NGO Receives Complaints Of The Aceh Student Phenomenon Injured Yourself

BANDA ACEH- The Public Organization (NGO) Flower Aceh stated that it began to accept complaints from students to do self-harms or injure themselves as a form of emotional outlet because they were not strong enough to face campus and family pressure.

"For this year, the self-harm case we are handling is a victim who injures himself as a form of emotional outlet. He feels that physical pain can divert his emotional pain," said Director of Flower Aceh, Riswati, in Banda Aceh, as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, December 11.

Self-harm can be defined as an act of intentionally injuring oneself, usually without the intention of ending life. This action, often used by someone to treat or distract from emotional pain, pressure, and feelings of discomfort that are difficult to express.

Riswati explained that in one of the cases accompanied, the victim felt unable to face questions or pressure from the family about her future. This, makes him depressed to the point of injuring himself to ease emotional burdens.

"Based on the victim's confession, the action was carried out after finding many questions such as questions or pressure from the family about his future, there were also because the thesis had not yet been completed because there were certain challenges from the lecturer," he said.

Flower Aceh noted, in victims of sexual harassment and violence, it turned out that the victim's emotional outlet was also by doing self-harm. This fact is known when accompanying the victim of counseling.

Meanwhile, UIN Faculty of Psychology Lecturer Ar-Raniry as well as Psychologist at the Consultant Psychodista, Iyulen Pebry Zuany, revealed various factors that could affect self-harm behavior, especially among students.

According to him, this phenomenon can start from internal factors including personality, negative self-concept, weak self-control, low spirituality, inappropriate problem-solving skills.

Then, a low durability to stress or stress, as well as a history of mental health such as anxiety.

He said, external factors also play a significant role in triggering this behavior. Such as because of the rules on campus, family problems, authoritarian parenting, economic problems, bullying or violence on campus, lack of support systems, to negative influence on social media.

"In fact, imitating or copying behavior from other people who do self-harms is also a trigger," he said.

Iyulen said that every individual who does self-harm needs to undergo further assessments to understand deeply the factors that cause this behavior in each individual.

"Every individual has a different background and cause. Therefore, further assessment is needed to determine the factors that cause self-harm behavior individually," he said.

He also emphasized the importance of various approaches to preventing self-harm behavior, ranging from preventive, promotive, and curative approaches.

In the preventive and promotive aspects, mental health activists need to provide psychoeducation about the importance of maintaining mental health and managing emotions and stress in the right way.

"Lecturers and campuses also need to be proactive in observing the mental health condition of students. In fact, if possible, the campus can carry out regular mental health tests or screenings," he said.

In addition, he also highlighted the important role of parents, family, friends, lecturers, and all academic community in supporting students' mental health. Starting from understanding student conditions, facilitating emotions, to helping them develop themselves in a positive direction, both mentally and skills.

"For students, it is important to be proactive in increasing their potential. It needs to involve yourself in positive activities, as well as training skills such as solving problems, assisting, and managing emotions," said Iyulen.