Self Injury

Well I figured I would post about this since we have discussed everything else imaginable, and this has been mentioned a few times. I hope this is all right to post about, Karen. Where someone inflics harm upon themself to deal with their emotions. I have known a few people who have done it. Its a very sad thing. In some cases it becomes their LIFE! :( Does anyone knows or is friends with a self injurer? I was also wondering what your thoughts on it. There have been some famous people that have self-injured, Johnny Depp, Princess Dianna, Anolina Jolie (sp?) and others. Please don't post anything that would be triggering to a self-injurer. Thanks. :)

I have a friend who does it :( I've tried everything under the sun to help him, but I can't :( It really breaks my heart.

Working at a junior high in a counselor's office I see quite a bit of it..they start very young..

Both my brother and his wife have done that. His wife has horrible scars on her legs from it. This happened when they were in highschool. I am so glad that they're past that type of thing now.

I’m normally not open to talking about this but whatever here it goes :p


I recently went through a very hard time in my life and I can recall many times when I’ve hurt my self. A close friend of mine eventually realized that it was time to tell someone. I have been visiting the school guidance counselor frequently, I would never do it again, I realize the consequences of it and when I think back on it I can’t believe that I would of ever resorted to hurting myself over stress and other factors.

Mandy, I am glad that you realized that you needed to stop. :) My friend and I were talking about it one night on msn. LOTS of people think its disgusting and vile, and the people are sick that do it. I think they have to be hurting a lot inside to do that to themselves, and I don't think they are sick or crazy or whatever. I do think though that when they start though and it becomes a way to deal with their emotions, they have a hard time recognizing their emotions and know how to deal with them in a healthy way (when they try to stop).

My best friend from 4th through 10th grade was institutionalized when her mother found out how much she had been self-mutilating. I was not allowed to contact her at the institution, and she was sent away once she was released, no idea how to get in touch with her now. :(

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Originally posted by WolfChan
My best friend from 4th through 10th grade was institutionalized when her mother found out how much she had been self-mutilating. I was not allowed to contact her at the institution, and she was sent away once she was released, no idea how to get in touch with her now. :(

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I have a friend that tried to commit suicide about 4-5 times, and was in a mental hospital for awhile. My other friend said that she landed there because she was cutting, but not sure though. What are your thoughts about it though?

I thought it was very sad when she started to mutilate...We had grown apart awhile before then, so I wasn't so close to her at the time, but the only reason her mother didn't find out about it from me was because another friend beat me to it.

I also called the police on the man that is currently my best friend because he called me to tell me he was trying to kill himself. He had been chronically depressed for a long time and had self-mutilated, and I didn't doubt him. It turned out he was faking it, trying to get attention.....spending the night in the psychiatric ward of the hospital strapped to his bed took that out of him. I was FURIOUS when I found out, and he later told me that my calling the police was the most caring thing anyone had ever done for him.

This is something that I just don't understand. :confused: How does harming yourself ever make your problems better? I'm sorry I'm not criticizing, I just don't get it.

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Originally posted by micki76
This is something that I just don't understand. :confused: How does harming yourself ever make your problems better? I'm sorry I'm not criticizing, I just don't get it.

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It doesn't make your problems better. It makes you think that your problems are smaller or it numbs the feels you have about the problems. It turns the emotional pain into physical pain, something people can feel, touch, see and control. It can also serve as a self punishment. Say if someone goofs up on a paper or makes someone mad they can punish themselves for it. Or say that a person's life is just crazy and caotic, hurting themselves is something they can control, no one else. Did that help? Nope, you weren't criticizing. :)

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Originally posted by Miranda_Rae
It doesn't make your problems better. It makes you think that your problems are smaller or it numbs the feels you have about the problems. It turns the emotional pain into physical pain, something people can feel, touch, see and control. It can also serve as a self punishment. Say if someone goofs up on a paper or makes someone mad they can punish themselves for it. Or say that a person's life is just crazy and caotic, hurting themselves is something they can control, no one else. Did that help? Nope, you weren't criticizing. :)

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Ok. I totally understand the self punishment thing. It's the numbing the emotional pain thing that I don't understand. I also haven't ever understood how doing drugs can make your problems "seem" better, or how it's "numbing" other than some drugs put your brain in a fog.

How does hurting oneself make the emotional pain any less, any different, any anything? For me, it would make it worse. "Oh, look. Now not only do I have this crappy problem, but I'm bleeding and my arm/leg/whatever hurts too." Not, "Well, now that makes me feel less crappy about whatever I did wrong."

Like I said, I just don't get it. :confused:

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Originally posted by micki76
How does hurting oneself make the emotional pain any less, any different, any anything? For me, it would make it worse. "Oh, look. Now not only do I have this crappy problem, but I'm bleeding and my arm/leg/whatever hurts too." Not, "Well, now that makes me feel less crappy about whatever I did wrong."

Like I said, I just don't get it. :confused:

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People who self injury don't see it that way. They think the physical pain is SO much better than the emotional pain (and in some cases they like the blood and the pain). A person who cut or whatever the problem goes away because they are focusing on the self injury and not the problem, although it does come back after awhile and then they have to go back to the cutting to "numb" or "forget" about the problem. There are some site on the Internet that you could read about why people do it, I am sure. :)

I was a cutter for a while when I was at my worst in middle school. I also would pull out my own hair, scratch myself until I bled, and squeeze every blemish down to the tiniest speck. I still do the last one occasionally, when I'm very stressed or upset.

I think it helped when nothing else could help. It always made me feel better. It seems really scary to someone who has never done it, but I never did it thinking about suicide or anything like that. When I did it I wanted to hurt physically so the emotional pain could be released.

Of course,I did often think about suicide, and I did also attempt suicide once... so maybe my opinions on it are invalid.

I can sort of understand because I tend to get a tattoo or piercing when something traumatic happens in my life. Each time I've had a miscarriage, I've gotten a tattoo. For me, I think it was my only way of feeling like I had control of my body and my life at the time. And the physical pain got my mind off of the emotional pain that I was experiencing.