We asked Elena Lavrova, a psychologist and senior researcher at the Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education, to tell us what auto-aggression is and why it is so important to be able to express your anger correctly.
What we call self-destruction in everyday life, psychologists and psychiatrists call auto-aggression. It is worth noting that this concept itself is very ambiguous. If we talk about the general definition, then auto-aggression is understood as the harm caused by the subject to himself in the physical, psychological or social sphere. This description fits both self-mutilation (self-mutilation, such as shallow cuts on the legs or arms), and socially approved forms of auto-aggression, such as workaholism and extreme sports. From the point of view of psychoanalysis, unconscious self-injury - a behavior in which a person always bumps into something and is bruised - is also an example of auto-aggressive behavior. But here it is important to understand the reason for such behavior and to distinguish between behavioral and psychological levels, for example, workaholism does not always indicate auto-aggression. After all, if a person is engaged in some important project and the deadlines are running out, then it is quite natural that he stays up late and works on weekends.
Most often, auto-aggression is based on feelings such as anger and dislike for oneself. In fact, auto-aggression is the coincidence of the subject and object of expressing anger. Thus, self-hatred is a trigger for self-destructive behavior. This can manifest itself both in alcohol abuse and in eating disorders and forced sleep deprivation. It is not at all necessary that a person at such moments thinks: “I am bad, and I must punish myself” - no, this happens on an unconscious level. Most often, parents of adolescents turn to psychologists with problems of auto-aggressive behavior. For example, young men may deliberately provoke fights or engage in extreme leisure activities. In children preschool age You can also notice the behavioral symptoms of auto-aggression, but at the psychological level they will not always be dictated by self-hatred. There are examples when a child hits on purpose, because he knows that when it hurts me, my mother takes pity on me.
There is nothing terrible in dissatisfaction with ourselves, on the contrary, it is absolutely natural - after all, if we did something wrong, we can scold ourselves, we can feel guilty. Problems begin at the moment when auto-aggression becomes a habitual way of responding to the whole range of frustrating situations - situations in which the subject cannot achieve the desired goal. If this happens, it's time to sound the alarm.
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Where does normal end and pathology begin?
It is important to always be aware that the norm itself is, in principle, a relative and contractual thing. For example, now there is an active discussion about the inclusion of overtraining syndrome in the International Classification of Diseases, but, you see, today a person who trains a lot is more likely to be approved by society than to be blamed. He is praised for his willpower, he is told what a fine fellow he is. And only the person himself (or his relatives) at some point understands that sport has blocked all other areas of life - you stopped meeting friends because you didn’t want to miss training or you started condemning people who don’t go to the gym. Thus, the more situations a particular style of behavior involves and the more interference it creates for the subject and others, the more abnormal such behavior becomes. But, on the other hand, we cannot accuse a professional athlete of abusing physical activity, as this is his job, and it requires him to always be in perfect shape. Or, for example, there are situations when a person is diligently involved in sports, because this is the only area in which he can control everything - in other areas of life something is wrong, but here he succeeds. Such behavior is also not a manifestation of auto-aggression.
In psychoanalysis, auto-aggression is considered a defense mechanism of the psyche - when a person for some reason cannot direct an aggressive impulse to an external object, because of which it arose, he redirects it to himself. There are three main reasons for this "turn against yourself":
- The object is personally significant: the fear of losing someone's love stops one from expressing anger.
- Such an expression of anger is condemned by society: most often it is typical for teenagers - I cannot express aggression, since everyone will know about it and I will be condemned.
- Object unavailable: the subject feels anger towards a person who is not around - for example, the father left the family, and the child is worried about this, but cannot direct his anger towards the father, since he is not there.
