Celebrities and Self-Harm

The star of N Dubz, Tulisa has revealed that in her teenage years she turned to self-harm.

Tulisa on stage

In the BBC 3 documentary following the current success of the band, Tulisa shared the struggles that she coped with in her teenage years.  She was a carer for her mother who was dealing with a mental illness.

Page from Tulisa's diary

She expresses how she desperately wanted to help but felt helpless.  As a thirteen year old she struggled to cope and used self-harm to minimise the feelings of stress.

Tulisa shared some pages of the diary she kept as a teenager.  One shows the smeared blood that she wiped onto the page after injury.  It says "This is my blood.  This is what life has done to me."

Tulisa is not the first celebrity to admit to using self-harm as a coping strategy.  Actress, Angelina Jolie has told interviewers that she self-injured because she was "trying to feel something".  She went on to say that "you get this romantic thing about blood and I really hurt myself."

Angelina Jolie

These celebrities show that those that we aspire to and look up to, are equally as human as ourselves.  It also makes it very clear that self-harm is not an act undertaken by those with mental illness in all cases.  There is no stereotype or group that self-harm is restricted to.  Anybody coping with a situation that is causing emotional pressure could rely on self-harm as a way of dealing with the problem.