Self harm

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I agree with the right to choose, but picking one's finger does not fit the criteria for self-harm. People do it for entirely different reasons. I used self-injury and I pick my skin, but it is not the same. With the former, I felt relieve of stress, with some help from released endorphins; the latter, I can not even notice I am doing it, and it is generally because I want to do something with my hands. In the same way, I often press against my hands when I am anxious, and it can be painful, but the point is not the pain, it is the activity and the sensations. It just helps my concentration, or something... I don't feel relieved after it.

It is hard to describe...

Last edited by enrico_dandolo on 05 Mar 2012, 5:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

That's what I'm talking about, though. It's entirely possible to not self-harm for emotional reasons (i'm unemotional, period), and get a very emotional personality disorder, and a mental disorder on your record for life. It made me have more problems than I did before I got asked questions that had nothing to do with my condition.

Oh, and PS - the 'endorphins' theory I heard many, many times - but it never worked on me.

Okay, self-harm means self-harm but other than that there aren't any criteria or anything so I'm not entirely sure what the last couple of posts are about.

Skin-picking as well as (other) repetitive motor mannerisms such as biting yourself (including biting yourself bloody), for example, are considered self-harm, as is cutting, burning, starving yourself, eating stuff you really shouldn't, causing yourself emotional grief/injury (meaning without a physical injury) and then there's this long-term goal to cause yourself to suffer or that you're not keeping yourself healthy and happy and therefore hurt yourself and do not try to not get hurt/seek out hurtful situations. That's what I can think of at the moment.

Some of these types of self-harm are considered destructive behaviours (going outside when it's freezing won't necessarily hurt you but it is a destructive action that - supposedly - a mentally healthy individual will try to avoid) although there's little/no blood, no internal injury and no immediate huge emotional effect.

The causes and effects of self-harm can vary greatly depending on an author or the subject of a study because it isn't defined in the DSM or ICD. Makes talking about it a little confusing, of course.

I really don't like head-banging called self-injury because it's strange to have every professional without much knowledge on autism or developmental disorders ask about emotional reasons and then for cutting. But I grudgingly accept that head-banging is "self-harm" or "self-injury" because even when it does not cause noticeable harm, this action of causing pain deliberately is self-destructive (head-banging is not good for you obviously and not a necessary thing to do to be healthy and alive) and usually it causes harm in forms of bruises and concussions, lacerations even for some.

I suppose biting lips or the inside of your mouth is, strictly speaking, self-harm too because doing it is causing harm. Same goes for intentional skin-picking and semi-conscious skin-picking when it goes beyond the necessary.

Though strictly speaking, even scratching off something knowing you could hurt yourself/make yourself bleed is self-harm - but considered to be a behaviour "within the norm/boundaries". There isn't a universal definition of what's normal and what's not though so this is noted to be a self-harming behaviour too.

A friend cutting themselves and burning themselves/almost burning themselves with too hot water for very different reasons (borderline pd, depression) had put it rather plainly once: many things are self-harm because these actions no matter their reasons are harming/injuring and that's never as good as being unharmed and uninjured.

Anyway, still makes this all the more confusing when people unknowingly talk about different types of self-harm because there exist so many.

I don't really actively harm myself in any direct way like cutting, but I am rather self destructive I guess......and people have said that, I also do get suicidal so I guess I have some self harm tendencies.

For me, skin scratching, head banging and cutting are similar to each other. Of course, some behavior is more harmful than other, but I do them all to try to calm down the chaos in my head or punish myself if I've done something wrong. Head banging is especially effective to quiet down my thoughts if they're going overdrive.

I'm always picking at my ears and biting my lip, as a result my lip is often sore and my ears bleed sometimes or they get so painful I have to take painkillers and have trouble sleeping, I try to stop myself from doing my ears when they get really bad like at the moment but they just seem to itch so badly I have to ram a finger or cotton bud in there.

When I get frustrated and something is upsetting me I tend to hurt myself, just whacking my head or pinching myself/digging my nails in my hand or arm. When I was younger if I hurt myself (fell over or something) I would hit the opposite limb or my head to distract me from the pain. I pull at my hair if I'm really frustrated as well but that's not as common.

I don't consider them self harm though, just things I do when I'm getting a little overwhelmed (the first I think may be stims). I used to cut my arm alot when I was a teen, it was the only thing that helped me cope with the emotional overload of being a teen. Whenever anything was too much and because I tend to internalize alot of my emotions I would cut myself. If my brother was picking on me I cut, if I was finding work difficult I cut. It wasn't the first thing I went to, it would slowly build up over a few weeks or so until I couldn't take it anymore and it was either 'lose it', shutdown and withdraw or cut. I haven't done it for a while now with my husband's help he gets me to calm down and tell him what's upsetting me rather then just grabbing a knife when it all gets too much. The last time I can vividly recall was (nearly 4 years ago) when my daughter was having severe bowel problems, the medication wasn't working, she was sobbing and begging me not to change her nappy (diaper) she was so sore and one night when it was all too much for me and I felt like I was going to burst but felt I had to keep it together and cope because I'm an adult so I cut my arm a few times.