Often, self-destructive behavior is preceded by a serious trauma in the past, for example, according to statistics, children and adolescents who have experienced sexual or physical abuse are prone to self-aggression. This is partly due to the fact that violence changes the physical response to pain perception and provokes various shifts in the psyche. If this happened to me, then I'm bad, then I deserve it. But violence is not the only reason for redirecting anger inward. Statements like “it would be better if you didn’t exist at all” or “here is Sasha from the first entrance such and such, and you are neither” also give rise to self-hatred in the child, and the parental call “You did wrong - come up with your own punishment” in principle is a direct instruction to the manifestation of auto-aggression. At the same time, it seems to parents that they are humane and give the child the right to choose. A very dangerous choice.
According to Yevgeny Ilyin, Doctor of Psychology, professor and specialist in general and differential psychophysiology, women are more likely to exhibit autoaggression, while men tend to be heteroaggressive (aggression directed outward). This is largely due to the fact that girls in childhood receive a ban on the expression of anger and aggression. According to the In tests, autoaggression correlates positively with femininity in women and negatively with masculinity in men. Men are more prone to manifestations of heteroaggression.
If we talk about the connection of auto-aggressive behavior with the characteristics of the nervous system, then in melancholic people, as people who are sensitive, including to the feelings of others, auto-aggression will manifest itself more often than in choleric people, who, on the contrary, tend to endure everything outside. Naturally, adolescents are more often subject to self-destructive behavior - adolescence, in principle, is a conflict stage in a person's life. This is the age when we rebel against our parents and separate from them as a result. Excessive authoritarianism of parents at this stage is a direct path to auto-aggression.
Why is it important to express your anger?
In the auto-aggression itself, as in many other symptoms, a positive function was initially laid down. For example, a child does not want to spoil relations with his parents, so he subconsciously directs all his anger towards himself. And Karl Menninger, a famous American psychiatrist, believed that, for example, self-injury is the concentration of a murderous impulse on one part of the body in order to avoid suicide. Only the hand is cut, but the whole person is alive. But, one way or another, with pronounced self-destructive behavior, you need to contact a specialist. Depending on how far a person has gone in manifestations of auto-aggression, he is far from always able to track his condition on his own and stop.
The correct and easiest way to try to express your anger verbally is to acknowledge the fact that you are angry with yourself and find ways to vent that anger. According to psychoanalytic concepts, sublimation is considered the most productive mechanism - aggressive energy must be redirected into creativity. You can try to draw your anger on paper, and then tear it up. And hitting dishes and punching bags doesn't work - Carol Tavris, a social psychologist who specializes in the study of anger, analyzed many scientific research devoted to this problem, concluded that the free release of anger does not free a person, but, on the contrary, increases anger and forms a bad habit.
It is important to learn to perceive your anger - to be aware of it, to “pull out” and direct the inner beam of consciousness to it. I'm really angry right now, and I need to sit alone and breathe. Find what works for you - dancing, singing, shouting. But, I repeat, if it came to self-injury, then you need to go to a psychiatrist as soon as possible (often auto-aggression accompanies other mental illnesses, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia). Plus, if there is some serious reason for self-destructive behavior, for example, an unprocessed trauma “buried” in the depths of the subconscious, a person is unlikely to be able to “pull it out” on his own and work with it safely.
Depending on the degree of the disease, there can be both pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods of treatment. As part of strategic psychotherapy, when working with auto-aggression, the technique of imposed symptom is often used.
Autoaggression and heteroaggression are not mutually exclusive phenomena that are opposed to each other. Anger, no matter where it is directed, has the right to be expressed. But the question is different - how adequate or inadequate is the chosen way of expressing it to the situation. When a person in a fit of anger beats another person, smashes everything around - this is an inadequate expression of heteroaggression. Thus, it is not heteroaggression that is opposed to autoaggression, but various ways of responding at the behavioral level. On a psychological level, dissatisfaction with oneself, anger directed at oneself (or at others), is opposed to acceptance and love. There are no bad emotions and feelings - the anger of a child has the same right to exist as the anger of an adult. And the suppression of this anger can easily lead to a lock-in or a splash of aggression on weaker people.
