The Current - Why are more young Canadians self-harming?

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

A new study shows the number of young Canadians treated for self-harm has more than doubled in the last 25 years. Montreal filmmaker Alex Anna talks about her own experience with self-harming and how it shaped how she saw herself as a teen.

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This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. The number of young Canadians who have been treated for self-harm has more than doubled in the last 25 years. Those findings come from new research published in the Journal of American Medical Association Pediatrics last week, looking at the behavior of more than 243 million young people from a dozen high-income countries, including Canada, the UK, and Australia. The research showed that the increase in self-harm is three times higher among women and girls, 24 years of age or younger, compared to boys of the same age. We're going to speak with a Canadian author of the study in a moment.

But first, I'm joined by Montreal filmmaker Alex Anna. Alex made a short animated documentary about their experience with self-harm in 2020. The film was called Scars. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Alex, good morning. Hi, good morning. I'm really glad to have you here talking about this. This is difficult stuff, and so I appreciate you being willing.

to speak about it. Can you go back to when you were 13 and you started this behavior? What was going on in your life at the time? I was starting to fall in depression. I think there was a lot of huge feelings that I had trouble dealing with. And now from my adult point of view, I know that self-forming came as a coping mechanism. for days when those feelings were too intense to handle.

But back then, I think it was linked to like huge feelings of rejection that I couldn't deal with. And I remember telling myself that I had to punish myself or not being good enough to be loved. You had to punish yourself. Yeah. Can I ask, and again, I think you've made the film about this. It's important for people to understand kind of what you were going through. Do you mind me asking what you were doing? to yourself?

Yes, it was mostly cutting my skin. I think it was a way to feel the pain outside of my body instead of suffering the pain of spiraling thoughts trapped inside of my body. Did you want people to notice that you were doing that? Or was that for yourself? No. It was a very secretive thing. I was really hiding it.

as best as I called. It was even, even like a game, I would say, like it was my secret. And it would keep me going through the days to have this hidden under my clothes, I think. What would it give you to do something like that? I mean, it hurts, obviously, if you're cutting yourself. And it's something that most people would try to flee from. But it was giving you something. What was it giving you?

I think there's like a sense of relief, of like my pain is not just inside, it's outside, and it stops the spiling. You know, I think a lot of people will, like, immediately link self-homing to, like, suicidal behaviors. And although, like, it is often linked to a state of depression, but it's not necessarily like an attempt to Angela. I think it's really, yeah, about expressing what you have inside and stopping your mind, really. As a teenager, how did that behavior shape how you saw yourself? I think it, you know, it's a time when you build your personality. And I think I really built my personality around that then, that I was this mysterious. dog, teenager that had all these secrets that I had to keep in.

Yeah, that really shaped me in that way. Did your parents know anything about this? No, they didn't. I did a good job, if I may say, of really hiding it. And I think I wish now that they would have known, you know, I think it's important to have a safe space, a space with no judgment and no shame, where I could have maybe gone to when I was feeling so intensely and so bad.

That's the kind of support that you would be looking for, if you were able to go back in time, that safe space, that judgment-free space is the kind of thing that you would have needed in that moment. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, I think it's like, it's no use telling a teenager to stop doing something. So I think it's important to, like, I would have loved to feel, have felt seen in my pain instead of maybe, you know, when adults intervened in that, I think I had felt like I was like failing them or like there was, yeah, there was a lot of shame around it. and I think it's so important to create safe spaces with no judgments around these questions. What was the thing that stopped you in doing this?

It lasted for many years, and I was lucky enough to go through hospitalization and then, you know, therapy and all the medical help that I could have. So I think that helped and creating healthier habits. Like, you know, now when I feel like most triggered or most emotionally drained, I have a lot of healthy tools like reaching out to a trespass, journaling, listening to music. But it's like a lifelong exercise, like a lifelong fight, you know. my mind is still kind of attracted to do that whenever I'm like, you know, things are too intense. It's like a coping mechanism that I will think about.

And then I know that I have better tools now. One of those tools, and this is a coping mechanism, is with a crayon, right? Yes. Well, it's, yeah, it's something that I have been told quite later in life, but I think it's so helpful. for using like a crayon to mark my skin instead of actually cutting myself. Yeah, I would recommend that, you know, of course, not for everybody, but the idea that I could still see my pain on my skin and still have, you know, go through this triggered moment and unregulated moment by marking my skin with like a red crayon. and once I was regulated enough, well, you know, I wouldn't have actually hurt myself. So I think that's a great tool.

