Self Harm affects roughly 1% of the population. There have been many studies carried out worldwide, but because of the discreetness of a lot of self harm episodes these studies can not portray true numbers as most studies only focus on patients that present for treatment, they don’t include the many episodes of self harm where no medical treatment is sought. A person self harms for many reasons but the underlying cause is usually to deal with painful emotions such as anger, loneliness, unhappiness, shame or guilt. These emotions may be related to abuse issues such as flashbacks or self hatred resulting in a wish to punish themselves. Studies have shown that young females are most likely to self harm but this does not mean that older people and men do not suffer with this.