Self Mutilation

Self-harm is a harmful coping mechanism that some individuals may turn to in times of distress. However, self-harm does not produce a "high" in the same way that drugs or other substances might. Instead, people may self-harm to numb emotional pain or to gain a sense of control in their lives. It's important for individuals who engage in self-harm to seek help from a mental health professional to address the underlying issues and find healthier coping strategies.

Self-harm can be a sign of underlying emotional distress, even if you don't feel sad in the moment. It's important to seek professional help to explore the reasons behind this behavior and develop healthier coping strategies. Depression can present in various ways, and self-harm is a serious concern that should not be ignored.

Yes, individuals who self-harm may be hospitalized for a variety of reasons, such as severe injuries, risk of suicide, or underlying mental health issues. Hospitalization can provide a safe environment for medical treatment, psychiatric assessment, and crisis intervention. It is important to seek help from mental health professionals if you or someone you know is engaging in self-harming behaviors.

Most people who harm themselves and are not trying to kill themselves are cutters. There are also people who burn, bruise, etc. with the intentions of feeling better and to keep from killing themselves. most people do this so that their emotional pain will go away and they have a feeling of control for a short period. But once you realize what you've done than it is usually followed by extreme guilt. This is a very hard habit or addiction to break.

If Someone Said:

"I go by the saying 'Tearless grief bleeds inwardly', and personally believe that if you're sad, your grief is in your blood. So I cut myself to let it out and this helps me feel better about myself." If this is what a person with the addictive behavior of "cutting" would say to me, here is what I would say:

I respect, and think I understand, your thoughts, but I think I have a different and better solution. I do agree with the saying about tearless grief; I believe tearless grief does hurt us. If we try to hold feelings of grief in, we may well feel as if our hearts have holes in them and are bleeding. Our emotions need to be acknowledged and our losses mourned. Our bodies and minds are telling us things through our feelings and even providing outlets that are appropriate for release. We need to listen and then respond appropriately. If you feel hungry, eat. If you feel thirsty, drink. If you feel pain, move away from it or eliminate the source. If you feel sad and are grieving, cry.

Therefore, it follows in my experience that if you feel grief, but can not cry to express it or appropriately react to it in another acceptable way, you will feel even worse. The answer is to cry, to feel and acknowledge that specific emotional reaction to loss. To experience acceptable feelings of sadness and mourning in our time of grief. "Cutting", using a knife, razor, or other sharp slicing instrument to cause us to feel pain and have endorphin release, is a blocking mechanism. Blocking emotions is a temporary fix at best. Cutting (which was used in medicine and known as "Blood letting" in centuries gone by) only delays things by giving you other sensations and feelings in the interim to block the true feelings. It obscures the needs, blocks us from the reality of our emotional needs and temporarily avoids the proper solutions. The need to cry remains unsatisfied and your body will bring it forward again, and you will feel sad again, over and over, until finally the related emotion and response are coordinated.

If you acknowledge what you feel, and react to it in the appropriate way, you will fill the need, and if it is grief, you will eventually even fill the hole in your heart bit by bit with the appropriate response, and then feel better. I believe this.

They had theories about illness and negative contents in the blood in ancient Greece and the Middle Ages, and more recently in the 19th century, but more people died from the "cure" (leaches and blood letting) than from the underlying illness or disease. When science became able to see and identify what the real problem was, and learned how to deal with it appropriately, then people were cured of the disease and were no longer unnecessarily made more ill by adding another physical problem on top (anemia, infection, etc., etc.) caused by the "letting" of the blood.

When it seemed like the blood letting was working, it was really the body's own immune system or healing processes that fixed the problem. But, it sometimes coincidentally seemed to happen after the inappropriate response of blood letting, so for a long time they attributed the cures to the wrong thing, injuring or weakening and even killing people in the process. For that reason, the medical theories behind blood letting (phlebotomy) were for the most part abandoned long ago, and I believe appropriately and none too soon.

There are still a few disorders today that are appropriately treated with this practice. Very few. But, the key is that the method is only effective in the long run when it is appropriate to the disorder or the underlying need of the body, mind, or spirit (as in crying when sad, eating when hungry, phlebotomy when too many red blood cells, etc.).

I believe that our bodies are very good at healing themselves on their own in many if not most circumstances. I believe that in many many more circumstances we can help our bodies in that respect by using our minds and will. Sort of the mind-over-matter, placebo effect, the what-you-believe-will-happen-will-happen, way of looking at things. As a person who also believes in science, however, I don't think the evidence is there that we are capable of using those resources appropriately in all circumstances and/or they do not work in all circumstances for whatever reason... we are perhaps not yet evolved to that point, we have new disorders from new causes not yet overcome naturally, etc.

