Want to understand

[ePolice]

Hey I am new here, I do not cut but I knew a girl who did. I just want to kinda understand it. Like why do you want to hurt yourself? Doesn't it hurt? If you cut your wrist can't you die?

[schrei jess]

Okay, here goes:

People cut themselves for many reasons. But the main thing behind their specific reasons is that they are in so much pain, too much for them to handle, they are stressed out and in such a bad place that the only way to feel calm and under control is to bring the pain out on themselves. Cutting helps us know we are alive, that we are still breathing. Does that make sense to you?

And yes, it hurts, but what hurts more is the emotional pain, the physical pain in much less in comparison to the emotional pain a cutter is feeling. The pain only lasts a few seconds, but if we didnt cut, our emotional pain would be too much to handle.

And if you slit your wrist, yes you can die. There are some major veins in your wrists that if you cut them, will bleed a lot. Now if you cut "across the street" you could still die, but most people who want to die this way cut "down the street" or like down the wrist. Make sense?

[ePolice]

yea i guess

[Whisper]

The first thing I want to make very clear is we DON'T want to die so don't think that, its actually the exact oposite self-harm is a "gift of survival" so to speak it can be the most integrative and self-preserving choice from a very limited field of options.

hmmmm....okay im going to paste a list of common reasons from a site I found when I was like 15, I've bolded the ones that fit me if this dosent answer your question just tell me and i'll try again or you have more just ask

Escape from emptiness, depression, and feelings of unreality.

Easing tension.

Providing relief: when intense feelings build, self-injurers are overwhelmed and unable to cope. By causing pain, they reduce the level of emotional and physiological arousal to a bearable one.

Relieving anger: many self-injurers have enormous amounts of rage within. Afraid to express it outwardly, they injure themselves as a way of venting these feelings.

Escaping numbness: many of those who self-injure say they do it in order to feel something, to know that they're still alive. {Used to be me}

Grounding in reality, as a way of dealing with feelings of depersonalization and dissociation

Maintaining a sense of security or feeling of uniqueness

Obtaining a feeling of euphoria

Preventing suicide

Expressing emotional pain they feel they cannot bear

Obtaining or maintaining influence over the behavior of others

Communicating to others the extent of their inner turmoil

Communicating a need for support

Expressing or repressing sexuality

Expressing or coping with feelings of alienation

Validating their emotional pain -- the wounds can serve as evidence that those feelings are real

Continuing abusive patterns: self-injurers tend to have been abused as children.

Punishing oneself for being "bad"

Obtaining biochemical relief: there is some thought that adults who were repeatedly traumatized as children have a hard time returning to a "normal" baseline level of arousal and are, in some sense, addicted to crisis behavior self-harm can perpetuate this kind of crisis state

Diverting attention (inner or outer) from issues that are too painful to examine

Exerting a sense of control over one's body

Preventing something worse from happening

[Sapphire]

Whisper seems to have written it more coherently than I could have done. It is true that if I hadn't cut myself then I wouldn't have survived. The same goes for many, if not all cutters.
If you ever want to chat about this or anything else for that matter don't hesitate to pm me x

[kurlyopapa]

Yeah u can die if u cut 2 deep but i only do it enough 2 see the reb stuff it helps alot. we do it to releve stress

[trixy]

it is incorrect to generalise here. SO many different people cut for so many different reasons that it's impossible to narrow reasons down to just one, nor is it to right to limit self harm to simply cutting your wrists.

Take myself, i cut myself out of anger, and i do my palms, for the simple reason, as some1 said earlier, i do not want to die. I'm too worried that one day, in my rage, im going to go too deep, and its going to cause some big problems.

Oh yes, also palms are easier to conceal compared to scars on the wrists.

I say cutting is a form of release. A means of expressing yourself.

I also choose to cut myself because, it is not harming others, if i let my anger get the better of me, i might end up seriously hurting somebody, and truly regretting the spur of the moment instinct.

[Sapphire]

You can go even further and say that self injury isn't just confined to cutting. Biting, hair pulling, head banging, causing buises, burning and anything else that one can do to oneself on purpose to hurt oneself is self harm.

[terith]

Okay, here goes:

People cut themselves for many reasons. But the main thing behind their specific reasons is that they are in so much pain, too much for them to handle, they are stressed out and in such a bad place that the only way to feel calm and under control is to bring the pain out on themselves. Cutting helps us know we are alive, that we are still breathing. Does that make sense to you?

And yes, it hurts, but what hurts more is the emotional pain, the physical pain in much less in comparison to the emotional pain a cutter is feeling. The pain only lasts a few seconds, but if we didnt cut, our emotional pain would be too much to handle.

And if you slit your wrist, yes you can die. There are some major veins in your wrists that if you cut them, will bleed a lot. Now if you cut "across the street" you could still die, but most people who want to die this way cut "down the street" or like down the wrist. Make sense?

that makes perfect sense,thank u jessi :)

[terith]

Okay, here goes:

People cut themselves for many reasons. But the main thing behind their specific reasons is that they are in so much pain, too much for them to handle, they are stressed out and in such a bad place that the only way to feel calm and under control is to bring the pain out on themselves. Cutting helps us know we are alive, that we are still breathing. Does that make sense to you?

And yes, it hurts, but what hurts more is the emotional pain, the physical pain in much less in comparison to the emotional pain a cutter is feeling. The pain only lasts a few seconds, but if we didnt cut, our emotional pain would be too much to handle.

And if you slit your wrist, yes you can die. There are some major veins in your wrists that if you cut them, will bleed a lot. Now if you cut "across the street" you could still die, but most people who want to die this way cut "down the street" or like down the wrist. Make sense?

Perfect description hun... Now you have to get through your problem with this,and I'll be there for you always.