发展焦虑意味着你有一个应对问题。虽然焦虑可能会在化学水平上影响你（通过大脑中传递情绪的神经递质），但控制焦虑的能力主要取决于你自己的心理应对能力。在很多方面，应对就像一块肌肉，当它变得太弱时，你的焦虑就会开始占据主导地位。

当它发生时，大多数人倾向于寻找他们可以采取的行动来对抗他们的焦虑。一些人可能开始锻炼，而另一些人可能转向酒精；而一些人可能转向自残和自残。在这篇文章中，我们将讨论后一组，并解释为什么会发生自我伤害，为什么它不仅仅是一种身体不健康的应对策略。

Healthy and Unhealthy Coping Strategies

记住，应对不是一种“策略”。应对是你为了帮助你克服焦虑而增强的一种心理肌肉。帮助你控制焦虑的活动，除了少数例外，似乎只是加强你的心理应对肌肉的工具。

When we talk about unhealthy strategies, we're not just talking about these strategies being physically unhealthy. For example, we know that alcohol abuse is extremely bad for your body, potentially even deadly, but that's not what makes it "unhealthy" when it comes to coping. What makes it unhealthy is that in addition to being physically unhealthy, it's also psychologically unhealthy.

当你面对酒精时，你并不能提高你的心理应对能力。相反，你的身体只是开始依赖酒精，而你在没有酒精的情况下实际的应对能力实际上会变得更弱。这就是为什么酗酒者，吸毒者，甚至是戒掉毒瘾的赌博成瘾者，有时在压力大的时候又会重蹈覆辙的原因之一——他们的大脑基本上忘记了如何以其他方式应对。

自残与应对

Which brings us to self-harm. Self-harm is an unhealthy coping strategy. By self-harm, we're talking about things like cutting (mutilation involving a razor to the skin), burning the skin on purpose, scratching to create blood or pain, or otherwise hurting the body.

Some people turn to self-mutilation as a way to cope with anxiety. Scientists are not entirely clear why this behavior occurs, but it likely has to do with the following:

• Pain Masking Pain身体上的疼痛往往优先于精神上的疼痛，因此当一个人感到压力、抑郁等时，制造身体上的疼痛似乎足以让他们暂时摆脱心理健康问题。
• Control许多自残的人觉得自己正在失去控制。在某种程度上，自我伤害是一种不健康的方式，通过控制自己对身体的影响来显示控制。有些人发现，当他们感到压力使他们无法控制自己时，这也会让他们留在现实中，从而让他们重新控制自己。
• Attention那些自残的人不一定是寻求关注的人，因为并非所有的自残都是被关注的欲望。自残可能是一种呼救，也可能是一种了解自己的方式，如果别人知道会引起更多的关注。
• 内啡肽The body releases pain killers to help people deal with the pain, known as endorphins. Endorphins are also involved in the experience of many "relaxed" feelings within the brain. Thus by hurting themselves, they are semi-unintentionally releasing chemicals in their brain that actually make them feel better.

不是每个有焦虑的人都会自残，但有些人如果焦虑得不到治疗，可能会自残。

Why Self-Harm is Dangerous

为什么自残是一个危险的问题，这一点应该是显而易见的。从严格的身体水平来看，自我伤害会引起疼痛，使你处于感染的危险之中，会导致不可挽回的疤痕，并可能对你的健康造成长期损害。伤害被称为伤害是有原因的，它是危险的。许多人把自己置于重病和长期残疾的危险之中，并长期自残。

此外，许多人发现，自残越多，他们得到的救济就越少，导致他们需要采取进一步的措施，直到他们更加伤害自己。这可能会失控，导致严重危险，甚至死亡。

But these are not the only reasons that self-harm is dangerous. Self-harm is also dangerous because it doesn't actually do what it appears to provide, or there are very easy and effective alternatives:

• 内啡肽Perhaps the greatest reason that self-harm is a poor coping strategy is because there is a considerably easier way to release endorphins: go running. Jogging for 30 minutes creates a "high" of endorphins that is so strong, that it is actually more effective than most anxiety medications. Self-harm actually releases fewer endorphins and provides less relief than simply going for a run every day.
• Lost CopingIn a way, self-harm works like a drug. You hurt yourself, you experience pain, and you wait for your natural painkillers to take over. Like drugs, self-harm reduces your ability to cope with stress without harming yourself. Your ability to cope with anxiety with something other than self-harm starts to weaken. Eventually you "need" to hurt yourself more in order to get some relief, because your mind knows no other way of coping - even with lesser stressors.
• 引起焦虑也许最大的问题是，自残为什么是一个糟糕的焦虑应对策略，是因为它实际上导致了焦虑。焦虑是一种累积状态。任何在你生活中引起焦虑的事情都会使你的整体焦虑更严重。自我伤害会在你伤害时引起焦虑（对疼痛的预期），伤害后会引起焦虑（治愈），任何疤痕都会导致焦虑，而且会因为羞愧而导致焦虑。

一种导致更多焦虑的应对策略，最终导致你更多地将其作为一种应对策略，这是一种糟糕的应对策略。即使没有造成身体风险，这也是一种糟糕的应对策略，当你把身体风险加进去，很容易明白为什么自我伤害在多方面是危险的。

事实上，人们把自残作为一种应对工具来“治愈”的方法之一就是远离它。自残本身会引起如此多的焦虑和依赖，以至于有些人仅仅因为停止自残足够长的时间就可以治愈这种行为。这就说明了自我伤害是多么的需要更多的自我伤害，以及为什么这是一种非常不健康的控制焦虑的策略。

How to Cope With Anxiety Instead of Self-Mutilation

If you self-harm or have even remotely considered it, you need to replace it with something else - something that can actually work, and something that will make your ability to cope with anxiety better.

毫不奇怪，一些用来应对焦虑的治疗方法也被用来让太忙的人免受自残。以下亚博彩票网址是一些应对工具的例子，这些工具可以增强你天生的应对能力，从而让你更好地应对压力：

• ExerciseOf course, exercise is priority number one, and there is no way around it - especially if you are also cutting or hurting yourself. Exercise releases the very same endorphins, but unlike self-harm, it doesn't cause any negative psychological damage and may actually improve things like self-confidence and self-worth. Exercise may not be easy at first, but over time you should find very powerful relief.
• Journal WritingCoping is helpful when you have activities that you can do when you feel stressed. Many people find that writing out your thoughts in a journal - anxious thoughts or not - provides relief. In a way, that relief comes because your mind becomes more solution focused, and doesn't feel it needs to remember the issues that stress you out knowing that they are all in one place.
• 保持忙碌——简单的动作尽可能保持忙碌的一个d using your brain can provide relief from both anxiety and self-harm. A forgotten part of coping is simply the ability to get a break from anxiety and move on from your life. When you're very busy, and your schedule is planned out all day (with healthy activities of course, preferably spending time with emotionally healthy people), your mind can't focus on your anxieties, which gives it a chance to recover behind the scenes.

正如你所见，这些都是很容易融入你的生活的东西，它们是众所周知的和有效的工具来应对你的焦虑。

如果你是自残的，不要让任何事情发生。马上找人谈谈。看看是否有医生，心理学家，学校辅导员，或其他个人，你可以交谈，因为自我伤害是自我维持，并可能失控。这不是你应该放弃的机会，你现在所做的伤害不幸地会困扰你的余生。