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My brother self harms daily. He is six years old.

My brother is only six and no matter how much help we get him he won't stop. He has speech problems so he cannot speak to us, he just makes noises. He can't seem to stop. Sometimes we have to pin him down to stop him which he obviously hates. He likes self harm, he laughs at it. He's been doing it since he was 4. We have run out of places to go, the proffessionals we have seen haven't done much and don't seem concerned. Everyone has given up on him except our family. We don't know why he does it. We don't know what to do.
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Sam

Hello,

Thank you for writing to me about this. I can hear that you care a lot about your brother and it’s distressing for you to see him hurting himself. You’ve explained that the rest of your family is also upset about it and unsure what to do. It can be really hard when someone we care about is behaving in a way that makes us sad and we feel unable to help. It seems as though this is made even more difficult for you because your brother cannot speak to you and tell you how he is feeling. Although it might be difficult it’s important to try and remember that you are not responsible for the way your brother is hurting himself. You can read some information about supporting other people who self harm in the explore section.

The home and family relationships message board may have messages from other people who have had similar experiences, or you could write your own message there for other people to reply to.

It’s really important that as well as supporting your brother you also have support yourself. If you would like to talk more about how you’re feeling and ways of coping you could do that with a ChildLine counsellor online or by phoning us free on 0800 1111. If you tell them more about the situation they may also be able to suggest other places for your family to get support. 

Thanks for getting in touch,

Sam

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