engaging in self-harm as a way to stop bad feelings and feel better.” —Amanda Giordano, College of Education

“The majority of posts did not describe why the poster engaged in self-injury, but of those who did, the most common reason was for emotion regulation. They were engaging in self-harm as a way to stop bad feelings and feel better,” said Giordano.

These posts described engaging in self-harm as a response to distress from specific life events, including breaking up or falling out with family members, or as a response to strong negative emotions, such as depression, self-hatred, loneliness, low self-esteem, shame or anxiety.

The sample of posts in the subreddit revealed that the most common method of self-injury was cutting, with only 10% of posts referencing methods other than cutting, such as burning, scratching, head banging, punching and more.

Users may view self-injury as an addictive behavior

The study also found that addiction-related language, like “relapse” and “clean,” appeared in more than a quarter of the posts, indicating that a substantial number of users view self-harm as an addiction.

More than 42% of the posts from the study indicated that the poster was currently engaging in self-harm. The study found about one in five posts revealed the poster was no longer injuring themselves.

About 12 posts indicated the poster had never self-harmed but was curious about it, while 1% revealed it was the poster’s first time.

The researchers found a significant correlation between whether the poster viewed self-harm as a problem or a solution and that poster’s intention to stop the behavior.

Counselors and mental health professionals can help clients shift their perspective from thinking about self-harm as the solution to managing psychological pain to recognizing that self-injury doesn’t solve the issue causing their emotional distress and instead adds additional risk.

“Then the work would be around increasing their motivation to change and to find alternative, more adaptive ways of regulating their emotions outside of self-harm,” Giordano said.

Published by the International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, the study was co-authored by UGA’s J’haria Dallas, Lauren Hearn and In Kee Kim. Additional co-authors include Bradley McKibben and Donatella Luciani-Hill.