Grounding for Understanding Self-Injury as Addiction or (Bad) Habit
Grounding for Understanding Self-Injury as Addiction or (Bad) Habit
This chapter focuses on self-injurious behavior (SIB), which is a trademark of many patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. As such, the discussion of SIB here is limited within the confines of this personality disorder and mainly addresses what is referred to as superficial self-injury. The addiction construct has been utilized in popular culture as well as in theology and medicine, leading to a distinction between substance addiction and behavioral addiction. It has become increasingly common to depict SIB as a type of addiction, and it should be made clear that this chapter is not concerned with coming up with an unequivocal manner of classification for SIB or with studying its etiology. The goal of the chapter is instead to provide an alternative, more patient-generated understanding of SIB in lieu of the culturally prevalent understanding.
Keywords: self-injurious behavior, SIB, borderline personality disorder, superficial self-injury, addiction construct, substance addiction, behavioral addiction, patient-generated understanding
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