  While non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is not a new phenomenon, there is still
a limited yet little is still known about understanding of the behavior, the
intent behind the behavior and what the individuals themselves say about their
behavior. This study collected pro-NSSI public blog posts from Reddit on
pro-NSSI and analyzed the content linguistically using LIWC software, in order
to examine the use of NSSI specific words, linguistic properties and the
psychological linguistic properties. were examined. The results inform current
counseling practices by dispelling myths and providing insight into the inner
world of people who engage in use NSSII to cope. The most frequently appearing
category of For NSSI specific words categories, in the Reddit blogs was the
reasons in which one engagesfor engaging in NSSI was the most frequently used
in the Reddit blogs. The linguistic properties found in the analysis reflected
the predicted results; authors of pro-NSSI posts used demonstrated expected
results of first-person singular pronouns extensively, which indicatesing high
levels of mental health distress and isolation. The psychological linguistic
properties that could be observed of in these public Reddit posts were
dominantly in a negative emotional tone which demonstrates youth and
impulsivity. The linguistic properties found when these posts were analyzed
supports the work of earlier studies that dispelled common myths about NSSI
that were circulating in the mental health community. These findings suggest
that the language of people who engage in NSSI supports research findings in
dispelling common myths about NSSI.
