Self Harm as a part of AS?

Post Reply New Topic

God Bless Callista for this :

""oldmantime wrote:
good.

and agreed, it is all up to him. he has no reason to continue doing that and i think his description of this situation shows that he realizes that on some level. it's just a matter of how he wants to tackle it.""

Okay, you're the illogical one here. There's plenty of reason to self-injure, actually, and I think you're willfully refusing to see it just because you yourself are not the sort of person that finds self-injury beneficial.

Yes, I said "beneficial". Deal with it.

Sometimes, when a person can't cope with whatever they're trying to deal with, when they don't have the skills or the resources, they have to try to dip into their mental reserves; and sometimes, there's very little that will force you to dip into your mental reserves. Physical injury is one of those things. In some cases, physical injury is the thing that allows you not to break down in public, not to hit somebody, maybe even not to kill yourself.

Why else do you think we'd do it? Do you think it's fun or something, that we think it's cool? No. We're trying to survive, thank you very much, and if you can't understand that, then you need to shut up and butt out.

I'm not saying it's the best strategy. I'm just saying that people who use it are at the point where it is the best strategy that they, currently, have access to. Obviously, the solution is to find better ways--to work with the sensory overload or the depression or the anxiety that's overwhelming everything--but at that particular time, for that particular person, self-injury is the only thing they have left. The way to stop self-injury is not to "just stop" or "just start doing something productive" or "start being logical". It's to find out why you do it, and find some other way to deal with that particular problem."

I cannot stand some people's ignorance. Dude, if you can't relate to a symptom DON'T GO OFF PULLING BS JUDGEMENTS OUT OF YOUR ARSE. IT IS POTENTIAL HAZARDAS TO THE POSTER AND THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE ACCESS TO SEE IT VIA THE INTERNET AND MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE AN IGNORANT JERK.

Dear @oldmantime this is meant to be a supportive community and I think we can all RELATE TO BEING MISUNDERSTOOD BY SOCIETY so keep that frame of mind, be friendly to the person you don't understand, don't judge, don't blame. "all up to him"??? How many of us on here have been told our STIMMING, our MELTDOWNS, our OVERLOAD was UP TO US?? (I at least have been patronized by this many many many times. From well-educated people too. Why? Often they just didn't want to invest effort in me and felt blaming was easier; and that is what I am seeing here). But I find your comments VERY VERY insulting to say the least and hope that you take time to educate yourself someday. Most cutting in people with ASD actually stems from a floundering attempt to regulate emotions over classic depression. There is actually more information than one would think on it. But I will leave it up to you to do your own research.

(P.S. SORRY EVERYONE!! I know this is a suuuper late response but I was reading this and so filled with emotion especially as someone with ASD who has cut herself and is still fighting the battle every time she is overloaded ~ including 2 hours ago actually so ya. Once again THANK YOU to CALLISTA!! You are my hero!! )

I believe that self-harming is a way for people to handle emotions. Even thought you might not feel them, I don't think it means they are not there. You might just not recognise them. In my opinion, self-harming is a way to handle emotional pain and is used to distract you from what you're feeling. I think a good comparison would be that if you cut yourself or hurt yourself physically, then some people may punch something or hurt themselves to dull the pain. I remember when I had toothache, I was climbing the walls and punching anything is sight. I think it's similar to emotional pain and self-harming helps to distract the mind from that pain. I wouldn't say I self harm, but I do punch objects and occasionally injure myself doing so. I know I do this to distract myself from the emotional turmoil in my mind.

or something..but what do I know..

Can be.

Imho it's mostly self-medication, self-soothing behavior. It can become a habit. Like any other behaviors.

I am so glad to read that you found suitable less harming soothing habits.

I wonder if a piece of this, for folks with ASCs, might be alexithymia, at some level in internal emotional processing. If it's very hard for someone to put words to emotions (I guess I'm thinking of folks who are somewhat verbal?), then the set of cognitive abilities the person has that rely somewhat on words, might be hard to use.

For various ASC issues, I tend to think of my brain as having a 15 amp circuit breaker where it needs a 60 amp one, and it shuts down way too fast.

Maybe processing difficult emotions, like shame, does something like that in some people who self-harm, so the person is left with fewer coping strategies but still loads of pain.

Well, that probably made no sense...

For me, it was a chain reaction. I have Autism, which makes it hard to fit in and make friends and just function in society. That lead to me getting depressed and I would feel so much pain that I didn't know what to do with it. I would get really mad at myself and want to punish myself for being different, over-reacting to things, and just plain being alive and feeling like a burden. Then I would self-injure. I first self-injured when I was six years old and I did nearly every day in junior high and high school. I won't lie, I still self-injure, but it much less frequent. My current medication helps with my depression a bit.

Though I have cut myself intentionally on two occasions in the past, I am generally too squeamish to self-harm in such a way. When I am deeply upset (or at least think I am), I tend to attack myself by gorging on lots of food. I feel rather helpless because I seldom know what I am thinking and feeling.

I have a feeling that I banged my head in the past, For when I do accidently it doesn't hurt. Other than that I've never self harmed.

I self harm a couple times a year on average, it's a useful release even though it's not a logical thing to invest in, it is what it is, hopefully I will feel like I don't want to do that eventually but who knows.

I've never really engaged in visibly destructive self injurious behavior like cutting, but I have to admit that I've had a tendency to do smaller things when stressed. It's useless, it's potentially dangerous, etc., but it does (very briefly) release stress and tension, so it's not as easy to avoid as I wish it was when I'm completely overwhelmed.

There are SO many reasons why people do self-harm. Borderline Personality Disorder certainly doesn't have a monopoly on it, so the person who gave you the diagnosis on that basis was just plain incompetant.

There is a link between autism and self-harm. We often hurt ourselves when overwhelmed or angry. For higher-functioning autistic people it's very, very common to do milder stuff like hitting ourselves. I do that myself more often than I'd like. And it can be more serious, particularly when we've got a mental illness too.

Many other conditions can lead to self-harm. Someone I know cut her arm so badly during a depressive episode it needed about 20 stitches. I've met a guy prone to fits of rage, who now has rubber bands on his wrists which he snaps to help "ground" himself. I gather he used more dangerous methods before. There's a well-known blogger who has a form of OCD that makes her try to peel her own skin off- she's very smart and articulate, and certainly aware that it's not a sensible thing to do!

I don't know all the ins and outs of self-harm. When I've done it it was either a reflexive action, or done to punish myself. For many people I think it's a way of coping with distress. A dysfunctional way of coping, but that's what it is. Instead of trying to stop it cold, some therapists get their patients to try ways of hurting themselves that are less dangerous and don't cause permanent damage.

I think it is worth continuing looking for help, however many stupid setbacks like this come along. (I'm trying to get back into therapy myself, since my autism diagnosis somehow meant I got chucked out of the program I was in.)

People both on and off the spectrum self harm just as people both on and off the spectrum don't. I personally don't see any connection between Autism (or Alexithymia) and self harm.