Any one who has self-injured themselves?

Question

I myself have self-injured myself in the past. Now I am a psychology major student. I wanted to ask a few questions. I will give good answers out if you help a sister out! here are the following questions:

1. Before you started hurting yourself, did you know somebody who hurt themselves?

2. Did anything specific spark your desire to hurt yourself.

3. In my point of view your not neccesarily trying to do yourself off but instead you're trying to release your pain. Do you agree or disagree? why or why not?

Answer 1

1.  No.

2.  Other than depression, no not really.

3.  True.  In the past, I've cut myself with razor blades and burned myself with lighters.  The 2nd time I self-mutilated it was my 14th birthday and I burned my arm with incense (13 years later and the scar is still about 2 inches by 2 inches).  Imagine how many times I had to burn myself to make a scar that big... with incense?!!!  That was awful.... it got so infected and gross.  Each time I self-mutilated, I thought to myself that perhaps I could relieve my inner turmoil by turning it into physical pain instead... but it never really worked.  It's been a REALLY long time since I've done anything like that, but I have to admit that from time to time when my head is in a really bad place, I still think about it.

Answer 2

1. No

2. I wanted to take the pain that was inside and make it visible, where I could deal with it more objectively. Emotional pain is impossible to deal with, but you can slap neosporin and a band-aid on a cut and it'll heal wonderfully, leaving a nice scar.

3. Agree, I have never cut myself as a suicide attempt. I am very careful not to cause serious damage. I don't want people to think I'm crazy, so I only cut in places others can't see, like my thighs...I wear long pants, or Capri's of the right length year-round.