'I cut myself so I don't hurt others' Self harm in Moria

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‘I cut myself so that I don’t hurt others’

This is what the men of Moria said as they showed me their scars. I conducted this interview alone in a make shift room of 20 Iraqi and Syrian men. Some of the men had been trapped in the camp for as long as 2 years. No one knew I was in the camp. If I was known to the Greek military I would have been detained, the refugees were the only people aware of my presence in the camp. Despite popular beliefs from the Daily Mail (and my grandmother) I did not come into any danger whilst doing the interview or living in the refugee camp.

Self harm is rife in Moria - a prison like camp containing thousands of men losing touch with their identity. A sea of lost and desperate souls.

Almost every other man I spoke to had been self harming and the extent of the wounds they were inflicting on themselves was like nothing I’d ever seen before. With 1 psychologist for 7000 people no one was getting any psychological treatment. Valium and anti depressants were given out and used to pacify and curb the symptoms of depression and anxiety in the young men.

The self inflicted wounds that I saw and the experiences of the men I listened to were in alignment with studies and reports conducted in Lesbos and other Greek islands in 2017. Research conducted by HRW (Human Rights Watch), Save the Children and MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières) found rapidly increasing rates of anxiety, depression, PTSD, suicide attempts and self harm among refugees stuck on the Greek islands. The rapid increases have been observed since the EU Turkey deal was struck.

The deal allows Greece to detain asylum seekers and send them back to Turkey. Since 20 March 2016 all migrants arriving on Greek islands have been held there, under threat of deportation to Turkey, while their asylum applications are processed. This has led to a serious bottle neck of asylum cases which cannot be processed in any kind of adequate time frame. Legal issues surrounding the morality of sending refugees back to Turkey have slowed transfers further and left refugees stagnant in overcrowded camps for up to two years. The anxiety and hopelessness that arises from being trapped and facing the possibility of being sent back to somewhere you’ve probably spent your life savings to move on from explains the increases in mental health issues.

Self harm explained..

Self harm can be incredibly hard to understand. Why would anyone want to draw blood and leave permanent scars on their own skin? I studied Psychology at university and have a continued interest in the topic since so I will try my best to explain my understanding of it. The most common form of self harm is cutting the skin with a sharp object so I may use the word cutting rather than harming but bear in mind the method does vary. Self harm is a way to release extremely uncomfortable feelings. Be these feelings of anger and frustration or extreme anxiety and rumination, cutting or hurting yourself releases these emotions and leads to a more relaxed feeling. One way self harming does this is through distracting the individual from their current mindset. Harming ones self becomes an escapism from those feelings because it is such an intense and absorbing act the mind focuses on the cutting rather than the other emotions - which are far more traumatic for the individual than the act of cutting. It causes an attention shift when nothing else can. And it is here that we must show empathy and begin to imagine how bad that person feels that the cutting is a better option.

The second way that self harming relieves the individuals current mindset is through punishment and self hate. They may be self loathing through crippling insecurities, past traumatic experiences or because they are feeling suffocated with depression and anxiety which they cannot seem to fight. Nobody wants to feel depression or anxiety and sufferers are constantly in conflict and confusion as they attempt to fight these feelings. Self harm is a way to punish oneself and because the individual hates themselves this is satisfying.