So, my theory on cutting is that it is only the placebo effect, or the belief that it will work that makes it seem to work. If it were an otherwise harmless practice, say whistling, and it seemed to work, I'd encourage it (but only in addition to, not as a substitute for proper appropriate medical treatment). Cutting, though, unlike whistling, has negative ramifications, I believe, in physical aspects (that we should not heap on our bodies, especially when the body is "down"), and also in psychological aspects because it is creating false assumptions, false crutches, and delaying the real fix, such as crying when sad. It seems almost too simple to be the answer, but most things in nature are very simple.

I have often rented a sad movie when I had something emotionally painful happen to make me feel sad, just to elicit the crying response to "prime the pump" and get the process started. And it does make me feel better. I would encourage you to try the same. Hopefully you have not trained your mind to lean entirely on the inappropriate crutch (cutting). It is an habitual and ritual behavior that will make it difficult to accept other solutions at first. It may therefore, prevent you from experiencing relief from the appropriate response to the emotion, but only at first.

I am convinced, if you stay with the right response for the associated feeling, your mind will adjust, and can then pitch in with your body's work and help bring physical and emotional balance. This will happen best and fastest with the addition of the spiritual dimension for balance with your inner self.

My belief system is based on the holistic approach (body, mind, spirit) and I believe each assists the other with problems in their respective areas. But for it to be ultimately effective you have to involve like for like... as in, if the body is "broken" you can not fix it with only responses from the mind and spirit, you must bring in the body in the work, too. It is a three way balance. If the emotions are the problem, you can not try to solve things through only physical (blood letting in this example) and spiritual work, you have to pull in appropriate mental/emotional responses, too.

So, from my way of looking at it cutting is a physical aspect you are trying to use to fix an emotional imbalance. It is like using a hammer to try to do a screwdriver's job. Both are a part of the toolbox, but each is targeted to its own functional area of work. Hammers with nails and screwdrivers with screws. When using the wrong tool or using the tool on the wrong job, you will probably not only not fix the problem, you will very likely break the more than you fix.

And since it is not a balance of all three aspects, it will fail to be a permanent solution and will probably even add extra dimensions of imbalance. For an emotional issue (grief), you need to use your emotions and mind to acknowledge and explore the feeling and your body to express and release the feeling in an appropriate way (tears). The final piece of the equation comes from within, your spirit, the link to the source, to light, to love, and ultimately it enables you to draw from that well, the strength, understanding, and love for the holistic you. The you that can bring everything back to proper balance if you listen to it and balance your responses to fit it.

Consult a psychiatrist immediately because is such situations, a person needs help as soon as possible.

Maybe, but the way i stopped was i didn't forget every reason why i had been doing it, but i realised that other people are in much worse situations that ourselves so i joined an organization to help these people, so now i spend the time which i used to spend self harming, helping people. I think that was the best way in which to get over it and it helped me see the positive things in life. I didn't tell anyone, i just faced my own problem myself and got over it. Now self harm is just a distant memory, which i am happy to forget. Remember, whether you believe this or not, God loves us and we are His children. He doesn't want to see us getting hurt, especially not be ourselves. So try to see the positive things. I know how you feel, because i went through this aswell. When you're old, and you want to do everything you missed out on, you can't and you will wish you did it now, so don't self-harm. Life is short. Make the most of it :) Good luck

yes, it can be addictive. Take it from an actual cutting addict. Being addicted to cutting yourself can be just as much as an addiction to smoking and drugs. Drugs release chemicals which make the body feel "good" when you cut, the body will release these endorphins which soothe the body and give you a feeling of euphoria and people become addicted to the feeling.

Too many. In the U.S., the number of emergency department visits for self-inflicted injury: 594,000. See related links for other statistics.

Kristina says...

About 3 teens self-harm per hour in the UK

In 2003-04 24087 were hospitalised for self-harm in Australia

About 3,000,000 Americans self-harm

It could be a lot of things.

Here is what I would say:

Self-Mutilation is a rising issue in America. Three major issues about self-mutilation are that it is an addictive behaviour, scars are permanent, emotionally and physically, and it is a rising issue among teens.

You may want to reword it some though. I'm only a 10th grader. Ha ha.

If you feel a need to do this please seek help. This will not help you solve problems.

