Log in

View Full Version : Please help! How do I tell my boyfriend that I self harm?


EmptySoul
July 10th, 2013, 06:40 AM
* teh questionsa re gonna be bolded to make it easier to descern it from the rest of my rant thing :)

SO the other day my boyfriend and I were on our way back from the city on the train and my arm was really itchy so i was scrathcing at it really hard, so my boyfriend was trying to distract me or something as was like lightly scratching it, then he traced over some of my SH scars and was like 'suspicious' (thats al he said) it was realy late at night and i was falling asleep and i couldn't be bothered saying anything to deny it, also at the time i ddin't really care about my scars, so i just shrugged. the thing is he only say like 3 of the cuts that were really close together and looked more like my cat had scratched me or somthing as they were really faint and sort of curved, but he didn't see the ones just one the more inner part of my forearm so i don't know if he has you know 'cottoned on' to the fact that I self harm.

Since then, it was like 2 weeks ago now, I have cut more and they are slightly deeper so the lines are straiter. However, I don't want to always have to cover my arm when I see him coz I love him and trust him, but in the past before i first started cutting he made a coment, about a long scratch on my arm that i had gotten earlier in the day when my friend grabbed me in a hug from behind and my plastic folder thing got dragged down my arm. He made a joke and said 'I diidn't know you were into self harm', even though he was there at the time i got the scratch. So now i'm worried that he will flip and think i'm a freak if he finds out that I do SH. What should I do? and if i tell him, how do i? What is the best way to approach it?

We have been together for just over 3 years since April this year, but i only started SH last year i think it was, and when i stopped which was for almost 6 months, i had never told him that i did. The scars he saw 2 weeks ago were from the previous week when i relapsed for the second time since i stopped though the cuts actually pearced the skin that time so that was why the marks were still on my arm. What do i do if i tell him coz atm i have quite a few and they look pretty bad for somebody who doesn't SH or know what i'm going through atm at home. Will he react really badly if he the scars he sees now are so much worse thanthe ones he saw then, coz the ones he originally saw at the time were minimal in numbers, but now i have like 20+ scars/cuts on my arm. SHould i wait to tell him when the new cuts have started to scar so tha thtey aren't as prominant and confronting, will that make it any easier for him to understand, coz i really don't want to lose him he is my rock and one of the only good things that make me smile when i get upset and angry at things like my parents or my older sister who is a bully (yeah i no callign my sister a bullywhen i'm nearly 17 sounds childish but i don't cre she does bully me so htat what i call her).

Also i have never really been that good at expressing my feelings so i tend to take the blunt approach and say it like i see it, (i have ADHD so my paretns always tell me that i am being really aggressive when i no how i am feleign and am in fact just lsigtly pissed at somethign) so Idon't want to say it in such a way that it just sounds dismissive or like I don't care (i reacently said it like that to a friend who found out last year i cut and he just looked at me liek wtf this is serious, though he had a slightly innocent approach (he doen' really get the whole SH thing) to it and kept telling me go talk to the school psych itl help, eve when i told him that will mean my parents find out and they are siome of the problems and reaons behid my cutting, so i just steared clear of the convo). I don't want to say it to my boyfriend in a way that soudns like i don't care or that i don't know that SH isn't healthy, but i don't feel ashamed of my scars or my cuts becasue i don't see any reaasn to be they are a part of me, but will he take it the wrong way or see it as somethign to be ashamed of and decide that im crazy and leave me?

Please help i have no idea what to do.

* also i know that i need to stop cutting mut atm with all of the stress in my life and the fact that i cant expresss my emotions to my paretns or a friend without being told to chill out and calm down isnt really helping hte situation. Epsecially coz when i am (in my opppinion calmly though sligtly aggitated, in expressign myself) people take it the wrong way and thik that i am getting supper mad or something.

* again sorry for the rant in between i'm just really worried about his raction.
ANY IMPUT AT AL WILL BE MUCH APPRECIATED :)

EmptySoul
July 10th, 2013, 08:53 PM
i saw you posted and no one had replied to you yet so even tho i will probably be no help at all i still wanted you to know some1 read it and cared.

i have a problem that is kinda similar to sh, but different enough that i don't know if it applies. basically, i sh, but i get others to do it to me (yeah, how weird is that?)


i really don't know how to help, just remember the people that truly love you love all of you even the parts you're scared to show them.

Thahnx for your post. And I don't thtink that it is weird, when ever i get really frustrated at school and feel like SH but know that I can't i always just want my friends to do something to cause me pain so i still get the relief. The last part of your post almost made me cry, those sorts of post alost always make me coz it just shows that not all humans are evil beings [i was htinking of another word :)]. Tahbk you soomuch for your post it really means a lot and that idea about watciing a moview ith it i think is a good idea got any siggesttions on any good movies with it???
Thanx again :)

EmptySoul
July 10th, 2013, 10:34 PM
ha thanx he calls himself a nerd so maybe i can convince him to read or at least watch tthe movie. I htink if i can make him watch a bit of Kim Possible I can convince him to watch that. Thanx again :) Your the BEST!

Conqueror of Hearts
July 11th, 2013, 03:41 AM
Yeah, I'm not going to be much helpful but I wanted to let you know that you're not alone.

I know how hard it is to say someone about SH, I've been there. After 5 years I'm still trying to tell my bestfriend but I am so afraid that she'll not understand. I know that ppl who never SHed in their life can never truly understand us and that's scary.

As you said your bf is your rock and you are in a long relationship so I guess telling him would be something you should do. You will never now how he will react until you tell him. He could flip out but after all he loves you and he will try to help you to get out of it.

The hardest part is saying those words....I've never been good at expressing my feeling either. Maybe you could start by telling him about that things that bother you, that made you cut in the first place...after he realizes what are the things at home and around you you can tell him about the 1st time you cut....how you couldn't take it or whatever it is in your case. Then you could say that you continued SH and that recently you've started again and that you don't want to go through it again and alone, that you need him and his support.

If he ask anything about SH, or if he become angry you should stay calm as much as you can, because ot is hard to understand why ppl do it...just tell him how it makes you feel better, take the pain away etc.
He loves you and he will want to help so let him do that

Good luck and let us know how it went if you tell him
Stay strong, -xx