Personal self-destruction is ideas, emotions and behavioral patterns of a destructive nature directed at oneself. The self-destructive pattern can manifest itself in a variety of formats, including physical self-harm that qualifies as suicide attempts, chemical addictions, eating disorders; some cases of choosing extreme sports, risky sexual behavior, choosing work of increased danger; dangerous behavior, active self-blame and self-deprecation.
In psychology, when talking about self-destruction, the term “auto-aggression” (auto-destruction) is used - auto- and aggression mean turning against oneself, in English - “turning against the self”. In the classification of psychological protection, it refers to secondary defenses, when a negative affect is redirected from an external object to oneself, due to the undesirability of manifestation outside.
When analyzing the ratio of species scales according to valid methods, self-destruction does not correlate with other scales, which distinguishes the phenomenon from other features of aggression in personality psychology. Among personality types, it is most characteristic of depressive and masochistic personalities according to the McWilliams classification.
The desire for self-destruction is divided into various classifications:
- by area of influence - bodily, mental, social;
- according to the characteristics of the structure - ideation (idea, thoughts);
- affective (emotional experiences), behavioral;
- direct, mediated, transgressive (transitional), extended;
- conscious, unconscious;
- according to the dynamics - acute, chronic (sluggish);
- transient, relapse, persistent (persistent, permanent), transforming, stable, progressive, regressing, etc.
The variety of classifications is explained by the ambiguity and expansion of the manifestation of the phenomenon.
Causes of self-destruction of personality
A popular opinion is that in a normal mental state, a person is not prone to self-destruction, since it contradicts one of the basic ones. Feelings of pain and serve as realizations, but there is no single concept of self-preservation in the scientific community. I. Pavlov believed that all reflexes carry the function of self-preservation. I. Mechnikov, within the framework of the theory of orthobiosis, assumed that the instinct of self-preservation with age is replaced by the instinct of death. K. Lorenz, an ethologist who studied the phenomenon of aggression, was also skeptical about self-preservation as a separate biological concept.
Freud had a somewhat different view, who believed that man is a sufficiently highly organized being so that the basis of his behavior is based on the same foundation as other animals. He developed the theory of Sabina Spielrein about the desire of a living organism to return (restore) the primary (inorganic, inanimate) state - the drive to death. It determines the tendency to aggression and self-destruction, while the drive to life is determined by self-preservation.
Creative (libido) and destructive (mortido) are fundamental urges, they are fundamental to the mental world. The energy of mortido was called destrudo, the magnitude and activity of which was explained by analysts for almost all destructive in human behavior, as well as external aggressive behavior. According to a more modern follower of Freud, M. Klein, the danger to the body provoked by the death instinct causes a feeling of anxiety, reinforcing his explanation of reducing nervous tension by self-destruction. The idea was well received by Russian psychoanalysts of the beginning of the century; they were perceived quite positively by A. R. Luria and L. S. Vygotsky, who wrote the preface to the Russian edition of Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle.
Theoretical models focusing on the external conditionality of the emergence of self-destruction distinguish the following necessary components: a frustrated personality that denies introjects and suppresses directed aggression, a psycho-traumatic situation and the destruction of expectations that increase tension. The Russian psychologist A. Rean, in a study of adolescent aggression, proposed the concept of “auto-aggressive personality”. In the structure of the self-destructive personality pattern, subblocks are distinguished:
- characterological - self-destruction positively correlates with, demonstrativeness, neuroticism,;
- self-evaluative - self-destruction reduces and vice versa; interactive - the connection of self-destruction with the inability to and interpersonal interactions;
- socio-perceptual - self-destruction is the higher, the more positively others are perceived in relation to themselves.
How to stop the program of human self-destruction?
The tendency to self-destruction is a fairly common pattern of behavior in individuals requiring psychological help. Since such behavior tends to progress, and in the presence of patterns associated with bodily self-destruction or including thoughts of suicidal or potentially suicidal acts, carries an immediate risk to life. The sooner a person seeks help, the more likely he will be to restore balance. The environment should also remember that ignoring self-destructive behavior in loved one or avoiding specialized care, focusing only on self-treatment, may, in the short or long term, cost him his life. The common stereotype that "real suicidal people don't declare intent" is rooted in hiding or ignoring episodic or systematic self-destructive behavior. Studies by suicidologists show that a detailed analysis of only 10% of completed suicides in the behavior, words, records of the suicide did not find early indications of suicidal intent and the desire for self-destruction.
