Is self-mutilation really that common??

[Sucidesurvior]

Originally posted by CosmoGirl1391

I am a big fan of MTV's "The Real World", and in tonight's episode, one of the female characters, Frankie, was upset about a fight she had with her boyfriend and went in the bathroom and cut herself with a kitchen knife. She said she had been doing it since she was 13.

 

In a movie I watched called "Thirteen", a 13 year old girl cuts herself as well.

 

Is self-mutilation really this common? I mean, I know it's out there. I have seen young girls come in the clinic with unexplained scars and cuts, but I don't see it all that much.

 

I just don't really understand how people can do this to themselves. It such a horrible way of dealing with emotional distress. It's really sad.

 

I hink it is far more common than we like to admit. Married for 21 yrs but lived togethger fot 21. I believe my husband is having is having an affair at work and about a month ago after the bit** was exceptionally rude to me, I took 190 sleeping tabletd and abti depressants. In a coma for 36 hours on a respitator and then transferred tp psych. ward.

 

.was released 3 days latr whixh was, imo, too soon See a psychatrist weekly and, besides self-mutilation, seem to be doing better. The self-mutilation definiitely helps to focus your thoughts away from the emotional pain.

[blackheart]

I'm one of the rare men I guess who is a self mutilator. I've only done it maybe three or four times in the last five years mostly because its lost its effectiveness. And it isn't always just cutting. I was into burning as well.

 

For me it did several things. It made me forget about the emotional pain I was in. My depression was out of control and nothing I did ever made things better. But here was a pain I could control. I could choose how much pain. Finally an emotion that was within my control.

 

And it also served as a punishment towards myself. I had so much self hatred going on that it felt good to hurt the person I hated most.

 

The problem for me came in that soon it took more and more infliction to get the same positive emotional results. Initially a small shallow half inch cut with a razor would do it. Or one good cigarette or car lighter burn. But it started to get to where it would take ten deep long cuts or ten burns.

 

I pretty much quit about thirteen years ago because the severity of the abuse I was inflicting was starting to scare me and it was getting very hard to hide it. I've tried a few times since when things have gotten bad but I found that the escalation factor still is there and a little wound doesn't do it.

[Trager]

i was a self mutilator, and have managed to tone it down, tons, i always did it for one, so i could show my pain and two. simple i feel the pain but cant see it. once that cut is there i can see my pain, in a way it makes u think the physical pain is a better alternitive to the pain inside. i also did it to hadle my frustrations, weird way of anger management issues? yes, but i'd rather hurt myself than others. anyhoo i've stoped i've found better ways. but those where my reasons.

[Sucidesurvior]

Blackheart, I, too, used to burn myself. I have been getting psychotherapy to stop my suicide attempts and self mutilation. I have not burned or cut myself for 2 months now so it has worked for that. The suicide attempts though are another story. I just got out of hospital after another attempt last weekend.

[Matilda]

I have been in the health care field for over 20 years. I never even heard of cutting until about a year ago. Why is this all of a sudden coming into vogue?

[moimeme]

I suspect publicity is a double-edged sword in this situation. It sheds light on a situation that requires attention, but it also suggests a behaviour to people who may not otherwise have considered it.

[Sucidesurvior]

Originally posted by Matilda

I have been in the health care field for over 20 years. I never even heard of cutting until about a year ago. Why is this all of a sudden coming into vogue?

 

Matilda - I am now 47 y.o and have been cutting and burning myself since I was 16. The past 2 months is the longest I have ever gone without harming myself in either of those ways.

[LoNeR sLoNeR]

Around where I live it is very common...VERY COMMON.

 

I guess it's just a way to deal with everything..it's a way to feel control -- control over your body and your life..I guess you'd have to be one to know what it's like

[Sucidesurvior]

Loner, I think you're right to a degree. In my case it was a way of substituting physical pain for emotional pain. Fortunately, with intensive therapy, it is now about 3 months since my last episode. Hopefully, it will be a lifelong healing.

[demonfall]

My ex used to cut herself quite a bit while we were together. She said she'd been doing it since she was like 10-12 years old or something. She's 20 now, and still does it. I tried to get her to stop. I tried to get her to tell me why she does it. I never got an answer that I could accept. I think something happened to her when she was very young and has never told anyone. She kept a lot of stuff in, only writing some of it down in her diary (I read it, I apologized for doing so after she dumped me). The only reason for it I was ever really given is that she likes the pain. I know she has issues, and I still love her regardless of them. I just wish she could have come to me and talked to me about her problems, but I guess that's just not her way. OK, I'm getting off topic here and going into my situation, so I'll end with this. Watching someone you love cut them self on a regular basis is a very painful thing to go through. Especially when you're powerless to stop it. They're the only ones who can end it, but they have to want to do it. Unfortunately my ex had no plans to stop cutting herself, even though she has a 2 year old son. I haven't been in contact with her for 2 weeks now, and am trying to move on. I just hope she will stop doing this to herself someday. Even though we're no longer together I wish I could find a way to help her with it.

[Groovy]

I have had friends growing up who did this. I wonder if the upper class does it more because it is an attention thing. Most of my friends were latch key kids who saw little of their parents and were raised by sitters.

 

To me it always seemed like a cry for help. Like they wanted people to see their cut arms and have people wonder if they'd go deeper and take their life at the wrist. I mean people who cut, they typically do it in places other people can see.

[emmaamme]

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my best friend let his friend stick safety pins in him yesterday he let him stick one through his private area and the day before he let him do his chest,nipple,nose,ear,arm,foot and his private are again.

 

he also let him carve a name into his arm with a knife and he's going to do the same again today. he wont listen to me when i tell him not to let him do it , what should i do?

[duckrodgers]

I am Male, I started self-harming at the age of 13; it got worse as time went by which nealy killed me on many occasions. I am 31 and leading my life the best way I can and have stopped for nearly 8 years now... to be honest I don't think about self-harm any more.

 

It's a very common thing; have seen many people do this for various reasons, one of my sisters does it when she gets very stressed or gets too drunk.