Self-harm among young Canadians is on the rise, specifically in girls, new research finds

< warm> WARNING: This story contains inside information nigh self-harm and felo-de-se.

For three years, Margaret Boldt was hurting herself to feel some type of control over her life. 

Boldt, who lives in Windsor, Ont., says she grew up in an abusive household and struggled with an eating disorder. At 16, she says she started to cut herself. 

"In the beginning, I almost wanted people to notice, because I wanted them to know how much I was really struggling," she said. "When it became more of an addiction, then I started hiding it more." 

But the cuts became so severe that she was eventually going to the hospital "every other day, if not every day some weeks" for stitches. 

She then started using drugs, as she found that being high kept her from cutting herself.

Now at 20 years old, Boldt says she hasn’t hurt herself in five months and is currently in a substance use recovery program. 

Boldt is part of a growing number of young people who are turning to self-harm in Canada, according to new research published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics. 

On average, the rate of self-harm for people aged 24 and younger who were medically treated for it increased by 3.5 per cent each year between 2000 and 2024 — meaning it more than doubled over the 25-year study period, said lead author Dr. Natasha Saunders.

In 2000, Saunders’s research points out, there was an average of 10.2 self-harm medical visits per 10,000 people. Over the years, that rate grew. The increase was steepest among girls, at 3.6 per cent annually, compared to 1.2 per cent a year for boys. 

"It says to us that our kids are not doing well, and if we don't put the brakes on and put things in place to stop this trajectory, we're in real trouble," she said.

When the authors looked at research on self-reported self-harm, they found a 2.5 per cent yearly increase across both girls and boys.

"This is what we’re seeing on the ground — I see it in my practice, at the hospital; we see it on the pediatrics wards," said Saunders, who is also a pediatrician at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. However, she said, the trends' magnitude surprised her. 

Saunders says they found a similar upward trend across all of the countries that they looked at. 

Her large-scale analysis reviewed 42 studies from January 2000 to December 2024, and included more than 234 million people. The research was from a dozen high-income countries, including Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. 

The studies either tracked self harm-related hospital visits or looked at self-reported surveys. The analysis defined self-harm as purposefully injuring oneself, with or without the intent to die by suicide. 

What’s most concerning to Saunders, is that these numbers are likely a "gross underestimate."

"Many, many people will self harm or have self-injury without actually presenting to health care," she said. "This is really the tip of the iceberg."

The increase is particularly troubling, says Saunders, because self-harm is often the "canary in the coal mine." 

"It speaks to the broader distress. It speaks to what is to come in terms of their overall health," she said. "And so I think we need to really pay attention." 

While self-harm is not a mental illness in itself, it can be a symptom of one, and it also puts people at greater risk of dying by suicide, says Dr. Rachel Mitchell, child and youth psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. 

"If you learn to hurt yourself as a way of coping, then you constantly utilize that as a way of coping," she said. "And eventually it just makes us more desensitized to doing something more serious, more lethal."

Mitchell says this is particularly worrisome, given that recent data shows more young girls in North America have been dying by suicide. 

Research also finds that adolescents who self-harm are at a greater risk of developing anxiety, depression or a substance use disorder as young adults. 

While this latest research doesn’t explore what’s behind the increase, the study's authors suggest that social media is partly to blame. 

And there’s quite a bit of research to back that up, with a literature review highlighting several studies where social media use has led to an increase in mental distress and self-harming behaviours. 

"Everything is being thrown at [youth] right now. There's global events that are going on that are distressing. The information is coming at them so quickly," said Saunders. 

"We're not equipping them with the necessary means to help with their emotional regulation and help with coping."

Social media harms girls’ mental health, report warns

And despite restrictions aimed at limiting such content, kids are still exposed to self-harm and suicide-related material online, notes Mitchell.

But she also adds that social media likely isn't the full cause, noting that it can also offer a safe space to people who are struggling. 

Experts don’t really know why girls are hurting themselves more than boys, but Mitchell says it could be because girls spend more time online and are more prone to self-comparison.

Boldt, the Windsor-based 20-year-old, says she agrees that social standards and the pressure to fit in play a role. 

Her friend Jessica Pauli, who is also in recovery for substance use, said she self-injured for years. While social media didn’t encourage her, Pauli says she remembers when self-harm content was more easily available and shared online. 

"It’s scary that, like, suicide … really can be glorified and made into something [that's] cool," she said. 

"Life gets hard sometimes, but you've got to find a way to deal with it healthily because you’re just going to set yourself back if you do the bad stuff." 

When it comes to coping, Mitchell says it’s important for young people to be reminded that heightened emotions are temporary, and that they can develop healthy mechanisms to turn to when they feel triggered.

"That could be listening to music, touching something cold, smelling something nice … something ... Just to take the intensity of that emotion away," she said. 

Saunders says there’s more that can be done to protect youth, pointing to Australia’s social media ban for those under the age of 16, which came into effect in December.  She says it will be important to see how effective it is.

The Canadian government has looked to create an Online Harms Act to better protect youth from harmful content. But the controversial bill was tossed out in January 2025, when Parliament was dissolved. 

Ottawa has said it still plans to move forward with some type of similar legislation, but it hasn’t yet announced anything. 

If you or someone you know is struggling, here’s where to look for help:

If you're worried someone you know may be at risk of suicide, you should talk to them about it, says the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention. Here are some warning signs: 

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