h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

... or something like that.

No, don't break out the legwarmers.. but I am going to be on BBC Radio 1 this Sunday night (the 24th) speaking on self injury again.

They did a show focusing on this back in December, and I went down and took part and talked a bit.. and they're doing a follow up this weekend.

So if anyone wants to listen, you can do so online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/djs/sunday_surgery.shtml from 9-11pm UK time, or it's 97-99FM on the radio.

I'm actually looking forward to it

cool, so you get to live forever?
I'm sorry I missed it - how did it go?

Argh! I could've heard it?

How did it go?

I think it went pretty well. Busy show, lots of callers, and lots of emails.... they said they get more response talking about self harm than about any other subject they cover.

Hard though - trying to help people in pain, when you only get about 45 seconds to say stuff!

The BBC in general have got an awful lot of postings on this subject recently, not on h2g2 particularly, more on some of the teen message boards. Could you give us any advice on how we might approach postings from people who are self harming? We can't offer specific advice, we're not professional counsellors and it would be wrong of us to approach it in this way, but we'd like to be able to do *something* to help teenagers or other people who hurt themselves. You have a unique insight to this; I'd really appreciate your view on this.

Is it for instance best for us to talk to people in the forums about the problem that they're having? There it's all public, and that's maybe not the best way? Maybe we'd be best putting in a link to a self harm site and leaving it at that? Is there anything else we can do? We want to help, but this is something that is perhaps better dealt with in a real life environment? How might we help? We'd like to do the best thing, but it's very difficult to know what that is.

Your advice would be much appreciated. I'm talking about this with all of the BBC community teams in the BBC, and I'd really be interested in your views.

Thanks if you can help offer us any advice.

Hi Peta

Thanks for asking - it's always good when people start from a place of "let's find out what would be good" rather than thinking they know

I'd suggest a two-fold approach - if the person has asked a question in public, answering in public can be a good thing. A lot of what keeps self injury going is the shame and secrecy around it. Knowing that it's something that can be talked about, and people can reply to without feeling like it's bad or needs to be hidden can in itself be a huge help.

But yes - I think that sending people to a web board or email list may well be a good thing too. There's a bond and help in talking with other people going through this which is irreplaceable I think.

I set up my own SI list following the Radio 1 shows, it's currently at Yahoo, but there's a lot of dissatisfaction with the service there. I don't know what the BBC is able to do on hosting email lists, but I'd be more than happy to help with administering/moderating anything that you want to set up. (I run a SI web-board, the email list, and I'm the head admin of an online survivors community, so I have the credentials and know what I may be letting myself in for )

Anyway - if you want to contact me to talk about this further, I'm more than happy for you to do that. I'm assuming you have an email contact for me which I signed up with? Or else if you go to my self injury website, there's an address on there which will reach me. Plus the Sunday Surgery ppl have my email/mobile number, and I'm more than happy for them to pass that on to you.

Thanks again for doing stuff.

Kirsti

Hi Kirsti

Thanks very much for your response! I've talked to some of the other communities people in the BBC, they were really pleased to hear that you might be willing and able to help us. I'll send an email directly to your email address, I do have the one currently set in your preferences.

I'd really like to read your self-injury website too, do you have a link for that?

Many thanks, Peta.

Great, I'll look forward to getting that.

And my si website is http://www.self-injury.info

Feedback/comments very welcome.