Annette Baillie, a woman who was called neurotic and nutter for self injury, decided to write a book to raise awareness on her own condition.
Self- injury is a state in which people repeatedly injure themselves to gain emotional release. It becomes like an addiction and when the pain is just too much one yearns for that short time of ease.
And thirty-nine year old Baillie has been going through this psychiatric system since she was 19.
Annette Baillie, who is now working for the charity Self Injury Support (SIS) said,
I started to self harm because I was going through a lot of emotional pain which I found difficult to cope with but also to express to others this pain.
I wanted release from the emotional pain so much that I thought I would substitute it with physical pain.
One night in September 2004 Annette overdosed on prescribed and over-the-counter medication and ended up in the A&E department (Emergency Department).
Baillie coped up with the problem and a week later she was in the same A&E Department giving presentation about the impact of self harm to the nurses that had treated her.
This time the feedback from those nurses was positive. Seeing Annette sitting in front of them as an equal forced them to think about their attitudes and remembering her when she was in distress.
Annette was called psycho, nutter but she didn’t bothered about such attention seeking names and coped up with the problem. Self-injury left many scars on her body for which she don’t regret as they are her battle scars and that scars only kept her alive.
Annette also has been given a grant by Cumbria Community Foundation to write a book which will bring together a collection of personal stories, experiences, poems and art work. Annette and her son is also setting up a website about self-injury.