We're going to talk more about this report that shows that the number of young people engaging in self-harm has more than doubled over the last 25 years. But just before I let you go, what would you say to yourself, your younger self now, having gone through what you've gone through and knowing what you know now? What would you say to that younger, Alex? I think I would have told them that they deserve better. They deserve to be seen and that there are people around that they can trust. And they deserve to be loved. It's hard for you to talk about this, but it really matters. Because as we've heard and as we're going to hear more about,

about in just a moment, there are a lot of people who are going through what you were going through back then. Alex, thank you very much for this. Thanks for having me. Alex Anna is a filmmaker from Montreal. Dr. Natasha Saunders is a senior associate scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute in Toronto, also a staff pediatrician at the hospital, and one of the authors of the study on self-harm published last week. Dr. Saunders, good morning. Good morning.

Your research shows, as I mentioned, that the rates of reported self-harm young people under the age of 24 have doubled in the last 25 years. And we just heard an example of what that can look like. But for people who don't know what that term means, what are we talking about here? What is what is what is what is self-harm? Yeah so we studied in this paper self-injury or self-harm and really it can have two main meanings, sometimes hard to disentangle, but one can be with intent, self-injury with intent to die. So a suicide attempt. And sometimes it can be non-suicidal self-injury. So suicidal attempt versus non-suicidal self-injury are the two main contributors to the study.

And this is a leading cause of emergency room visits for people under the age of 24. It is. It's one of the main reasons why we see young people in our emergency rooms. What is happening with those young people? As I mentioned, the data comes from a dozen high-income countries, including Australia, the UK, and Canada. Yeah, we looked across multiple countries, as you mentioned, in 42 different studies. And we looked at young people presenting to healthcare settings, largely emergency rooms, with self-injury. And again, that's both non-suicidal self-injury and suicide attempt. And every year we found that there was a three and a half percent increase from the year before in these visits.

We also looked at self-reported self-injury. So when we do surveys of large populations of young people to try and understand have they had self-injury or have they had a suicide attempt. And across 25 years, we found a 2.5% increase per year. So as you mentioned, this is more than a doubling over this 25-year study period. That increase was also three times higher among women and girls age 24 and under than men and boys, right? Yeah, so it's important to know that we found an increase in both young boys and girls, but that in young girls this increase was 3.6% per year, and in young boys it was 1.2% per year. So increases in both, but the rate of rise is happening.

So it's accelerating faster in young girls. What does that tell us, do you think? So this suggests that there's a long sustained trend and not just a short-term blip. And it really underscores the need for earlier and large-scale prevention-focused responses, not just crisis care. So this is a long-term sustained problem. One of the things that came out from the research in Australia is this issue of social contagion, the effect being stronger of that social contagion. people talking about it and then somebody perhaps being inspired by what they see somebody else doing

or they hear about somebody else doing, that that was higher particularly among young women and girls. What do we know about that? Why, what is the role of, I mean, social media is one thing, but social contagion. What is the role of that in the numbers that you're seeing? Yeah, so this particular study didn't look at causes for the increase. And we can't really point to one driver, but there's, broader literature and public discussion, including from Australia, as you mentioned, on factors related to the social environment and social media and screen time. And social contagion

is this idea that, you know, young people are hearing about other young people engaging in self-harm behaviors or suicide attempt. And it gets sometimes glorified or, you know, learning about different ways to release that pain that they're feeling. And, And it spirals. And for young girls in particular who, you know, spent a lot of time on screens and social media, it may be exacerbated in that context. Again, this study didn't look at that. But others have explored this. And certainly it seems to be a potential contributor to our findings. You've said, these are your words. Our kids are not doing well. And if we don't put together a plan to stop this. trajectory, we're in real trouble. What does real trouble mean to you?

What are you most concerned about here? Well, I think, you know, we're not seeing a slowdown in these rates, and there's nothing that we're doing at the, you know, policy health system, a family or school system level that is showing any signs of being able to stop this. And this is showing that there's young people and a whole generation. that are increasingly experiencing distress and not necessarily having the coping mechanisms or supports to manage the emotions in a healthy way. And self-injury is a marker of longer-term health issues.

