What is Depression?
Depression is different from feeling down or sad for a little while. Everyone has moments or even days when something bothers them. However, depression is when this feeling lasts for two weeks or more and impacts your ability to function at school, at home, at work or with your friends. Other symptoms of depression include:

• Sadness that won’t go away
• Boredom
• Feeling anxious
• Loss of interest in your usual hobbies and activities
• Sleeping too much or too little
• Losing weight or gaining weight
• Feeling hopeless
• Unexplained outbursts of yelling or crying
• Reckless or risky behavior, like alcohol and drug abuse or having lots of sexual partners
• Anger or irritability
• Thoughts of suicide

Is self-harm or self-injury the same thing as suicide?
Self-harm also known as “cutting,” is when you deliberately inflict physical harm on yourself, usually in secret. Some examples are cutting, burning, biting or hitting your body, pulling out your hair or scratching and picking at sores on your skin.

Usually people who use self-harm are not trying to kill themselves. Deliberate self-harm is most often used to cope with difficult or painful feelings. Sometimes though, you can die from self-harm, unintentionally or by accident.

Why do people deliberately harm themselves?
People who deliberately harm themselves have often had tough experiences or relationships in their lives. They may feel that harming themselves makes some of their pain go away for a little while. Unfortunately, cutting and other forms of self-harm are risky and unhealthy and do not solve the problem or really get rid of the pain. Some people who harm themselves may have:

• Been bullied or discriminated against
• Lost someone close to them, such as a parent, sibling or friend
• Broken up with a boyfriend or girlfriend
• Been physically or sexually abused
• Experienced a serious illness or disability that affects the way you feel about yourself
• Experienced problems with family, school or peers

Links to other information about your concerns
Bullying
LGBTQ Issues
Alcohol and Drugs
Relationship Violence