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BeautifulDisaster
March 17th, 2010, 04:42 AM
The Cutting Warning Label
Written by Divine Amethyst Artemis

[Caution: This is triggering material]

WARNING:
Before you make that first cut remember. You will enjoy this. You will find the blood and pain release addictive. Even though you think you can make a few tiny cuts that aren’t deep and will heal easily, they will get deeper. They will scar. They will sometimes take months to heal. And years for the scars to fade. If you think you can limit the cutting to one area of your body think again. It will spread when you run out of skin.

Be prepared to withdraw from others and live in a constant state of shame. Even if you are the most honest person ever to live you will find yourself lying to the people you love. You will jerk back from your friends when they touch you as if their hands were dipped in poison. You will be terrified that they will feel something under the cloth of your shirt, or just because it just plain hurts so much to be touched.

Be prepared to get so out of control you fear your next cut because you don’t know how bad it will be. Just wait for 10 cuts to turn into 100... Be prepared for your entire life to revolve around cutting, and thinking about cutting, cutting and covering up cutting. And just wait until that first time you cut “too deep”. And you freak because the blood won’t stop, and you are gaping, and you feel yourself shaking all over. You are having a panic attack and you are terrified but you can’t tell anyone. So you sit there alone, praying it will be okay and swearing you’ll never let it go this far again. But you will; and further. Don’t worry, you will learn how to take care of your cuts so that you can go deeper and deeper and avoid A and E.

You will lie to yourself and justify it when you find yourself spending £10, £20, £30 every time you go into a chemist. You will feel the flutter of your heart beat every time you go to the counter. Butterfly strips, 3 or 4 kinds of dressings, wound tape, antibiotic cream, medical tape, and scar reducers. You will tap your foot impatiently hoping the queue will move on and that no one will stare at you or wonder why you need all these things. And at the same time secretly hope that someone will notice... someone who is standing in line with an armful of the same supplies. Someone who understands. But of course that never happens.

Medical supplies won’t be the only thing you spend all your money on. Be prepared to buy a new wardrobe. Long sleeve shirts in summer colors, bracelets, wristbands, boots, gloves the list goes on and on.

You will start looking at every one in a different way. Scanning their bodies for any signs of SI, just hoping that you might meet someone like you so you don’t feel so terribly alone. You won’t even think about it as you eyes scan their wrists, arms, hoping, just hoping that you might meet someone like you. But they are not. You will see their clean arms and feel terribly ashamed and alone.

You will start doing alot of things alone. You will always have to wash your laundry in private so that no one sees the blood stains on your clothes and towels. You will always be cleaning up the blood. Scrubbing your bathroom floor, wiping the blood off your keyboard.

You won’t be able to make it through a day without cutting. Next thing you know you’re locked in a toilet cubical somewhere breaking open a scar with a sowing needle you keep in your purse for emergencies. When you get really desperate anything can be a cutting tool. Scissors, car keys, needles, even a pen. It doesn’t really matter what if you need to cut bad enough you’ll find something.

Say goodbye to the things you took for granted. Like wearing shorts or sandals, pedicures and sleeveless tops. A normal summer day at the beach or the swimming pool will become a far off memory to you.

And remember to be ready to itch. Because you will itch and itch so much that “you look like you have fleas or a skin disease”.

You will become an expert on your own body as you destroy it carefully. You will dream about cutting. You will dream about being exposed. It will haunt you day and night and take over your life. You will wish you never made that first cut because you will absolutely hate cutting; but at the same time you love it and cannot live without it.

You have been warned...

Scarface
March 17th, 2010, 05:33 AM
Wow that should help people become aware of what their doing to themselves and hopefully stop them before it gets worse. i was guilty of it myself though stopping not that long ago I am starting to gain some of my confidence back and lead a "somewhat" normal life. Thanks for posting wish i would have seen it when i was still out there

ShatteredWings
March 17th, 2010, 06:00 AM
It's in the announcement
http://www.virtualteen.org/forums/announcement.php?f=16&a=52

But, I think it should be posted anyway.
I really hope some people read this and try to get away from sh before it gets too bad.

BeautifulDisaster
March 17th, 2010, 06:23 AM
I realize it's there, but not many people will go & view it, & people do not know it's even there if they don't view that thread, so if it is posted, like you say it should be, (I'm glad we agree on that), then people can directly look at it & see it more clearly.

