Why do so many people seem to think self harm is ok since it's a coping mechanism. I self-harm but I know it's not good and there are much better options.im not saying people should belittle us and all that because of our coping mechanism but it definitely does mean we need help.

I feel terrible. I don’t know why I did this. Can someone please reassure me or tell me the truth.

My cuts have only ever been superficial cat scratches, being extremely pale they show up on my skin and look worse than they are, but fade to invisibility. I made 4, 2cm cuts on the outside arm by the elbow in a very small relapse during an episode triggered by an unexpected traumatic event, but stopped myself and redirected my coping mechanisms.

I taped them and covered up and forced myself back into routine and recovery from the event, which meant attending my weekly climb with a friend at the climbing gym the next day. It was the first slightly warm day in ages so the sweat must have made them come off because they’d been on a while, and stick to the inside of my sleeve.

I greeted all the regulars as usual without thinking about the cuts under the assumption they weren’t visible, and it not being on the forefront of my mind. I noticed after a couple of climbs and panicked and went to the desk to ask for plasters, and was caught off guard when she asked “what’s it for” I literally could’ve said I scuffed my knee or anything, but I shot a blank and said “oh wait never mind I’ve got some” and went to the bathroom.

I sat there for a minute debating what to do and decided to not allow myself to make a big deal out of it and hope they weren’t that noticeable. It was too warm to wear the hoodie and I felt immobilised by shame to go back to the desk. So I just did my climb and thought It’s possible people will notice, but they might not obviously be SH with the absence of any surrounding scarring and the smallness in size? And is anyone one even looking that hard at me anyway as an amateur?

I didn’t mention it to my friend, who’s aware of my past, because hopefully if it was noticeable he’d say. He didn’t seem any different to usual, but now I feel scared I made him uncomfortable.

And now after coming home and staring at them I’m feeling like I’ve just done the worst thing ever and revealed to everyone I’m emotionally unstable and mentally insane or attention seeking, and that I’ll have scared people away from me because they’re scabbed over but relatively fresh, even though it’s been years since I’ve been cutting.

I hate to think a kid might’ve noticed or a parent and felt offended or that I seemed nonchalant about potentially triggering someone. Have I made a terrible error in judgement here? Will people be judging me terribly now?

Can anybody let me know a foolproof way I'll bleed out? I don't want my blood clotting before I die

I have been "clean" of SH for about 1.5 years now. I am feeling really good lately and my psych doc even suggested slowly getting off my meds.
However, for some weird, f*ed up reason I am sometimes (especially at night) feeling the urge to self-harm again? I am really confused by this. I am feeling really good for a while now. I am doing good at my studies (studying psychology lol) and also work-wise everything is going quite well. Still, especially when I am sitting at my computer on my own in the evening/night, I for some reason feel this weird urge again, that I already thought I'd never feel again. I really don't know why or what this is.
Obviously, since I am a "scientist" to some degree (studying to become a psychologist/ neuropsychologist in the research field) I did some research, but there is barely anything on this topic. So I was curious: Is there anyone else who had this experience?

Feel free to DM me the names of the subreddits for privacy if needed

I keep hurting myself and I need help. I have no one. I just need a conversation please.

I am so done with my life i have a awful family that can’t even function properly i have a terrible mother that doesn’t give two shits about me i have nobody that cares about me everyone hates me for no reason everyone thinks i’m a shitty human being with no sense of right and wrong and i think i deserve to die because of it i think heaven will be a much better place than here i just don’t want to live anymore cuz this world is so fucked up the ass

i just really want to cry it all out and i can’t do can someone help?

He told me he’d give it back, but now we have become strangers and im struggling without self harming. I need to feel the pain and see the blood again.

so I'm going to Florida next week for a few days and I have no clue how to hide my scars 😭 they're on the side of my wrist. I know bracelets and all that, but I've gotten used to not wearing them because I don't have to wear short sleeves where I liveee. how can I hide them?

I really need some help. I have Prom in a week and I'm really trying to keep myself clean (I think I've been 4 or 5 months clean at this point), but I really don't know if I can do it. I want to be able to wear my dress, but I'm so upset and angry all the time and I need the outlet that SH gives me.

What can I do to keep myself from doing it?

