I know Im not trying to kill myself by cutting. But United State law doesn't see it as simple as that. Basically its illegal in the United states to be a danger to yourself or others. But they make no distictions of breaking it down into situations. that law covers homicide, suicide, self harm, abuse, and so on.

If a person is harming themselves and or others in any way they can be arrested and or committed into a mental health unit for treatment. For involluntary committment the person is remanded to the MHU at the very least for 72 hours and it can be up to 14 days for an evaluation an medication stabilization then released or a longewr term facility is found.

Therapy agencys must go according to the laws and also follow state and federal mental health codes in order to obtain an agency license. The same for therapists obtaining their individual certification and licensing.

The mental health field considers cutting to be dangerious and potentially life threatening because the person can accidentally cut an artery and die within seconds (unless they have nursing biology/physiology background cutters don't know each and every artery and vein) on top of that at the moment of cutting the cutter is usually reacting in the heat of emotions instead of logic of how deep they cut. It usually isn't until after the cutter has gotter that release andis thinking straight that the look to see what damage they caused to see if they need to go for stitches.

So an agency before they even open the door to clients set down their guidelines for how they plan to treat clients when they find out someone is an abuser, suicidal or a self injurer. Most agencys guideline protocals are that these clients are to be refered for inpatient care. Not only for the safety of the client doing these things but for the other clients as well. for example someone went into the agencys bathroom and purposely cut. and in the heat of the moment forgets to clean up every drop of blood. No one knows if that cutter had AIDS and so on.

Anytime I enter therapy with a new agency I find out what their guidelines are for suicide and self harm. My agency does follow the protocal of hospitalization if they know of someone actively suicidal or self harming behaviors. My therapists individual views on it is if there is another way she will dicuss other opions but because she works for an agency that has set guidelines she doesn't really have a choice if its in that 24 hour mental health code window so Im not going to put her into that position of her personal views conflicting with the mental health codes and guidelines set down by the law and agency.

Considering I have been hospitalized once voluntarily and 3 thimes involluntarily I am more than happy to not show and recent "evidence" of my self harm situations.