At this stage, the most popular in the therapy of self-destruction are cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and rational-emotional-behavioral therapy (REBT or rational therapy). A deeper, but sometimes longer, elaboration is provided by psychodynamic directions, including psychoanalysis.
How to save yourself from self-destruction? From self-destruction to personality one has to overcome a difficult and sometimes long stage. Although direct bodily self-harm is most often noticed, any form can be fatal, as an aggravation or a banal fatal accident can occur at any moment. To help a person go from self-destruction to self-development, psychologists develop various algorithms that allow a systematic approach to the problem.
Self-destruction is the path to freedom
After the publication, and later the film adaptation, of the cult novel Fight Club by Chuck Pallanick, the quote “Self-improvement is masturbation. Self-destruction is what really matters” and the concept of self-development through destruction. And although in some practices some elements of such behavior are really used, it should not be ignored that destructive behavior occurs under the control of experienced gurus, includes a deep philosophical concept, and the author himself endowed a hero with a personality disorder with a similar philosophy. In the prevailing cases, such behavior can lead to delayed fatal consequences, and requires therapeutic intervention.
Quite popular in the therapy of self-destructive behavior is the ABC model developed by the cognitive therapist A. Ellis.
"A" (eng. activating events) - activators, events and situations that actualize the pattern of behavior,
"B" (English beliefs) - beliefs, beliefs, attitudes, interpretation of the event,
"C" (English consequences) - consequences, result, realized pattern, in this case, self-destructive.
In the variant of superficial obstruction, C needs to be corrected directly by A. At a more effective level, realize the irrational B leading to C, and replace it with rational ones. In general, it is about the development of flexibility. "A", "B" and "C" are connected and cannot exist in isolation.
Art therapy includes projective techniques identifying and changing the cause of the pattern. Successful integrative therapy of art techniques and psychodynamic study. Working through is a mechanism, a tool in psychoanalytic therapy. The elaboration is updated by the analyst and consists in the analysand's awareness of the repressed sequence of mental processes leading to self-destruction and further reconstruction.
Working through is updated during the session and continues after it on the conscious and unconscious levels, as a gradual restructuring of intrapsychic links. Here is a difference from the idea of acting out a symptom (), and from the idea (instant insight and solution through awareness). The pattern of self-destruction is allowed to disappear quickly, but there is a tendency for the self-destructive behavior to return, in a modified or previous form, therefore “understand the problem = solve” is not effective in the long run. It is this problem that is technically solved with the help of elaboration. For the most effective therapy, you should consult a specialist.
Autoaggression- this is a manifestation of destructive activity, which is directed by a person directly at himself. Destructive activity refers to suicide attempts, injury, alcoholism, drug addiction, self-accusation, degrading statements about oneself. The reasons for auto-aggressive behavior, the reversal of the vector of aggression inward, are mainly social.
When it is not possible to express one's own anger to the immediate object of experience, aggression is redirected either to an accessible or safe other object, or to oneself. This impossibility of presenting one's own aggression directly may be due to the inaccessibility of the object, the condemnation of aggressive actions by surrounding people, or in cases where the person himself depends on the object of the aggression that has arisen. This transfer occurs most often unconsciously and is emotionally more beneficial than realizing the fact of the presence of unpleasant, destructive feelings and entering into an open confrontation.
Causes of auto-aggression
Auto-aggression is a fairly broad concept in psychology, covering both children's and pathopsychological branches, respectively, and there are a number of reasons for its occurrence. Most often, auto-aggression manifests itself in individuals prone to and prone to demonstrative behavior. In many studies, there is a connection between the occurrence of auto-aggression and masochistic personality accentuation of character.
