It literally beggers belief.

A spokeswoman from selfharm.co.uk, which supports young people affected by self-harm, said young people self-harmed for "any number of reasons", including in response to emotional stress.

She said: "The best way to help is to listen without judging, accept that the recovery process may take a while and avoid 'taking away' the self-harm.

Given that, is what we are seeing here actually an equivalent of providing needless to drug addicts to help prevent the spread of disease?

I can see how on a basic look it does seem to be absolutely mental, but I know nothing of the psychology of those that self harm, and if the above quote represents our best knowledge on helping people who are self harming, surely it is better that it happens in a controlled fashion than in other ways where physical side affects may be much worse.