“What I couldn’t do before, I can do now”: Narrations of agentic shifts and psychological growth by young adults reporting discontinuation of self-injury since adolescence

Purpose: We explore young adults’ narrations of life events in association with nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) discontinuation, psychological growth, and agency. 

Methods: Transcripts from eleven face-to-face interviews with individuals who quantitatively reported injuring themselves in adolescence (2007–2008) but not in young adulthood (2017) were narratively analysed. 

Results: We found that at starting points, a period preceding an agentic shift in the narrative, participants endured stressful living conditions and mental illness. During this period, participants perceived no point in trying to initiate change because they did not perceive themselves as having the capacity to do so and nor could they adequately utilize any formal or informal support. After a turning point that enabled agency due to gaining a sense of belongingness, liberation, or perspective, participants underwent a process of attaining psychological well-being. However, narrating psychological growth also required momentum points, encompassing the management of and moving on from stressful contexts, along with the recognition of milestones marking improvement relative to the starting points. 

Conclusions: NSSI discontinuation was narrated in conjunction with psychological growth when participants also experienced themselves as situated within an agentic context, because agency is understood as necessary to react to and manage current and future life circumstances.