Auto-aggression in adults can develop with an unstable and sensitive psyche, increased emotionality, a tendency to, as well as in people with a high ability to empathize. Auto-aggression is inherent in people who are not very sociable, tend to idealize others and devalue themselves.
External factors contributing to the emergence of auto-aggression are psycho-traumatic situations, disruption of the process, physical and psychological abuse. So, the development of auto-aggression from childhood is facilitated by a turbulent situation in the family, frequent quarrels of parents, frequent physical and psychological punishment of the child, humiliation and ridicule, ignoring needs and lack of manifestations of love, tenderness, care.
In children, auto-aggression arises from blaming themselves for the problems and bad mood of adults, as a method of manipulating and getting the attention they want.
Auto-aggression in adults can appear against the background of getting into a religious community, where the implementation of the required norms of behavior can be extremely difficult or, when faced with internal protest, cause a lot of tension.
There are also exclusively biological causes of auto-aggression. In these cases, acts of auto-aggression can be provoked by psychiatric diseases, the presence of auditory and visual, overvalued ideas. In this case, only urgent hospitalization will help, since a person who is under the influence of “voices” is more likely to listen to them, and not to others. There is a desire for and among seriously ill people, and this is due to the desire to save oneself and loved ones from suffering.
The reasons why auto-aggression in adults is increasingly common in society is its peculiar advantage. With its help, you can release intolerable feelings or, on the contrary, make yourself feel at least something, distract yourself from an intolerable situation or feel control over it, while remaining with the same mask of friendliness, calmness and well-being on your face.
Signs of auto-aggression
Auto-aggression can occur both consciously and unconsciously, so a person on his own is far from always able to explain what he is doing and what are the reasons for his behavior. Recognizing auto-aggression in some cases can be quite problematic, since a person, while maintaining critical thinking, has a desire to hide this aspect of his life. When observing loved ones, frequent wounds and scars, a tendency to wear clothes that cover the body as much as possible (in any weather), the appearance of blood on clothes, more frequent "accidental" traumatic situations, the desire for solitude, an increase in the use of psychoactive substances (alcohol, drugs , cigarettes).
What is autoaggression? Direct signs of auto-aggression, when you need to sound the alarm, include: suicidal attempts, refusal to eat, self-infliction of bodily harm (cuts, burns, beatings). In these critical manifestations of auto-aggression, you should immediately seek help from professionals (psychiatrists, psychotherapists or psychologists) in order to prevent a negative outcome of the situation. Moreover, the initiator of a visit to a doctor or a call to a psychiatric team should be someone who noticed what is happening, since the person himself in this state cannot critically assess the situation and will not seek help.
In society, there are relatively supported forms of auto-aggression, which are quite common as a way to relieve stress. They can be expressed in the use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco in stressful situations; attachment to extreme sports and leisure, choosing a dangerous field of activity; minor destructive behavioral reactions (tearing off crusts from healing wounds, biting nails and lips to blood, etc.). With these manifestations, it is also possible to prevent autoaggression, and not its direct treatment.
Types of auto-aggression
There are several categories into which auto-aggressive behavior is divided. For example, the degree of awareness is conscious self-harm (cutting, planning suicide) and unconscious (victim behavior, the pursuit of dangerous activities). It is also possible to single out the immediacy of actions (self-inflicted harm) and indirect (provoking situations that create danger).
Both psychological and physical manifestations differ. So auto-aggression in psychology is autistic, victim and fanatical behavior, negative verbal statements about oneself. Physical manifestations include self-mutilation, suicide attempts, extreme sports, food and chemical addictions. Further in more detail about each of the types of auto-aggression.
Autistic behavior manifests itself both independently and can be classified as a disease that begins to manifest itself even in childhood. Characterized by isolation, originality and limited interests, the desire for repetitive behavior, most often accompanied by a developmental delay.
Victim behavior or victim behavior. It manifests itself as a person provoking situations that are unsafe for his life, mental state, health. Or behavior that increases the likelihood of a person getting into a situation of violence.