I hit my head with my hands or sometimes against the wall. I scratch at myself all the time. I have scratches all over my body. My head has sores from scratching at it all the time. My hair and head always itches like crazy. Also I am a cutter but it used to be much worse 6 years ago. I used to cut every day but now its just a few times a year and only in time of huge stress. If a family member was in danger of dying then I cut on myself and also get suicidal. That is when I bang my head against the wall as hard as I can. There are times that it causes a big bump on my head. I haven't gone unconscious from it yet. So I guess it isn't that hard. Another time I increase the self harm besides time of stress is when I am having a psychotic break. Back when I was a teenager, it wasn't cutting but rather suicidal thoughts. I didn't even think of cutting myself because I wouldn't die unless I am slitting my wrist or something. When I was 13 I was very suicidal because of severe bullying. Now on the news you hear about people killing themselves because of bullying. I self harm as a reason to punish myself. I won't get into the reasons now.

when i do self halm it does not hurt becuase when I do it I can not feel pain. It helps my brain and does not hurt me.

I really wasn't expecting to see anything on this here when I was browsing posts, but it makes sense with relieving tensions. I don't know if that's what I'm doing or not, but this evening I'm feeling stressed and closed in. About an hour ago I did my frequent practice of running a needle under my skin and coming out like an inch away. It's still in. I'll probably take it out before bedtime. I just like the way it feels. Is that the kind of self-harm stuff you people are talking about? If so, then I do it.

Same here. Yet, falling over and taking the skin off knees hurts.

I sometimes tend to cause self harm to myself when I am angry at myself enough I will insult myself inciting negative thoughts and guilt. I will also sometimes hiit myself in the face scratch my arms or bite my arms and or hands it doesn't happen as much as in the past though because I try and fight those negative thoughts when a real bad anxiety attack or meltdown is about to happen. If I am tormented or harassed when hurting myself I take in more of that negative energy and their thoughts and add to it and I tend to get into suicidal mode where I will slit my wrists it has gotten to that point before I hope I don't get to that point again but occasionally those thoughts will creep up on me. When I am in self hate mode and cause self harm I am only hating and causing physical harm to myself but people keep telling me every time I do that it hurts other people that part I do not understand what they mean by that.

I pick my skin and I have a habit of hitting something against my head or pinching my arm hard when I am frustrated about something. I also peel the skin off my lip, sometimes unintentionally causing it to bleed.

I have two reasons for self-harm tendencies, both are totally different:

1) sensory issues:
When I hear noices that are terrible for me or when I see terrible things and this is very suddenly, I start hitting on my ears or on my eyes. But that's more kind of instinctively.

2) inner presure:
This is not so nice. Those can be just minor like lip biting or some nail biting or getting more serious. I never did serious self insury, but sometimes I have a very strong presure where I want to and this is hard to handle those feelings. It's more like a releave to deal with too much inner presure, but that's not very common.

I think people who unfamiliar with self-harm (and in particular cutting) can misunderstand it as this out-of-control state of hacking away at your arms or legs in some sort of state of psychosis. For me, I used it as a way to regulate massively overpowering emotions of despair and sadness. I would carefully, almost surgically, cut shallow parallel lines along my arm and then lie back and allow the endorphins to regulate my mood. From the very start I always understood it to be a form of self-medication or drug addiction. I have felt suicidal and, rather than being similar, the cutting helped to prevent those dark thoughts rather than being any kind of half-way step as some seem to think. Ironically, if I felt desperate and like cutting my wrists, I would 'medicate' myself by cutting my arms.

I think this must be more common in people with AS as my doctor seemed very interested in this part of my history when I requested a referral.

I do remember scratching at my ankles because i got poison ivy on me it got to the point were i had to get shots becase my skin was covered in black and red scans. oh right and banging my head on walls and stuff because i was so bored. at this point im suprised I dont have a dent in my head

i have done it in many ways since i was a little kid. Picking and scratching on my skin Specially my face and neck. I also sleepscratch. Then i started cutting my arms when i was 13, because it was just... Fascinating. I have tried to break my bones many times so i don't have to go somewhere and also i bang my body against walls and stuff. I hit myself while meltdowning, scratch my skin til it bleeds.. I don't know. Meh.