I don't cut that deep, but enough for it to bleed. They heal quickly , 2 weeks and they're gone. And I feel like that's a good thing , but at the same time when I see them disappearing I cut again because I just can't accept the fact they fade. I want them to fade because I'm scared of somone noticing , but then I keep cutting because of how quick they fade. I've tried distracting myself with a number of things , but seeing cuts fade ruins it all and it just convinces me to cut deeper. I can barely stay clean. I don't know if this makes sense but whatever.

ive been having this like bruised feeling up my inner arm going up to a bit past my inner elbow but i never really cut above the elbow at all? its painful and hurts my arm to move too much, for context i do fairly deep cuts to fascia and im prettybsure i have some sort of nerve damage from servering nerves, is this related to nerves or is it just entirely unrelated

Idk what is that feeling when you get a goosebump with some fresh cuts I have fresh cuts on my legs and I got goosebumps it felt sooo weird but in a very comfy way Was even better than sex im a virgin

i’m not one to hide my scars since i like wearing short sleeved shirts but i never wanna wear one again. today in class i took off my jacket and some kid said “so why don’t you just kill yourself instead of cutting yourself” and in art i was finishing my project and a different kid said that he was gonna throw a scissors at me (as a joke) and i said that that’s weird and he just said “if i gave it to you, you would probably just cut yourself with it” and the teacher was standing right there and heard him and she did nothing. i’m not usually ashamed of my scares but now i am i wanna dig myself into a hole and just cry. people can’t even leave me alone on my birthday

tw mention of blades

so i’m currently in recover and have been clean for 28 days, but i still have all of my sh supplies. i would like to start by throwing out all my blades but im having trouble with it. i paid for those with both my money and money others gave me and i feel too guilty about wasting money to throw them out. also, i have a towel i used to use for cleanup, and im not sure what to do with it(its big.) im going to try cleaning out all the stains and then just putting it back with the other towels but honestly im pretty sure they aren’t going to come out. what do i do with it then? i live with my family so they’ll most definitely notice a huge towel in the trash. im sorry if this is a weird question but its one of the biggest things besides guilt keeping me from finally throwing everything away

I live in a therapeutic group with a caregiver who supports me during the day. At the moment, a friend of my flatmate who is currently in a crisis is always staying with us

I like to be there for people and I also let her read her diary to me because she wanted to

Probably because she is looking for understanding

In any case, she brags about her self-harm and comes to us straight after her wounds have been stitched and reads the doctor's notes to us, telling us how much and how deeply she has injured herself, etc.

It triggers me incredibly, but on the other hand it probably helps her to talk about it I have a lot of pressure to hurt myself with her descriptions and labels of the skin layers (they wouldn't be deep)

I don't know how to address it I hate myself beyond belief

my friend group has had a sleepovers without me now and it's literally killing me, I was two months clean and I did it again, over something that small. I'm so pissed off at myself, like I don't understand why I did over something so small. and my best friend who apparently hates a girl who was a bitch to me suddenly likes her and has a sleepover with her. idk whether I'm overreacting or not but I'm actually so upset and idk what to do.

I’m two weeks clean (again) and can’t stop thinking about it. I keep triggering myself (sorta on purpose ig) and I so desperately want to tell someone about it but I feel like it’s unfair to put people in that position when they can’t really do anything about it… thoughts?

i swear it's gonna be a bad post.... i fucking want to die so badly it is taking other my thoughts, i was eating today with my dad and my sister and two little brothers, i wear headphones bcs noises hurt me, and i told my dad, like, my whole family at this point, they always at the start of me talling them, they made awfull noises to make fun of me, i screamed everytime they did tis, it irritated me, i sometimes wanted to hurt them, but i never did, but you know, now i am seen as "shrek" bcs i keep getting mad at anything, i know that getting mad other someone looking at your screen is not nice, and i don't like being paranoid like that, but i hate when i get comments of my family like "she cuts herself from the world" or "can you take it off we are eating" tho i explained it 40 times, and i get jokes abt that, i also got lots of "jokes abt my arms, i know they did that to keep me from liking doing that, and it didn't work, it made me want to die, just like when they want me to like be more fast bcs i never am realy fast when i have to put dishes away or put my clothes away too, i do it sometimes, more the dishes, but even if i improve, i stil get hated, i wish i was better, i don't even see a future in front of me, i've been liying to myself, i just want to die.....it's so sad bcs i acctully was doing my best to enjoy life, it was very very hard lately, had a lot of fights to do, i hate my life, i just wanted to have loving family who tried really hard to understand eachother, but no one, no one could get me, and no one, had spear time to give me a hand, i never wanted help, the help they want to give me, is changing to not be annoying, and to become a fucking robot, i just can't get anyone, why are they so strange, i can't get any jokes, i just want to kill myself, please kill me.....it was the most truthfull moment with myself, i never cry, only get angry, but no one understand i bottle up my emotions, i want to die, but they know this, i told them ! but deny is a river in egypt... my last joke lol

