Behandling av selvskading — viktigheten av flere funksjonelle tilnærminger

Abstract

The prevalence of self-harm is increasing, has extensive damage potential and entails significant costs for individuals and society. Young people under the age of 13 report active self-harm. There are still few approaches that address self-injurious behavior directly, even though this is claimed to be necessary to achieve recovery. Understanding why people self-harm is an important part of being in a position to reduce both the frequency and severity of their behavior. It is therefore important that there are effective treatments that can address the functions of self-harm. A functional understanding is proposed, where one looks both at the reasons why the individual engages in self-harm, and what skills is lacking to solve problems in a more acceptable way. In this article, an approach based on a functional understanding of self-harm - Treatment of Self-Injurious
Behavior (T-SIB) is highlighted. The main aspects of the treatment will be introduced, and general principles for behavior change are discussed. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is also briefly mentioned in this context, as T-SIB is based on principles from DBT.