This is the rough draft of the speech that she sent me.
-Ok, I want you all to think about things that people are addicted to. *Pause* I’m sure many of you may think of things like drugs, sex, alcohol, gambling, or caffeine. But rarely do people think of self-injury. I’m sure most of you heard the very sad news about the freshman who committed suicide in Herget this past weekend. Now, I didn’t know him personally, but from what I heard and read about, Keller Zibilich was a guy that had everything going for him. So many people considered him to be their best friend, and people would have never expected him to have any inner problems. But that’s just it. So many people don’t know. So many people don’t realize that people struggle internally. So many people don’t realize that people struggle with self-injury. While we don’t know if Keller self-harmed, his death brings about the greater issue that we need to be more aware of how people are feeling internally, that just because someone has a smile on their face doesn’t mean that everything is okay.
-Self-injury, also known as self-harm, is the deliberate, repetitive, impulsive, harming of one’s self. This includes things like cutting, burning, or even excessive tattooing or piercing if it is done as a coping mechanism to deal with some kind of internal pain. Self-injury, like alcohol and drug abuse and eating disorders, is addictive, and is not something that is easy to stop.
-Now, a common misconception about self-injury is that people who self-harm are trying to kill themselves. This is not true. In most cases, self-harm is used as a coping mechanism, not a suicide attempt.
-Many people also tend to think that self-injurers do it for attention, but this isn’t the case either. Most people who self-harm try to draw as little attention as possible to their behavior by self-harming in private and by harming parts of the body that are not visible to others.
-Now, the reason why I became interested in self-harm is because I have a good friend who struggled with it for years, and no one knew. Like Keller, Christine had everything going for her in high school—she made good grades, she was super involved, was on student council exec, she has a gorgeous voice, and she had a good group of friends. But behind closed doors, she was very depressed, she had a low self-esteem, and she held herself to high, impossible standards, and she never felt good enough no matter how many things she did. It got to the point in her sophomore year where the stress of upholding her image and standards was so great that she turned to self-injury as a coping mechanism.
-It started as a way to motivate herself to study. She told me the first time she did it she was trying to study for a test, and she took a lighter to her arm and burned herself to keep concentration and to keep studying, and after that it slowly got more intense and things got worse and worse.
-But at our senior retreat, she told a close friend about her problem, and she knew that something had to change, and she couldn’t handle it anymore, and her friend told her she needed to get help. This was scary for Christine because she knew that her family would find out, and other people would find out, but she eventually got help.
-She didn’t really have the motivation to stop, though, because at that point she was so addicted that she didn’t want to let it go. Things didn’t really change until she was forcibly hospitalized, and she then saw where her life could go if she didn’t change things and saw how much it was hurting her friends and family, and this is when she decided she really wanted to work to end her addiction.
-It was not an easy task, but I’m very happy to say that today, Christine has been free from self-injury for almost 2 years now!
-And what she told me was that during her recovery process, Christine realized how many other people struggle with self-harm, yet no one has a clue. She actually told me that she found out that about seven other girls in my high school were self-injurers, as well, and I had no idea. It really makes you wonder—how many other people are suffering with this that we don’t know about?
-When Christine was in search of help herself, she looked online and found that there were not enough resources for people with this problem. It started with her saying, “I wish there was something,” and then she thought, “Why not start something?”
-So, as a former self-injurer, Christine formed a non-profit organization called Project C.A.S.S.I., which stands for Creative Alternatives for the Survivors of Self Injury. As a Music Therapy major at Loyola University, Christine has always been extremely passionate about music and has sung, played the guitar and written her own music for years, so she understands how much music therapy helps. Through her struggles, she realized that finding an alternate coping mechanism is the most important thing.
-Basically, Project C.A.S.S.I. can be broken down into 2 main parts: advocacy and therapy.
-As far as advocacy goes, one of Project C.A.S.S.I.’s goals is to spread awareness about self-injury throughout the community by talking at schools to teachers, counselors, and students and informing them of what to do when you realize that someone you know struggles with self-harm. Project C.A.S.S.I. representatives will also speak about understanding what self-harm is and what it is not.
-And then for the therapy aspect, another one of their goals is to provide resources for people who suffer from self-injury through music, art, creative writing, and dance therapy and to help those who struggle with self-injury by directly working with them to find other coping mechanisms to replace self-harm
-At Project C.A.S.S.I., self-injurers will be able to have therapy and a secondary support group/community where they can talk about their problem with people who understand, as well as licensed professionals. It would also be a support group for parents of self-injurers so that they can know what to do and what to say if their child has this problem.
-Still a very new organization, Project C.A.S.S.I. is currently in its early stages of advocacy and awareness based mostly on the Internet. They have a website, a Facebook page, and a blog filled with resources and places to ask questions and advice about self-injury. And they are currently in need of staff and looking for people to make up their Board of Directors.
-So what can we do about this?
-Well, first, I would love if all of you would go like the Project C.A.S.S.I. Facebook page! It’ll take a second for you to do! And tell others about it to spread awareness! Also, educate yourselves on self-injury and read up on the issue so that we can promote understanding! And most importantly, recognize that this is an issue. This is not something to be ignored.
-Overcoming self-injury is not easy, but it is possible, as long as people have the resources and support to help. But right now, resources are lacking, and how are self-injurers supposed to find support if no one recognizes the issue?
-If we do not address the issue and create more awareness about it, people will continue to do it without notice, and your friend or a family member could be one of those people suffering without you knowing it. We don’t want any more circumstances like Keller Zibilich on LSU’s campus. And not anywhere. So we can’t allow this problem to be overlooked or unheard. For Keller, it is too late. But we can help the other people out there who are suffering.
