'My Daughter Confessed To Self-Harming. How Do You Parent This?'

What Kids Are Carrying is a HuffPost UK series focusing on how the nation’s youngest generation is *really* feeling right now – and how parents and caregivers can support them.

When a child or teenager confesses to harming themselves, it can be confusing, not to mention distressing, to hear.

As parents, we want to protect our children. It can feel unfathomable that they’d want to deliberately hurt themselves.

But the reality is, self-harm is one of the issues therapists repeatedly see impacting teenagers.