How Long Have You Done It?

[Ambrosia]

I bet someone else made this thread at some point. But no one likes to bump old threads.

So.

How long have you Self Harmed? When did you start? Even if it was just hitting yourself or something minor, when did it begin?

I started four years ago. I didn't start doing it for the reasons I do now and they were only small, tiny, slashes on the tops of my arms. Like pin pricks. I never thought it would escalade into something that followed me threw my entire high school career.

[Nevermore]

I've been self harming all my life. I've been picking skin, hitting myself, pulling hair, and biting, nail pitching, and digging nails into my skin at a very young age. Probably around 3 years. I started cutting around the 7th grade and burning around 8th or 9th.

[1_21Guns]

I started, I think around the summer of 2009, nothing subtle before it, just ended up cutting my arms when I finally couldn't take it anymore. It's been on and off since then, but this is my longest stop (131 days), I never used to see much past 40. These days I still bite and scratch, occasionaly punch myself if it gets that bad. I'd been injuring myself since primary school, but it wasn't something I knew of as self harm and so on, so I don't really count that.

[MadManWithaBox]

When I was 10 in smaller ways. So 2003.

[Fiction]

August 2009. Unless you count me doing it once when I was about 12, but I don't really count that.

I didn't really start regularly until January 2010, and i've not been more than 18 days since, and that was only once ><

[FullyAlive]

I started self harming by scratching just enough to draw blood and leave a mark around 17/18 months ago (September 09) then I starting cutting just over a year ago (February 10) and then it got worse I started cutting a lot deeper and more than once a day 5 months ago (October 10). Recently I've started burning myself, or using salt and ice, but I prefer cutting.

[Kaius]

I've been doing it for about 4 years. I started in 2007 around this time i think, possibly before this.

[georgiamay]

Since I was very young, but only in minor ways, so I had no idea what I was actually doing. I remember sitting in a classroom, when I think I was in year 4, and I sat next to a radiator, and just used to leave my arm on top of it until it throbbed. Didn't leave a mark that lasted more than an hour.

I started cutting/burning in the december of the year that I was 12 (cba to work it out). I've been on and off ever since. I go through stages of doing it really regularly (like now), and there was I time when I went 6 months cut free.

So, minor self harm has been a long time, the cutting and stuff has only been going on for about just over 3 years.

[Malcolm Tucker]

Around the end of 2007 - so 3 and a bit years.

[Syvelocin]

I started in March 2006. That makes it seem much longer than in feels. Five years seems more trivial when thrown around like that.

[Magenta]

Nine years at least.

Wow. I'm one of the ones who has done it for the longest. Ouch.

[ackmedsgirl666]

about 2 almost 3 years
first time was cutting..... and ever snce i can't stop

[UnknownError]

Started January or February 2010. Started straight into cutting deep. Tbh then I cut deep but not reguarly, but now it's daily and hardly breaks the skin.

[enjoying_my_insanity]

uhhhhh tbh i have no clue ive always picked at the skin around my nails, i remember doing that when i was like 3 years old....but cutting started in the summer of 2009 (i think) so a year and a half ish?

[TRexbait]

I've done it for a lot of my life (like, elementary school early). Sometimes for reasons, other times for none at all, I never really thought about it like I was hurting myself, I just did it. It started in minor ways, scalding myself with water, burning myself with hot objects, hitting my head with a book, biting my tongue/cheek, pinching myself, scratching myself, only recently have I actually started to draw blood though. Recently as in, two years ago.

[HeroesAndCons]

5 years.
i remember

[Ambrosia]

I've been doing it for about 4 years. I started in 2007 around this time i think, possibly before this.

Me too, almost exactly around now four years ago.

And ya know, I never actually considered how I hurt myself when I was little as self harm. I know I used to burn my fingers purposly with lighters and burn my arms with hot water. But I never actually considered that it counted as that.

[LozziRAWR]

I started about a year and a half ago, I can't remember why, but its like stress relief now. I can't go more that a week without it >w<

[RAWWR]

I suppose i've been self harming since I was 6. So about 11 years, but I only started cutting 4 and a half years ago.

[Love.Hate]

Its a bit confusing..
I was doing off and on when i was 13. Until i didnt need it anymore? But i dont think i was ever addicted. Then in April 2010 i started doing it alot more, But in about September 2010 it became a really regualr thing. All.. well, confusing.

[derkderpderp]

i began self harming around the age of 5, i used to just feel the need to hurt myself in the belief that no-one else would hurt me.

[alley]

i started when i was 13 nearly 14, so about 9 months ago i think. i started off by biting myself and leaving red marks. then it escalated to scratching. then i stopped for about three months and i started again. now its mainly stratching and the occasional cuts, so not as serious as most of you guys on here.

[beag_amhain]

13, got helped n stopped wen i was 15, went a whole year without it n then started again february 2010

[love is louder]

14-19 so im just starting my 6th year. but i can also remember doing it when i was nine and 11

[Charleigh]

A very long time...

[anonymous53]

Starting in third grade. Escalated to cutting in ninth grade.

[wheniscream]

:confused:i started cutting in 2008 burning and biting 2009 to stop myself from doing that i ummm started making myself throw up now im starving myself

[Immortal Love]

I started when I was 13 in February of 2009, and it started out as just making red marks on my arms, then quickly jumped to straight Cutting. I've been doing it ever since, so about 3 years.

[Andymoto377]

at 10 I gave myself eraser burns then 12-14 i use to heat up a safey pin or something and burn myself haven't done in for a while though

[TheFountainGoddess]

1 year in a week and 5 days...well since I started cutting, but today I realized that ever since I was in the 6th grade (two years ago) I was biting my lip to the point where it would start bleeding profusely (not exaggerating) and digging my nail into my gum until it bled for pain. Sorry if that was too much information.

[SilentlyCrying]

I was two. I broke a few bones on purpose, because I didn't feel like I was good enough.
Then I was 6. My best friend was mad at me, so I cut myself.
Then I was 7, and everyday that my best friend didn't abuse me, I hurt myself.
When I was 10, I got mad at myself, and broke my own foot in front of her.
At 11, I broke my foot again, by kicking a metal plate on a wall, in front of my teacher. Big mistake.
Later that year, I began cutting myself, minorly, for two months.
After that, I think I went a month before I began cutting again. It got out of hand really quickly. I cut until now, when I'm 13.
So, since I was about 2? I've wanted to all the time since then anyways...