So there's some evidence to suggest that young people who self-injure before the age of 20 have an 11-to-18-year shortened life expectancy. Wow. And not just from suicide, but from multiple other health causes. So it's really a marker of poor health, of poor coping, and inadequate supports for young people. So then just finally, what needs to be part of that plan to stop this trajectory? What are the interventions that need to be put in place such that young people who are struggling don't feel that they need to hurt themselves? So I think there's multiple different avenues that need to work together. So it needs to be a

multisectoral approach. So from a policy or government standpoint, we need to treat self-injury like its own public health priority. So suicide prevention is important, but self-injury needs to be distinct from that. And prevention activities need to be funded accordingly. We need to find timely access to mental health supports before young people engage in self-harm. So not just emergency room capacity, which is also important, but really how do we prevent things from happening and escalating? And how do we support young people when in the health system very quickly after they do present a care so that they don't represent or have ongoing distress? I think we need to invest in school-based mental health support where we

We have teams that can see children quickly and get them coordinated, and coordinate some support in the community. I think we really need to improve some of the continuity of care that we have for patients and young people so that families aren't left to navigate this mental health system on their own. And I think, you know, from a school standpoint, I think we really need to, you know, to invest in supports in the school setting where, you know, staff have clear protocols for what to do, given the magnitude of the issue and how it's increasing. You know, we can't rely on an ad hoc piecemeal system for young people to present to care.

And educators need to have formal training and protocols and how to manage kids when they present in need of help. And to spot this, because I have to let you go, but as we just heard, one of the drivers of this is that there's stigma and shame, but it's also a secretive thing. Yeah, for sure. And I think from a family standpoint, you know, parents, it's a really hard thing for parents to go through to watch their child in distress and potentially self-harm. And so for families and parents, I mean, really not waiting until it's too late. and when you're concerned to seek care early, don't wait for proof before it gets to be severe, but engage in conversations and difficult conversations with children. Dr. Saunders, good to speak with you about this.

Thank you very much. Thank you for having me, that. Dr. Natasha Saunders is a senior associate scientist at the Sick Kids Hospital Research Institute. This ascent isn't for everyone. You need grit to climb this high this often. You've got to be an underdog that always overdelivers. You've got to be 6,500 hospital staff, 1,000 doctors, all doing so much with so little.

You've got to be Scarborough. Defined by our uphill battle and always striving towards new heights. And you can help us keep climbing. Donate at lovescarbro.cairbo.ca. This message comes from Viking, committed to exploring the world in comfort. journey through the heart of Europe on a Viking longship with thoughtful service, destination-focused dining, and cultural enrichment, on board, and on shore.

With a variety of voyages and sailing dates to choose from, now is the time to explore Europe's waterways. Learn more at viking.com. Caroline Bazanko has been a registered psychologist for the last 15 years working with young people in Calgary for much longer than that as well. And that's where we have reached her. Caroline, good morning to you. Good morning.

What do we know about why young people are doing this? Why they're hurting themselves? Well, there's no one single cause, and we can't ever know for sure. So, you know, it's hard to spend a lot of time figuring out, why, why, why. And there is a difference between contributing triggers right before the behavior and the function or the purpose. So I think we kind of need to separate those things. When we look at contributing factors, of course, there's genetics, there's physical vulnerabilities, you know, if there's chronic illness or fatigue, you know, those types of things can increase risk. Teenage brains are going through so many changes and we just know that they're more prone to stress, prone to those big overwhelming emotions.

And a lot of times they don't know how to manage it. So really when we're looking at a major contributing factor and function, it's that kids are learning that self-injury is a way to cope. However problematic it is from everybody else's perspective, right, it gives them that relief that they don't know how to manage otherwise. The brain itself has a hard time understanding and processing big emotions, especially in the teenage brain. And so physical pain, it brings relief because it's predictable. The brain can make sense of that feeling. And so predictability in the brain, right, that creates calm in the nervous system. Some kids will say it's distracting, right?

It's helping release from other emotional pressures that are going on. Some kids, though, they feel the opposite. They feel numb. They don't feel anything. They feel empty. And so self-injury gives them a sort of physical jolt that helps them, you know, feel real, feel alive. Do you see this in your own practice in terms of, we talked about the stats, but the stats are numbers. These are people that we're talking about.

Yeah. And so kids will talk about the external stressors, right? Looking at, well, teenagers, too, comes with all the transitions with life. And so we see all of these other things. I've got my parents on my back. And I've got to study and I've got to get grades and I'm doing my sports. And so they're feeling all of these stressors. But they will say it really is that relief, right?

