Self-harm

precisely what you said. Self harm does not solve anything or make it better. It's a dangerous way to alleviate pain from problems or depression, etc...

Foxface

 

If you haven't started and are thinking about doing it- Don't. Please. It's really not something you want to get into... There are better ways to cope.

...I feel really hypocritical saying that but point still stands.

 

I wanna say it don't solve anything, but seeing as I've thought of it I doubt I can.

 

I don't really know anything about self harming in terms of cutting yourself so I can't really comment on it from what I can gather it seems like a quick way to alleviate the pain that people are going through and get things off their minds. But it's always better to talk to someone about whatever is going in at least then they can help you and you won't be in it alone.
I went through a really rough patch , I still don't know if it was depression though and I just kept all of my feelings and problems to myself constantly thinking that I can deal with them and I would see myself as weak if I went to someone else for help. Although this didn't cause me to cut myself it just built up to the point where I got so angry I started beating the hell out of someone at school, I didn't even know why like I said I'm not sure if it was depression or just pure anger but from what I can remember of that time I felt depressed. Anyway I was sure I'd get kicked out of school but I didn't so I just went on being depressed and nothing had been solved. So instead of cutting I just decided to try and kill myself and one night I climbed on my school roof took a lot of pills and whiskey and figured if the concoction didn't kill me I'd probably stumble off the edge at some point and the fall would kill me. Obviously it didn't work and I woke up in the morning still on the roof throwing up and felt like death for the next few days. To this day I still haven't told anyone because it was such a bad time and I've since turned it around.

I know that wasn't particularly about self harming but it links with depression and I think people need to realise it's easier to deal with if you just talk to people! No amount of slef harm will solve anything.

 

I will second that I wish I realised how addictive it is before I first did it , I first did it when I was 14 and have been doing it on and off ever since my longest time without being two years and it became the only way I had of expressing emotion good or bad which blows , it does the opposent of solve anything it stops you solving anything yourself because you start believe hurting yourself itsnt a problem which is it

 

So I guess I'm gonna be the first one to say that I don't think mine really has consequences. Besides, it's this or suicide.

 

I'm with you guys, it doesn't solve anything. I see so many reasons online for people doing it, the most common ones being a quick stress release/punishing yourself/expressing emotional pain as a physical scar, but I honestly think almost all of those reasons were true for me in one way or another. But believe me, when you're in recovery from BPD/depression/whatever it is that's making you self harm, you will look at your scars and regret it.

 

i have chronic depression and slight bipolar-ism so u can imagine i had my fair share of self-harm days. now its almost five yrs later and they still dnt let me knives or scissors...i'll admit they were hard days even now avoiding violence against myself and others is a huge part of my life

 

I've unfortunately taken part in self harm once or twice. I was at a low point and I thought it would make me feel better. It didn't. There's better ways to solve your problems, don't hurt yourself. Luckily I have no scars to remind me of those times.

 

Self-harm is a psychological thing. When we are depressed or when everything in our life is going wrong, we go to self-harm, and by harming ourselves, we are showing ourselves that we have power and dominion over something, we feel that we are in control of something. Often it feels good that you are in control of your life and you know what is going on, and that is what self-harm basically does to you. You are controlling the harm to inflict upon yourself, you are controlling the patterns of the cuts, the knives you use, the the hairs you pull and the scars you make.

It doesn't really solve anything to be honest and doesn't boost self-esteem. I am absolutely against going into it. Those who have harmed themselves require love and compassion to get out of it and that's something people often forget, they just put them into a psychiatric ward or something, it's cold and it doesn't really help. Self-harm is like drug addiction, you have to go out of it slowly, with love and care and patience.

As for any experience with self-harm, I've had none, I've never been brave enough to bang my head or cut myself, I was afraid of that pain, and I didn't want my mother to see the scars.

A message to those who are currently practising self-harm:
Don't doubt yourself and don't give up, with every tempest that comes, lies a calm afterwards, and a calm without you in it, is a calm that's worth less and less.

 

In 10th grade, I hit a really rough patch. My grades were sucking, I was depressed because my parents wouldn't accept me, and I was starting to go into the denial stage again. I'd previously considered suicide, but got scared and thankfully didn't do it. I started cutting in 10th grade and my parents noticed and got mad. We fought a lot thereafter. But things got better, and I realized cutting solved nothing, but made me feel worse. I decided to just focus on how much my friends loved me and how much I loved them, and we hung out more and I felt better, because they accepted me and we just had fun. And then I started to do better in school and feel better as a whole, and accept myself, regardless of what my parents said.

 

Saying we're for or against it is not really significant, since those doing self harm are often desperate for relief and unable to think rationally. I've done it so i would know. If drugs or alcohol were readily available, that probably would have been the preferred method. No it doesn't solve your problems and in fact can add new ones (with hiding scars). I would rather attack problems at the source, what actually drives someone to do that - bullying > depression > self harm. It's easy to blame the individual, but it is also a community failure. Mental illness in general is too rarely conceived of in terms of a sick environment.

 

Its a negative thing, but I won't condemn those who use it. I've used it in the past. Sometimes it seems like the only option.

 

As someone who's been there, it's a terrible feeling when you can't stop doing it.