For some teens, emotional pain manifests as self-harm cutting, burning, hitting, biting, scratching or picking at their skin a deliberate, self-inflicted injury.
Unlike suicide, those who do it dont do it with the intention to die, but to cope with emotional pain or as a way of letting people know they are suffering.
A 2015 review of 16 studies in seven countries found roughly 18 of adolescents have self-harmed at least once, most starting at about the age of 13. Girls, they found, were more likely to do it than boys.
But two studies in South Africa show its more likely to happen here. A 2019 study in the South African Journal of Education found that more than half of the students between 13-24 that they surveyed self-harmed at least once, while a 2025 study found 1 in 4 students aged 12-18 self-harmed for at least five days in the past year.
Intodays newsletter,Tanya Pampalone tells us why teens turn to self-harm.Sign up for our newsletter today.
The tattoos on Zandile Simelanes arms tell a story that most people cant read. Hidden beneath the delicate blue ink of flowers and butterflies, small white scars rise, remnants of the time when cutting herself seemed like the only way to express how much she was hurting.
I didnt want to die, the now 31-year-old told Bhekisisas television programme, Health Beat, about her teenage self. I just needed someone to help me through the pain. A part of me was just screaming screaming internally to say, What is going on? I dont know what type of help I need, but help me.
