Poll: Self harm (serious topic)

[InfiniteSingularity]

For those willing to talk about it, I'm curious to hear the escapist's experiences with self harm - have you ever deliberately hurt yourself? What were you going through at the time? Or if you know someone who has. If you have no experiences with it, what are your opinions on it?

I'm wanting to know other people's experiences with self harm and I want to get some other perspectives on it. Let's keep this serious, as this can be a sensitive issue. And don't feel obliged to contribute

i'm too cool for self-harm. also keeping things serious is boring, why would we want to do that?

to me it simply seems foolish. childish. immature. it's like simply being an attention whore.

How can it be for attention when most people hide it out of fear?

good point.

i still don't understand it however.

_ _ _ _ _

i have zero percent comprehension of why people inflict self-harm. i'm squeamish as hell though, and the very mention of slitting wrists makes me shudder. would i ever do it my self? answer: HELL THE FUCK NO. that would be goddamn painful. i'm dismissive of subjects such as this because the very aspect of pain agitates the shit out of me. seriously. i get agitated by thinking about stubbing my toe. i'm dismissive because i don't understand/like to think about why people do this.

]You've just never felt like you need to. You've never been depressed to the point you need to cut. Which is fine - in fact that's great. But don't criticise what you don't understand, and it is something which is very difficult to understand if you haven't been in that position yourself. Just don't make such rash judgement calls, it only makes people worse

 

[oreopizza47]

Technically, I have never self harmed. I've never cut or stuff like that. I have hit walls, which is what the "technically" qualifier was for.

Now, knowing people who have self harmed? Yeah. Actually, my best female friend used to, and my girlfriend only recently stopped, shortly after we started going out. For the friend it was cutting, but for my girlfriend it was scratching so no one would know. So my opinion is this; I don't like it, but I understand the desperation that leads to it.

 

[InfiniteSingularity]

You really need to specify what kind of self harm you are talking about. Theres the obvious wrist cutting and such, and then theres the self harm people practice deliberately but subconsciously, etc.

I harm myself, but not in the ways of cutting myself or burning myself. I don't do acts of self harm that will usually end up with me having scars for every time do it. I actually have a condition called Dermatillomania, or Compulsive Skin Picking. I tend to pick at my skin when I am bored or nervous. I've tried to stop doing it multiple times, but sometimes I do it and I'm unaware that I doing it.

Because I do this my arms and legs are covered in scabs, but the thing is I don't pick that the scabs, I let them heal.

Christ, I've had that since I was like 3 or something, and it's a real *****.

 

[Jenneh]

Let me just say, how happy i am that there are so many more "never in my life"'s than "i still do".

I personally have for 3 years, but am working really hard to stop because it started to hurt my girlfriend too much. My family was really mad at me that i did it, which really didnt help, but i dont want this anymore. I used to do it on my hips, arms and thighs.

My opinion on it is that its something that you should never do just out of curiosity, or at all if you can manage it, because there is no "cure" to self harming. You never look at sharp objects the same way again. Its ridiculously addictive. I wish i had never done it in the first place.

 

[SilentCom]

If you imply any type and degree of harm, I would have to say yes. This is because a few times a while back when I was angry, I punched myself... I know stupid. But that way I wasn't destroying anything and the pain caused me to stop being so angry...

If you mean any serious injury such as cutting myself or something, then no.

 

[Dango]

There was a time when I was considering it as well as suicide, but I don't really like to think or talk about it...

 

[emeraldrafael]

its called pain week.

once a year, my friends and i get togehter and come up with the most insnae things we can think of and see who pusses out. by the end of the week, if one winner inst decided, then all the remaining gather into one big battle royale type deal with blunted weaponry. All of this while the entire week you go without sleep.

Why? for shits and giggles, why else?

Other then that, like cutting yourself, no, i havent. the closest i game was suicide but I pulled out of it. had a friend who used to cut himself. we snapped him out of that pretty quick though. its one thing to cross the street, but quite another to go down the road and you gain a quick appreciation for life when youre not in a position to choose how you're making your journey in life.

....


I'm also one of those kinda people that likes to pick scabs, if that counts.

 

[Wushu Panda]

I went through a major traumatic experience when I was 10, years of therapy and none of it helped. I've been going in and out of depression for 13 years since and have self-harmed. I've kept in ways so no one notices, beating myself and smoking.

The best time of my life was studying Kung Fu. I excelled at it, helped me lose weight, healthy area to work out rage and I could walk around with a million bruises on my arms with a legitimate reason.

 

[AroLombardi]

Cut myself a few minutes after a really, really bad break up with a long term relationship, and once more after I heard she was asked to prom and accepted. And not another time since then.

 

[dertyqwerty]

I used to. For almost 6 years I mutilated myself.
Mine started after a very traumatic family death. I had never experienced something so devastating, I didn't know how else to react. It's just a coping mechanism and sometimes an addiction, like drugs or drinking. It's a very sad and dangerous thing, but it is not always just an attention stunt. Most times it is linked with depression and anxiety. That's when I would self-harm, in anxiety attacks. I would lose control of my body and mind it seemed, and that was a way to bring me back.

My problem went undetected for the 6 years, until finally someone very close to me found out and I had the courage to get help. Counseling, medication and a horrid week in a psych ward finally got me on the right track.

Haven't done it in over a year now, very proud of myself for deciding to save my life.

(Silly but, if anyone on here reads this, or any of these posts and decides they need help, I'm sure anyone of us Escapists would be here for you. Myself included.)

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

When I'm absurdly frustrated with my parents mostly. That would account for 95% of it. Every once in a while we get in a big fight for some stupid reason and I just get sick of how illogical they are and how they lord their seniority over me rather than debate properly. I don't cut myself or anything. I just lay in my room and hit myself. Not like I can hit anyone else, right? I'm amazed that they actually seem to be throwing out less extreme BS lately.

 

[Girl With One Eye]

I started self-harming from the age of 15 when I was going through an abusive relationship. It has taken a lot of therapy for me to stop myself from doing it when I'm depressed. It becomes a coping mechanism for everything, and then becomes an addiction. It was for me also a strange way for me to control everything. I was in control of the pain and I decided how I felt about it.

It's a tough battle to stop when you become so used to it. But now that I have, I wish that I had stopped sooner, so that I wouldn't have so many ugly scars.

 

[Generalissimo]

if it was to specifically do that, then no.

 

[markisb]

i used to punch myself in the leg because if i cut myself people would have asked questions. always when i was depressed about my life.