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Self-destructive behavior is any behavior that is harmful or potentially harmful towards the person who engages in the behavior.

Self-destructive behaviors are considered to be on a continuum, with one extreme end of the scale being suicide.^[1] Self-destructive actions may be deliberate, born of impulse, or developed as a habit. The term however tends to be applied toward self-destruction that either is fatal, or is potentially habit-forming or addictive and thus potentially fatal. It is also applied to the potential at a communal or global level for the entire human race to destroy itself through the technological choices made by society and their possible consequences.^[2]

Individual self-destructive behavior is often associated with neurodevelopmental or mental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,^[3] borderline personality disorder^[4] or schizophrenia.^[5]^[6]

Origin

Self-destructive behavior was first studied in 1895 by Sigmund Freud and Sándor Ferenczi when they first recognized how traumatic experiences affected the development of children. Freud and Ferenczi noticed that children who were raised in an unhealthy environment were more often the ones to act out and take part in self-destructive behavior.

Freud concluded that self-destructive behavior is influenced by one's ego or superego and aggression. Depending on how strongly influenced one is, it will increase the intensity of one's destructive behavior. Guilt is a leading factor for one's superego. For instance, growing up with alcoholic parents can increase one's self-destructive behavior because they feel guilty that they did not provide them with the help they needed. Since they failed to help their parents overcome these obstacles, they feel as if their parents failed because of them. Hence they then use harming themselves as a coping mechanism for their guilt and failure.

Freud additionally states that the aggression in self-destructive behavior is influenced by a personal motive. Just as cultural and environmental factors can play an important role of this, social factors can as well. For example, if a child were bullied all through middle school, one way for them to deal with their pain would be to exhibit self-destructive behavior such as self-harm or even yelling.

With investigations Freud and Ferenczi formed a hypothesis that people with self-destructive behavior suffer from "forbidden fantasies, not memories", meaning that since the action isn't supposed to be done, self-destructive people get a stronger drive to take part in these actions.

Self-destructive behavior varies from person to person, therefore superego and aggression is different in every person.^[7]

Forms

Self-destructive behavior may be used as a coping mechanism when one is overwhelmed. For example, faced with a pressing scholastic assessment, someone may choose to sabotage their work rather than cope with the stress. This would make submission of (or passing) the assessment impossible, but remove the worry associated with it.^[8]

Self-destructive behavior may also manifest itself in an active attempt to drive away other people. For example, they may fear that they will "mess up" a relationship. Rather than deal with this fear, socially self-destructive individuals engage in annoying or alienating behavior such that others shall reject them first.^[9]

More obvious forms of self-destruction are eating disorders, alcoholism, drug addictions, self-harm, gambling addictions and suicide attempts.^[10]

An important aspect of self-destructive behavior is the inability to handle the stress stemming from an individual's lack of self-confidence –for example in a relationship, as to whether the other person is truly faithful ("How can they love someone like me?"), or at work or school, as to whether the realization of assignments and deadlines is possible ("There is no way I can complete all my work on time").^[11] Self-destructive people usually lack healthier coping mechanisms, such as asserting personal boundaries. Hence incompetence is the only apparent way to disentangle themselves from demands.^[12]

Successful individuals may self-destructively sabotage their own achievements; this may stem from a feeling of anxiety, unworthiness, or from an impulsive desire to repeat the "climb to the top".^[13]

Self-destructive behavior is often considered to be synonymous with self-harm, but this is not accurate. Self-harm is an extreme form of self-destructive behavior, but it may appear in many other guises. Just as personal experience can affect how extreme one's self-destructive behavior is, self-harm reflects this.^[7]

Causes

Childhood trauma via sexual, emotional and physical abuse, as well as disrupted parental care, have been linked with self-destructive behavior.^[14] Usually, behavior like this results from the lack of realization of healthy coping mechanisms.^[8] Because there is not a lot of focus on specific mental health problems, such as self-destructive behavior, people are not being educated on specific ways that could benefit or even prevent these people from acting out, leading to self-destructive actions.

According to the findings of a clinical research study, while a lack of stable relationships facilitates self-destructive actions, childhood trauma leads to its beginning and everlasting effects. Moreover, individuals who often commit suicide or self-harm are more likely to experience flashbacks to childhood abuse, mistreatment, and rejection while they are under stress. Also, dissociative episodes and self-destructive actions may be triggered by situations involving psychological safety, rage, and emotional needs.^[15]

Additionally, people who have experienced some form of trauma, such as abuse or neglect, can develop psychological issues that can lead to bigger problems. Aside from this, a need for attention or a feel good sensation and destructiveness can ultimately cause this behavior. A prime example of this would be addiction to drugs or alcohol. In the beginning stages, people have the tendency to ease their way into these unhealthy behaviors because it gives them a pleasurable sensation. However, as time goes on, it becomes a habit that they can not stop and they begin to lose these great feelings easily. When these feelings stop, self-destructive behavior enhances because they are not able to provide themselves with that feeling that makes mental or physical pain go away.^[10]

