The Shocking Story Of Lucy, The Young Lady Who Tried To Kill Herself 100 Times (Photos)

A young woman woman who has attempted suicide over 100 times is calling on Instagram to enforce its new ban photos of self-harm and eating disorders.

 

Lucy Grainger, from Belfast, says it is too easy to find disturbing pictures and videos on social media.

 

The 21-year-old is recovering from bulimia, and spent her teenage years in-and-out of mental health facilities.

 

She says pro-anorexia, pro-suicide and pro-self-harm sites on social media spurred her on, showing graphic videos of users cutting themselves, displaying skeletal weight-loss photos, and even detailing suicide attempts.

 

Lucy now regularly reports these accounts to Instagram moderators, but shockingly she claims she is often told they don’t breach the site’s guidelines.

 

She said: “I just want Instagram to listen to its users. These images are too easy to find - in fact you don’t even have to go looking for them.

 

 

It comes after The Sun launched the You're Not Alone campaign to raise awareness of mental health and suicide, and to remind anyone struggling with tough times that there is help at hand.

 

 

Lucy had a difficult childhood, losing her dad to a heart attack when she was just three years old.

 

She was bullied in school because of her acne, and by the time she was 12 she’d begun self-harming.

 

“One of my friends showed me her scars,” she remembers. “I thought that if it helped her, then it might help me too.

 

By the age of 13, Lucy was on a number of different medications for her skin, and in a bid to avoid having to go to school she decided to take an overdose.

 

She said: “I went through the bathroom cupboard and took all the tablets I could find. I just wanted it all to end. I wanted to go to bed and not wake up.

 

 

Lucy also developed bulimia, making herself vomit after meals in a bid to control her weight.

 

 

By the age of 15, she says she was taking inspiration from her social media accounts.

 

She explained: “I’d sit in my room for hours, just scrolling through photos of self-harm and pro-eating disorder accounts on Instagram.

 

 

After managing to keep her illness a secret for years, Lucy finally sought help from her family GP when she was 17, and was admitted to a mental health facility as an in-patient.

 

Over the next few years she was hospitalised on numerous occasions – sometimes voluntarily and other times after being sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

 

She was diagnosed with bulimia and Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD), and is now on medication.

 

She says she attempted suicide over 100 times, even trying to take her own life in hospital.

 

The turning point came two years ago, when an old school friend put her in touch with the Prince’s Trust.

 

 

She got involved in community projects and became an outspoken advocate of mental health, giving talks in schools, universities, youth clubs and juvenile detention centres.

 

Last October she was elected chair of the Northern Ireland Youth Forum, and her projects involve giving peer-to-peer support and raising awareness of suicide across the province.

 

She is also saving towards an Open University degree and dreams of becoming a social worker.

 

 

Lucy says she now as a much healthier relationship with social media and no longer uses hashtags, while reporting any disturbing content.

 

However she bares the scars of her ordeal, with the old wounds to her neck, chest, arms and legs still clearly visible.

 

She said: “I report profiles on a daily basis, but they rarely get taken down."

 

The response Lucy received from Instagram said: “We reviewed the account you reported for self injury and found it does not violate our Community Guidelines.

 

Lucy said she is “disgusted” with the response and is calling on the major social media sites to do more to censor explicit content.

 

She said: “Kids have access to this stuff. Girls as young as 13 can be sat in their bedrooms scrolling through these images, and their parents probably have no idea what they’re looking at.

 

Earlier this month, Instagram announced it was making changes to make the site safer for it’s users.

 

The site had outlined a number of changes, including a ban on images of self-harm, posts encouraging suicide, and flagging helpful organisations to direct users who had posted self-harm related content.

 

When asked by The Sun Online why the profiles Lucy has reported have not been taken down, Instagram said: “We are committed to removing graphic self-harm images from Instagram and have been clear that this will take time.

 

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Source: The Sun UK