Have a college lecture on self-injurious behaviour next week..

[bitesize]

I'm a Psychology student and I love it, but I've just read that on Thursday the topic of our Behaviour Analysis lecture is to do with self-harm. I know that obviously it will be dealt with professionally, and I'm looking forward to it but I'm a little bit worried that I might find it triggering. I know statistically in a class of 17 I'm very probably not the only self-harmer or ex self-harmer but obviously no one in my class knows and I don't want to end up being visibly distressed or anything.

Are there any other psychology students who might have been in a similar situation?? or any advice??

[gdheiwmow]

If you do have some sort of reaction from the material, people probably still won't notice unless you're making a scene. In speech class, I was taught that while you notice shaking or something like that, it's usually you who notices the most, or often you are the only person to notice. Having said that, if you need to step out for a few minutes, you are always welcome to do so.

[Kate*]

I had a similar experience when our counseling psych class discussed suicide. I have had suicidal thoughts and I have lost a family member to suicide. The video clip to begin the discussion triggered the heck out of me and then I had to sit through a group discussion where people were NOT respectful where my few reluctant contributions were judged and somebody who didn't have business to told me that I shouldn't be a counselor if I was going to have a normal human reaction to something that was already difficult enough. I wanted to run out of there. Obviously, nobody could tell anything was wrong or somebody would've said something. In retrospect, I probably should've excused myself for a few minutes or told the professor that I was upset. I hope your lecture is at least respectful of the subject and of people who do or have done it. You are always welcome to excuse yourself, or if you're comfortable enough with the instructor you can let them know that this is a difficult topic for you (you don't have to tell them why) and they should understand.