Fanatic behavior is inherent in both sports fans, fans of stars, and people who are members of religious sects. Strict adherence to dogmas, intolerance to other ideas that are at odds with the ideas of the organization in which the person participates, lead to an increase in internal tension, which will seek a way out. And since direct external in religious sects, for example, is most often prohibited, the manifestation finds a way out in auto-aggression.
Food addiction has two opposite forms - this and (weight loss, up to refusal of food and excessive overeating). Food addiction takes its roots either in or in an effort to drown out unbearable emotions. Chemical dependence includes the use of drugs, alcohol, tobacco.
Can be true and demonstrative. In the case of demonstrative, the main thing is not harming oneself, but others, the desire to draw attention to oneself. True suicidal behavior is usually deliberate, a person preparing for this act, hiding his intentions from others in order to prevent salvation.
Extreme sports, drunk driving and dangerous tracks, bad habits- all these are manifestations of a hidden, “extended in time” suicide.
Treatment of autoaggression
Auto-aggression in adults and children can be treated at any stage, but the priority for moving along the path of recovery is the awareness of what is happening as a problem that goes beyond the norm.
The initial step in working with auto-aggressive behavior is to identify the reasons due to which auto-aggression appeared or developed in order to find new, less traumatic ways to overcome unbearable experiences in the future. For independent work, reorientation of behavior and replacement of destructive actions with others may be suitable.
With unbearable pain and other strong emotions, it can help to express your feelings in text or drawing, the sheet can then be torn or burned.
Massage, bathing or showering, contact with pets, and listening to soothing music help well when seeking to calm down.
If you feel inner emptiness and desire to feel at least something, you can take a cold shower, eat something with a bright taste (spicy, sour, tart), chat with strangers.
When overflowing, you can go in for sports, beat pillows, tear paper, scream.
In turn, the help of relatives and friends of a person with autoaggression is very important. People around you can help by showing their care, providing support, showing love. It is important to stay close with difficult emotions, showing that you accept a person with his problems, that he can open up to you. Praise more often and criticize less, avoid humiliating and insulting statements.
If independent work is impossible or ineffective, then it is necessary to seek treatment from doctors. Treatment is likely to require a combination psychological work, which will consist of training and individual sessions, as well as taking medications (tranquilizers and antidepressants, the dosages and combinations of which are selected individually by the doctor in each case).
Compulsory treatment of this type of auto-aggression is also prescribed in the presence of a threat to human life and health, with suicidal behavior, bodily harm, and refusal to eat.
Prevention of auto-aggression is relevant from childhood, when it is necessary to exclude as much as possible the causes that contribute to the emergence of destructive tendencies.
Auto-aggression is one of the types of aggressive behavior in which a person cannot vent his aggression on the object that caused this feeling, due to its inaccessibility, great strength, or simply invulnerability. In this case, aggression begins to manifest itself in relation to itself. Therefore, this type of mental disorder in psychoanalysis is considered as a protective reaction of the human psyche to the environment.
A person begins to engage in frank self-flagellation, humiliation of himself, inflicting both moral and physical suffering on himself. In severe cases, auto-aggression is manifested by causing physical damage to oneself. For example, with such a mental disorder as trichotillomania, a person pulls out his hair. Particularly severe forms may result in a suicide attempt (suicide). Subject to this form of mental disorder are people suffering from depressive and neurotic conditions.
In ordinary life, auto-aggressive behavior may not be immediately recognized, a person may not cause outright harm to himself, but at the same time, the disorder can manifest itself in a hobby for life-threatening sports, in self-destruction - drunkenness, drug addiction, provocative and risky sexual behavior.
In simple terms, auto-aggression in adults can manifest itself during the next attack and be characterized by conscious or unconscious actions aimed at destroying one's body. Feeling anger, strong resentment or hatred, a person can afford to drink a large amount of alcohol, smoke more than one pack of cigarettes in a row, during a quarrel with a partner in a fit of aggression, hit a wall with his fist and be seriously injured.