It's the only thing that helps them manage that in tone. intense sort of emotional pressure that they're feeling. And so those are a lot of the things that the kids will say themselves, right? It's that immediate relief. A lot, though, will say that they don't know. And we know that if they don't have the words, it comes out behaviorally. And so they're not sure. But when we look at what's going on, it's just difficulties regulating emotions a lot of the time. What about being vulnerable? We raise that issue of social contagion and social media, being vulnerable to the messages that they might be getting from others. What do we know about the role that social media, for example, might play in influencing

people to do this? Yeah, it's such a major risk factor. It can make it all worse. I wish we could just blow up social media, to be quite honest. Even just taking away the likes would make such a big difference. They're so sensitive, just the way we understand the teenage. And when I'm talking about teenagers, adolescence really goes up, you know, into the mid-20s, even to 30s for some, if there's no neurodevelopmental delays, but they're so sensitive,

so vulnerable to that content. And so we do see a lot of contagion and normalization, even glamorizing, you know, what's happening. They might see this as a viable option, right? They might be getting ideas of how to do it, or they're being retrigured by their own, you know, emotional overwhelm. It's so easy, too, to get caught in algorithms. They could just, you know, watch a sad video and then all of the sudden it the algorithms are feeding all of this content that leads to self-harm. And so they're just being bombarded with all of these messages. There's also a lot of social reinforcement happening. They're getting peer validation, that feeling like they belong because a lot of kids don't feel like they belong anywhere.

And so now they've got this community. There's negative social comparison to where they need to maybe maintain their brand as some of, you know, my teenagers will will tell me. And they're comparing how many people have likes, right? And that just fuels feelings of inadequacy. And unfortunately, there's even competitiveness to it. And we see that the more severe the injury, the more attention those posts get. And that acts as that social reinforcement. So there's, I mean, that's just the surface. There's so many other things that can go on with social media. We just have a couple of minutes left.

If you're a parent and you're listening to this, I think you're terrified because you don't know. And social media companies say they're trying to deal with us. Instagram says it's going to notify parents if their teenagers are searching for things related to suicide or self-harm. But you don't know what your kids are doing online for many parents. And you don't know what they're doing perhaps in their own room. So just briefly, I guess finally, what would you say to parents about this,

about where this should leave them? Because the stats are alarming, but the story is what you're saying perhaps is even more alarming. Yeah, I mean, part of, we've got to look at what's making our kids emotionally dysregulated and unable to cope in the first place.

And I would say there's a lot of monitoring. They're being supervised all of the time, even being tracked, right? And so we need to give our kids more experiences. They're not doing the things that teenagers did 20 years ago. Right? They're not living life. And so we need to give them more opportunities. I focus, we find so much time we're focusing on deregulating or de-escalating emotions, but we need to up-escalate, right, some emotions in terms of bringing more joy and novelty and interest in life. But if we are worried about our kids, we have to be low-key. We have to be really dispassionate and very neutral. The minute we're like, oh my gosh, right? We have these big hysterical. reactions, it's going to make things worse, even just flinching, right, can make kids feel bad.

And so we really want to make sure if we do find out that our kids might be hurting themselves, we want to sit next to them rather than directly facing them just to take off some of that pressure, be calm, respectful, curious, right? Really understanding what's going on for them. We want to validate their experience, right? They really need to feel heard. That's so important. we're not agreeing with the behavior, but we're validating the function, right? That they're feeling really overwhelmed. They've got a lot on their plate. And then, you know, what is this doing for you?

How is it helping? It's really important that we understand the function, you know, what it's serving for them, what it's giving them, like that relief. Because if we just tell them to stop or we put in those ultimatums, I mean, they're just going to go underground, right? They're going to become even more secretive. So we want to make sure that they do feel. safe sharing and we're here as a team. We're going to work together as a team. And then, of course,

you know, looking at screens, I would put some pretty firm boundaries around those, right? Not being able to have it at night in your bedroom, for example, maybe co-viewing content on social media, putting some blockers around there, just lots of boundaries around that, because that's where we see a big piece of what's happening for our kids that's problematic. This is really helpful, I think, for parents to think about, and for just all of us to think about in terms of, as we said, the kids are struggling and they're looking for some assistance. And this is perhaps a little bit of what parents can do in that situation. We're going to talk more about this. In the meantime, Carolyn, thank you very much.

Thanks for having you. Caroline Bazanko is a registered psychologist in Calgary. You've been listening to the current podcast. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you soon. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca. slash podcasts.