I'm glad it is helpful. :)

ShatteredWings
March 17th, 2010, 06:25 AM
I honestly wish I took that warning more seriously when I started drawing blood....

BeautifulDisaster
March 17th, 2010, 06:32 AM
What do you mean?

karl
March 17th, 2010, 08:26 AM
Thanks for showing this warning.

overcome.
March 17th, 2010, 08:44 AM
By far, that is one of the most interesting things I've read in a long time. I felt a little sad reading it, because the mindset of somebody who cuts must go through daily hell, every hour of the day. It's like a lot of psychological problems, everything contradicts and not much makes sense. You must have a desire to get found out, because you desperately need the help. On the other hand, you don't, because you don't trust people and you feed on what you do and couldn't bare the idea of stopping. I feel like I've learnt a few things today, and what you've said is a smart point of view, I can tell that you certainly have a lot of time to think.

I haven't self harmed, but I accidently sliced my knuckle and it was quite deep, while sharpening a knife to cut meat. The cut would quite often open up and bleed a little whenever I'd move my hands in a particular way, type fast on a laptop or clench my fist. I laid in bed that night and I hit it several times with my other fist, I hit it against a few things and I watched it bleed. I felt like if I kept doing this, I'd have a problem. I had to stop. 10 minutes later, after blood was dripping down my knuckle, hand and forearm, not to mention noticable amounts of blood on my bed, I decided to stop.

I've gotten a glimpse of the addiction, and that's what it is. Like any addiction or obsession I can see how it'd consume your mind and thoughts until you did something about it and got that 'fix'.

Thanks for your informative and wise words.

BeautifulDisaster
March 17th, 2010, 09:01 AM
Personally, I never wanted to get found out, I did scan others for scars/cuts, but only because I wanted to feel less alone & feel understood more & related to regarding my self harm, but I didn't want to get found out.

Many do want to get found out though, and that's understandable, but because of this, they are thought of as attention seekers, which makes them more likely to isolate themselves & close themselves off to people, & feel guilty for wanting help so desperately with this & other problems they are facing.

I'm glad this has helped you, do note I didn't write this, but you are right, I have a lot of time to think, and I did create another thread to help people who have just began self harming/thinking of self harming or are perhaps in the midst of self harming.

It's named "For everybody here to read. <3" in this part of the forum, if you're interested.

I'm glad you stopped before you went too far & ended up with this hell.

overcome.
March 17th, 2010, 09:50 AM
Whether you wrote it or not, you passed on good information with a good few doses of reality and created awareness for people here. I know that's appreciated.

It's like any obsession. If you have an obsession then you'll look to see if other people seemingly have these same problems. I figure that's somebody's way of getting reassurance for their problem, as they want it to be considered normal so they don't feel out of place. I have two of these things that come to mind, just like you check people for indication of self harm, I check them for symptoms of a phobia and an obsession I have about the human body.

DarkWingedAngel
March 17th, 2010, 10:30 AM
man I wish I had seen this before I started cutting.

Sapphire
March 17th, 2010, 10:36 AM
Humans are so good at thinking "It won't happen to me. I can stay in control of it."
I often wonder if we really would have listened to this before we started...

ShatteredWings
March 17th, 2010, 02:56 PM
What do you mean?
I'd seen this before I started cutting to any regularity, and was mostly doing other things (mostly bruses).

Didn't take it seriously. At all.

Humans are so good at thinking "It won't happen to me. I can stay in control of it."
I often wonder if we really would have listened to this before we started...
I'm willing to bet a lot, if not most, wouldn't have.

Lemonlover934
March 17th, 2010, 03:07 PM
I really wish i had read this, i don't think it would have stopped me but it might of made me be less rash when starting. This is a really great post, you don't realise how much it will take over when it starts, and then it just becomes all consuming. I really hope this helps someone x

Hatsune Miku
March 18th, 2010, 02:03 AM
This is the second time I read this. And I still can't believe how true it is.
I wish I could have read this before I started cutting.
I go to the store, I buy all that stuff, and everybody looks at me weird. But there's always one person who looks me in the eye and knows why I'm buying those things, and understands.

BeautifulDisaster
May 26th, 2013, 06:17 PM
*bump*