Treatment

Changing one's self-destructive behavior can be difficult, and may include major stages that one passes through on the way to recovery. The stages founded by Prochaska and DiClemente (1982) included precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination.^[16] For body-focused repetitive behaviors, such as trichotillomania and nail-biting, habit reversal training and decoupling are effective according to meta-analytic evidence.^[17] A 2021 study stated that Nuclei accumbens stimulation could be a successful treatment for aggressive and self-destructive behaviors, separate from the triggers.^[18]

References

^ Beck, Aaron T.; Kovacs, Maria; Weissman, Arlene (1979). "Assessment of suicidal intention: The Scale for Suicide Ideation". Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 47 (2): 343–352. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.47.2.343. PMID 469082. S2CID 38965005.
^ Green, B. P., The Catholic Church and Technological Progress: Past, Present, and Future, Religions, 2017, 8(6), special issue on Religion and the New Technologies, page 9, accessed 14 September 2023
^ Honos-Webb, Lara; Ph.D. (January 13, 2014). "You Will Regret This Later. So Why Are You Doing It?". ADDitude. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
^ Anthony W. Bateman, Roy Krawitz (2013). Borderline Personality Disorder: An evidence-based guide for generalist mental health professionals. OUP Oxford, ISBN 978-0199644209
^ Nyman, A. K.; Jonsson, H. (1986). "Patterns of self-destructive behaviour in schizophrenia". Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 73 (3): 252–262. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.1986.tb02682.x. PMID 3716842. S2CID 39593219.
^ Lovaas, O.Ivar; Freitag, Gilbert; Gold, Vivian J.; Kassorla, Irene C. (1965). "Experimental studies in childhood schizophrenia: Analysis of self-destructive behavior". Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 2: 67–84. doi:10.1016/0022-0965(65)90016-0.
^ ^a ^b van der Kolk, Bessel (December 1991). "Childhood Origins of Self-Destructive Behavior". The American Journal of Psychiatry. 12: 1665–1671.
^ ^a ^b "Self-Destructive Behavior: The Causes, Traits, And Types". A Conscious Rethink. October 28, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
^ Gvion, Yari (2015). "Traumatic Experiences and Their Relationship to Self-Destructive Behavior in Adolescents". Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy. 14 (4): 406–422. doi:10.1080/15289168.2015.1090863. S2CID 146193280.
^ ^a ^b "Self-Destructive Behavior: Signs, Causes & Effects - Video & Lesson Transcript". Study.com. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
^ Fisman, Raymond J.; Kariv, Shachar; Markovits, Daniel (2005). "Pareto Damaging Behaviors". SSRN Working Paper Series. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.381.3492. doi:10.2139/ssrn.748404. ISSN 1556-5068. S2CID 10761254.
^ Scherzer, Andrea L. (March 29, 2018), "Understanding self-destructive behaviour in adolescence", Violent Adolescents, Routledge, pp. 5–20, doi:10.4324/9780429484711-2, ISBN 9780429484711
^ Pickrem, Faye (January 1, 2017), "Disembodying Desire: Ontological Fantasy, Libidinal Anxiety and the Erotics of Renunciation in May Sinclair", May Sinclair, Edinburgh University Press, doi:10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415750.003.0007, ISBN 9781474415750
^ Van Der Kolk, B. A.; Perry, J. C.; Herman, J. L. (1991). "Childhood origins of self-destructive behavior". American Journal of Psychiatry. 148 (12): 1665–1671. doi:10.1176/ajp.148.12.1665. PMID 1957928.
^ Van Der Kolk, B. A.; Perry, J. C.; Herman, J. L. (1991). "Childhood origins of self-destructive behavior". The American Journal of Psychiatry. 148 (12): 1665–1671. doi:10.1176/ajp.148.12.1665. ISSN 0002-953X. PMID 1957928 – via National Library Of Medicine.
^ Henshaw, Sophie (July 8, 2018). "How to Change Self-Destructive Behavior: Stages of Change". World of Psychology. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
^ Lee, Melissa T.; Mpavaenda, Davis N.; Fineberg, Naomi A. (April 24, 2019). "Habit Reversal Therapy in Obsessive Compulsive Related Disorders: A Systematic Review of the Evidence and CONSORT Evaluation of Randomized Controlled Trials". Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. 13: 79. doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00079. ISSN 1662-5153. PMC 6491945. PMID 31105537.
^ Harat, Marek; Kiec, Michał; Rudaś, Marcin; Birski, Marcin; Furtak, Jacek (2021). "Treating Aggression and Self-destructive Behaviors by Stimulating the Nucleus Accumbens: A Case Series". Front Neurol. 12. doi:10.3389/fneur.2021.706166. PMC 8542713. PMID 34707553.