i’ve been cutting for the last few months and i really didn’t hope this would become so unhealthy and so addicting to me. fact is, i never go deep enough - not because of the fear, the pain or anything that would include my health - but because of others. i don’t go deep because i know that it will leave scars that people would ask about and if i end up needing stitches i would worry my parents. is this what i really want? am i valid or just doing this based on other people’s reactions of it? i always feel the need to tell my friend when i sh, and i don’t really want to worry him, but i also don’t want support or help - i just want to feel seen, for someone to know that i need time to heal, and to be careful about my feelings. truth is i’m too sensitive. i want them to bleed, i want a physical representation of the pain that i have control over. i use my sharpener’s blades but they are small and not sharp enough. would boxcutters be too much? would they go too deep/cause permanent scarring? am i just fucking faking this? help please, i need answers or just someone to listen

i told her how i dont have any friends, and i am always feeling this deep loneliness and all, and she went "so am i supposed to feel bad for u? oh poor u, are lonely and have no friends, poor you."
im just so numb idk how to feel, she said more but i cant remeber
also does anyone else talk to themselves abt their problems? idk i feel like im crazy, but i make voice recordings and talk abt my problems, idk ig ik i wont judge myself, and i wont need to overthink what ppl think of all my problems.

I've been self harming since i was 12. so for 8 years now. at first it was just small scratches but these days i've been going to fat. But why is it so comforting to me? its like sh is my best friend, my lover, my ride or die. its been my only coping mechanism since i was a kid. When no one was there for me, Sh was.

But no one seems to be able to see if from my perspective. They just want me to stop, they dont understand how much i love sh. how much i need to hurt myself and see the blood, the skin, the fat, to feel the pain and see my work.

how am i ever meant to get clean when i feel like this? when i love self harm so much that i cant live without it?

This is my 2nd post in a week. That probably says something is wrong but whatever, idek why I'm saying this tbh. Self awareness??? Who knows. Anyways,

Today I burnt myself. Again. This is the third time this week. Fourth time self harming but third time burning. My "urges" started about two weeks ago I think. I was feeling insecure in my relationship but I didn't do anything, this Monday though. God, it only took me a look at my reflection when I was walking with my (now ex) bf and I suddenly saw how fucking ugly I was.

When I got home I had my lighter with me, I was alone in my room, looking at the flame. I think it was half my horrible self esteem at the time and half impulsive thoughts. I let the flame burn for a while, turned it off and then... well, yk.

This whole week has been horrible. I hate myself so much right now, I hate how cutting doesn't even do anything anymore, I've done it so much I've just built a tolerance now and I can't feel anything unless my skin is burning and blistering. It's the kind of thing I'd read about in one of my books.

Monday, I burnt and cut myself, yesterday I burnt myself with a cigarette and today I've done it again. But today I've had no reason to. I was looking at the burning bit and just pushed it into my arm. It felt so good and horrible at the same time, I hate it. I'm worried that I've gotten, idk, addicted again maybe? When I was younger and first started it was just to calm myself, make me feel better in a way, until it wasn't. I did it every time I went in the shower even if nothing was wrong and maybe now it's going to happen again.

I don't know why I do this to myself, it's been one bad week. One. And all because of my stupid, idiotic, fucking, I can't even express how fucking stupid I feel right now. I want to pull my hair out, I want to burn myself again, even if it causes my skin to bubble and burst. I wish I could pull my own fucking organs out because I feel like I deserve it. I know I don't, I know that this is probably just hormones or something but I really wish someone would just hit me or kick me or something. Do something to make me feel less miserable and disgusting.

Fuck, this is a lot. I didn't intend to write this much. I'm sorry for whoever had to read this, I probably sound angsty as fuck.

Anyways! Any suggestions as to why I'm just doing it randomly now cus I have absolutely no idea lmao.

Hi, I hope my question isn't stupid but when I get frustrated with video games, I hit my thighs to release frustration, although I don't have enough strength to bruise myself. What do you think ? Does it count as sh too or not ?

Ive started cutting to cope with feelings of anger and rejection. Any healthy alternatives? The urges are already getting stronger and more frequent. Please help

Ive been productive for a week and have had stuff to distract myself almost all the time. I may not have taken care of me properly but i haven't sh in a week. I hope this keeps up.

whenever i shower my scars will turn purple-black ish. normally is skin tone or slighty pinker. any ideas why this happen?

I can't really go to a professional.

I've tried it twice cause of curiosity. First time- it hurt more.

As for the second, scars were more bloody but didn't hurt as much

(Is it possible that I could get used to it s o quickly? or did I just cut myself wrong?

Cutting myself was less painful than having to do stuff while being scarred.

Everytime my clothes fabric moved, I felt them. Wasn't pleasant. Is this how SH works? That you feel the pain afterwards and you have to deal with it?

How deep are SH scars normally? Is it like a bloody graze or deeper? How do people even hide those scars? Especially teens when they're in school and have PE lessons.

Feel free to share your story and I'd appreciate if you guys anwered my questions.

(I'm asking because I'm curious, I'm not about to cut myself again. You guys don't have to tell me that I shouln't hurt myself, and don't worry I don't need help. )

take care guys