Self-Harm, Skeery Jones and Instagram: Feeling a Little Offended

I absolutely love “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show”. If you’ve never listened to it – you should. It’s on bright and early in the morning and on the rare occasions when I don’t sleep in, I make sure to turn it on. They talk about everything: sex, celebrities, trending topics and have the best ‘phone-taps’ I’ve ever heard. They’re all very real people who say very real things that everyone can relate to.

So, why would one of them put a picture of a razor on Instagram with a somewhat offensive caption?

Following the picture of the Razor on his Instagram, the caption was as follows: “Listening to “Say something I’m giving up on you” while a “Smoking kills” commercial is on TV makes me wanna CUT MYSELF.”

Some may find this funny. However, others may find this offensive.

Since the show is so open about so many things, this really shouldn’t be a surprise that this would come up. I do not believe that Skeery would put up this picture to purposely offend the self-harming population. However, there are certain things surrounding self-harm that really get to me – one being when people throw around the phrase “I’m going to cut myself” and truly don’t mean it.

Be Aware of the Things You Say: They Could be Triggers

Like I said, I really love this morning show and think that everyone should take the time to listen because it really will wake you up. However, people say things that they don’t mean to say that could be seen as offensive in the eyes of others. I think this situation may be one of those times.

I’ve had situations in the past where people throw around this phrase and it upsets me. I think the self-harming population agrees that it hurts when people joke about cutting or hair pulling or burning. When jokes are made without thought, they can trigger negative thoughts, which can lead to negative behaviors. There were many comments below the Instagram picture where others did not feel comfortable with the post:

“Not cool, especially when many celebs you interview have had an issue with cutting.”

“Ew, not even funny.”

“I know you’re kidding, but this is a bit messed up.”

The point is, people need to think before they talk (or post). Yes, it’s harder than we think, but it’s something everyone needs to work on. This incident will not stop me from listening to the morning show because, well, it always cheers me up. If there was ever a way for me to get on the show to share my past experiences and discuss my book, I would do so in a heartbeat.

As long as there are no jokes about cutting involved.

You can also find Jennifer Aline Graham on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and her website is here. Find out more about Noon through Amazon.com.