Believe it or not, it actually releases a chemical that can make a person feel better about themselves. Dopamine is more often than not, the chemical released when experiencing pleasure, but it has been discovered that another stimuli is pain, and injury. I do not agree with the practice of it, and there are many, much more perminant, alternatives, that do not involve scarring yourself for life. Although it does release Dopamine, I believe it is more of a cry for attention. --DC

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People cut themselves when they are depressed, but it doesn't make you feel any better! I used to cut myself, and I will always regret it. You do it because you think your worthless, and no one will care, and you just start hating yourself, but it's horrible!! And everything will always get better!! So PLEASE don't do it! Because it will scar you forever.

sometimes, when a male/female becomes depressed they will cut themselves. this is literally what it sounds. often done using a knife or a razor blade. this may be done for attention, or simply because they want to feel something. it may also be this person pusnishing themselves - but it releases something in your brain that makes you feel better - it is also extremely addictive, so don't do it.

You should not cut yourself because nothing is wrong with you, and if you THINK that there is something wrong with you and your life... think again! for guess what nothings wrong until you think it is wrong. Cutting yourself will ruin your life even more... having scars all around you which will never go is pretty ugh!

a lot of people do I know from experience I had a hard time telling my best friend, Let's just say he was sad and disapointed but I made sure to keep it a secret!!

mormaly called cutters but also called self-harmers, self-mutilator. not distributed (the last answer) calling some one who cuts them self disturbed, suicidal, metal, crazy, etc. doesn't helpand mite not end well.

It is a sign of distress and a call for help for some, and that means that the person cutting is probably deeply in agony and needs a way to get rid of it somehow, and cutting could be their way of relieving some of their internal pain.

Wrist cutting is a demonstration of cases of extreme stress and anxiety. Most people who cut their wrists are suffering emotional problems(hence the term "emo"). You should see your doctor to keep it from becoming serious. Your doctor probably knows whats best.

a little side note: If you wrist cut, know that drugs wont make anything better. you may feel happier(for a couple minutes) but when your addiction sets in, it ain't so happy anymore.

Yes, scratches count as self harming. Self harming can be anything when causing damage to your body (whether it hurts or not ).

If You mean scratch, as in when you are itchy, then no that is not self harming, but I advise that you do not do this. Scratching will only make the skin irritated . CREAM is the solution.

All methods of self harm are cutting, scratching, interference with the healing of wounds, hitting or bruising, burning, hair pulling, biting, intentional bone breaking, pinching, starving yourself, purging, salt and ice, overdose, drug abuse, choking, head banging, lip mutilation, puncturing, nail mutilation, poisoning, sanding off skin, tongue biting, intentional spraining, excessive exercise, body piercing(with the intent to feel pain), tattoos(with intent to feel pain) , stapling, self cannibalism ,picking at skin, irritating wounds, carving into the skin, drawing blood, intentionally placing yourself in painful situations, walking through thorns, suffocation, cutting off blood to extremities, snapping rubber bands on skin, swallowing sharp objects, intentionally setting off a serious allergic reaction, putting foreign objects into vagina and anus, ice burning, intentional hypothermia, intentional "accidents", damaging ears, stabbing, digging into skin with nails, chemical burning, injecting harmful substances into veins, friction burns, whipping, private parts mutilation, slapping, intentionally being raped, punching, sewing skin, and anything else intended to induce pain.

.In general, teenagers without a history of abuse or other disorders have a good prognosis. Patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and/or a history of attempted suicide are considered to have the worst prognosis.

It could get infected and then spread to your whole body. To avoid this clean your cut every once in a while. There is also another danger: if its a deep cut it may cut a atery and that could get you in some trouble.

Wear large bracelets, long sleeve t-shirts (but not in the summer! It gets too hot!) Wear knee high socks if you want to wear a skirt [for a girl] or wear long-ish socks (not too high or it'll look weird) for guys if you want to wear shorts. If people ask about the dress sense, say your going hockey or football. For girls, say you don't like your legs, works nearly every time! If someone says, "lets see them then, I bet their not!" Say "Didn't you hear me say I hate my legs?!" But that's fairly risky. Armwarmers generally work for short sleeve t-shirts and wristbands for pe. Some make ups can help too! Good luck!

the person is called a masochist. they like to make themselves feel physical pain so their emotional pain is forgotton

Speak with an intervention specialist about getting him into treatment. Huffing propane will eventually cause brain damage or death. The self-abuse is a minor issue that can be dealt with later.

One untrue statement about treatment for self-injury may be: "Medication is the most effective form of treatment for self-injury." In reality, medication is generally not considered a first-line treatment for self-injury, with therapy, support groups, and coping skills training often being more beneficial.

Self-harm is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) as a symptom of borderline personality disorder and depressive disorders.

It is sometimes associated with mental illness, a history of trauma and abuse including emotional abuse, sexual abuse, eating disorders, or mental traits such as low self-esteem or perfectionism, but a statistical analysis is difficult, as many self-injurers conceal their injuries. There are also physical syndromes that are associated with self-injury.

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