Destructive behaviors is the chapter from Group's Emergency Response Handbook for Youth Ministry that we talked about in youth ministry this week. From time to time some teenagers will display destructive behaviors. Girls and boys alike, will cry out for help by abusing their bodies. Specifically, there are three main ones we will address in this blog post today: eating disorders, self-injury, and destructive behaviors.
First, let's talk about eating disorders. Someone very close to me recently dealt with eating disorders. Let's call this person Chris. Both bulimia and anorexia were struggles for Chris. Being very close to this person, you would think I noticed something going on. I didn't. Looking back, however, I can see that there were some clues that something was going on. Maybe these clues can help you to see if someone you care about is struggling with an eating disorder. The person I am referring to could eat junk food fairly often, but was getting skinnier. This wasn't apparent until one day Chris was unhealthily skinny. Chris also mentioned that their stomach hurt from time to time. A friend of Chris' mentioned to us that they would throw up when the two of them were together. But Chris would always have a good reason for throwing up, even leading us to believe that they were maybe allergic to some food that we weren't aware of yet. If a loved one has any of the above symptoms, you should have them see a doctor right away. I knew that anorexia and bulimia was bad, but I didn't realize how potentially dangerous it can be. If it gets bad enough, organs can start to shut down, resulting in irreparable damage to one's body or even death.
Self-injury is just as hard to notice if it is going on or not. What I am talking about is cutting or burning oneself. The area of the body that is being harmed can easily be hidden. Most of the time the reason a person would do this is to cover up an emotional scar they have received in the past. Maybe they were abused in some way. Cutting is said to relieve those painful memories in place of the physical ones. Self-injury is not a healthy way of dealing with past pain. If you find that someone you know is cutting or harming themself in some way, try to give them alternative, healthy ways of dealing with pain. Maybe they could draw or journal. Whatever they do needs to be a healthy outlet, but they do need an outlet. They can't keep it in, because it will eventually come out in negative ways. Hopefully they have someone they can talk to honestly about their past or current hurts. Some cases may require a counselor. At any rate, please get them help.
The last form or destructive behavior is dangerous games. These have been going on for years and are mostly "kids just being kids." They don't realize how dangerous they are. When I was in junior high people would cut off the circulation to either their brain or their friend's until they passed out. This is still going on today. Another example is a couple of years ago the whole Tide Pod challenge that was happening on social media where kids were being challenged to swallow Tide Pods. Kids were getting hurt pretty badly, but they weren't aware of the danger. Or they knew it was dangerous, but they didn't care because they wanted to be "cool." Like I said, there may not be an underlying reason why they are doing this except for ignorance. But it could be that they are participating in dangerous games because they just don't care anymore about taking risks because something is going on in their life.
Determining why someone is being destructive to their own body can be hard to figure out. Once you do realize that one of these or another form of destructive behavior is going on, it is imperative that you get them help right away. Help them find out why. Then, more importantly, help them find out more healthy ways of dealing with whatever happens to be going on. Of course, the best way we can help our kids out is to teach them to depend on the Lord:
When I called, you answered me; you greatly emboldened me.
~Psalms 138:3, NIV
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