If the psyche of a person is vulnerable, and nervous system is highly excitable, the consequences can be much sadder. Many people among their acquaintances or relatives have met people who tend to get behind the wheel in a fit of strong anger after a quarrel with a partner and rush along the road without even looking at the oncoming lane, or try to commit suicide, believing that this way the conflict will be resolved once and for all . More often, such suicidal behavior is demonstrative, and manifests itself against the background of a hysterical nervous breakdown.
Summing up, we can name the main manifestations of auto-aggressive behavior. This is:
These actions are manifested at the time of stressful situations and are unconsciously used by the psyche to protect against external stimuli.
Varieties of violation
Autoaggression, or rather its manifestations, are divided into several varieties. Types of auto-aggression are classified according to the degree of awareness of a person's own actions - a tendency to suicide and its careful planning is recognized by a person, while driving a car in extreme conditions or playing obviously dangerous sports is defined as an unconscious variety of auto-aggressive behavior. Also, immediacy of actions (when a person inflicts physical harm on himself on his own) and indirect action (creating situations where injury is possible) differ from each other.
The types of auto-aggression in children and adolescents are different from its manifestations in adults.
In children younger age there is a disorder called autism, manifested in withdrawn behavior, silence, the desire for monotonous, repetitive actions, developmental delay. In adolescents, this form of auto-aggressive behavior is manifested by limited interests, difficulties in communication and finding close friends.
For adults, the following types of auto-aggression are more typical:
It should be clarified that there is also a form of “extended” suicide, when a person can get behind the wheel while intoxicated for many years or drive on dangerous highways, one way or another exposing himself to real danger and death, which can happen one day.
Causes
Having dealt with what auto-aggression is, you need to understand why this disorder occurs and where to look for the roots of the problem. In most cases, the causes of auto-aggression are hidden in difficult childhood. Attacks of aggression directed at oneself are found in adults who experienced childhood abuse by their parents, who experienced frequent physical punishment, who underwent constant psychological pressure from their father or mother.
Usually such pressure is manifested by constant comparisons with other children, and the comparison is not in favor of their own child. If a child constantly hears from his mother the phrases "would you be as smart as ...", "neighborly Kolya again received a medal, but you are not capable of anything ...", then this leads to distant consequences and deviations in full-fledged psychological development. In adult life, these psychological wounds can manifest as neurotic and depressive states, often leading to auto-aggressive behavior.
The causes of auto-aggressive behavior in children and adolescents can be different:
If there are no signs of auto-aggressive behavior yet, it means that the upbringing is going on correctly, and parents pay sufficient attention to the problems of growing up and developing their child. And the following factors can be confidently called the key to the future occurrence of the disorder:
Treatment
Such a disorder in adults can be corrected only with full awareness of the problem and the desire to solve it. There are many ways to get rid of auto-aggression on your own. Basically, these are tips for venting outward anger on foreign objects. For example, you can write all the reasons for your aggression on paper, and then tear it up. You can beat a pillow or a punching bag, knock on pots, scream into a blanket. To learn how to relax without alcohol and drugs, you can take relaxing baths during an attack of aggression, listen to calm, beautiful music, watch good, kind movies.
Aggression is well expressed on paper, so you can draw more often, as well as release anger verbally - sing, read poetry, tell stories. Communication with strangers in social networks not focusing on your problems is also one way to treat auto-aggressive behavior in adults.
If the problem of conduct disorder has touched the child, it is impossible to forbid him to release his anger outward. You need to learn to understand it, support it, express your emotions. Frequent manifestations of affection, increased self-esteem due to the praise of the baby, heart-to-heart talk will help the child find spiritual harmony and get rid of the manifestations of the disorder.
If such simple measures do not help to get rid of auto-aggressive behavior, doctors - psychologists and psychotherapists will come to the rescue. Going to a doctor is not a shameful act and recognition of oneself as a sick, inferior person. This is the right step for those who care about their health and the well-being of their loved ones.
The best measure would be the prevention of auto-aggression, taken from early childhood, in order to avoid the appearance of destructive tendencies in the child's behavior.