Not bad enough to self harm...

[FuzzyLittleNightmare]

I've been self-harming for a little over 6 months now. I used to cut at least twice a day, often more, and bite my fingers or burn my arms with ice then heat, but now I am able to go a couple days without doing it out of sheer determination, but I am still tempted. I have also had an eating disorder for 5 years which I guess is sort of self harm because I know its killing me

When reading people's stories of why they first started cutting, I always feel as though what I have been through isn't bad enough to warrant self harm. I don't want to go into it in detail but basically just everything bad happened at the same time, from my dad walking out on us, to getting bullied at school, to people finding out about my eating disorder so watching what I ate more carefully to... seemingly superficial things...

Everything kept on going worng until I eventually resorted to self harm. But I just feel like what everyone has been through is worse than me and I should be strong enough to cope without doing this. Does anyone else feel this way about themselves? Or feel that I am right and I should be stronger?

[Amaryllis]

I feel this way as well. My mother has said to me all my life that I had no right to be sad or cry because my life was "perfect". I'm recovering from anorexia as well. I took my bipolar disorder from my mother and I'm one of the few diagnosed young adults with a borderline personality. But most people have been through so much worse.

I know people who have been abused and violated so much worse than I have. People who've had much worse lives. But honey, our pain is real. It's there. And the pain -you- feel is all that really matters. You don't have to have your legs chopped off, be homeless, be raped and beaten up and bullied every other second to feel the way you do.

Good luck and I hope you'll get better.

Love,
Faith and Trust

[Muridaee]

All I know about other people is that they feel things differently than I do. Who knows why? There are probably a bazillion reasons. But it doesn't matter. I feel what I feel, whatever anyone else says I should feel or not feel.

When I first cut, I was feeling so horrible. I wanted the outside to look like what I felt. Then when I did it, I felt better. So, it kinda worked. But that's the dumb part. You have to keep doing it to feel better.

Should you be stronger? I don't know, if all this is going on and you're still standing, I'd say you're pretty strong. Just because other people seem to go through worse things than you or I have, doesn't mean they're going to respond in the same way to them. Who knows? I think I like being more sensitive, I think it makes me more caring. But damn it hurts, too.

[Fiction]

I feel exactly like this, and i think most people who self harm do too. Psychology, and therefore self harm is nnot an exact science. It doesn't just depend on events in your life it depends on your persinality too.
Also i would like to point out that an eating disorder is ALOT to deal with, and enough to make anyone resort to extreme ways of coping. It's nothing to be ashamed of, just get the appropriate help and get yourself better. It won't be easy but it'll be worth it :)

[Travis Is Losing It]

Anna sure people have it worse than you but there are people that are sold into the slave trade, beaten dailey, raped, starved, MURDERED. just because people have had it worse doesnt make whats happening any less. Most people will fail many times when trying to quit self-harming because its addictive. As of now i am a couple weeks without cutting. I went 6 months without cutting and failed. Its trial and error and soon you will have it perfected and never harm again :) Goodluck anna

[LittlePaperStars]

I feel like this way as well.

My friend told me that she was self harming because she didn't get much attention from her dad, and her parents were divorced. She had multiple reasons, which were good reasons. But me, I SH'd because I had low self esteem and assumptions that people would leave me because I thought differently. Anyways, my reasons were different from hers. I felt like I wasn't 'doing it right'.

There's no right way of doing it, and everyone's reasons are going to be different.
I hope you get better soon <3

[Alexis goes Rawr]

Thats why i always hate it when people say what do you have to be upset about there are people dying in africa and your life is like perfect, no one and no ones life if perfect. I think what you have to remember that even though there may be people worse off then you, it cant and doesnt diminish your pain.