i am 48. i began cutting at 21 but always limited it to my left inner forearm and would cut the same area again and again. i have one wide area that could have used stitches and a couple long cuts. only once have i been asked what they were from and that was at a dr.'s office. i said "life hasnt always been so great" and that was the end of it. perhaps if you could come up with a plausable excuse for how you may have gotten the scar on your leg, have something prepared to answer people should they ask, like "i fell off my bike when i was a kid" and you were carrying a pepsi bottle. that would end any inquiries.

as for ending SI, that takes some work. i used a book called the scarred soul by tracy alderman. it costs like 16 bucks. each chapter had questions at the end to help understand your SI. it was very non threatening book, easy to work with to help understand SI. i worked it to the chapter where i had to commit to ending SI but i was not ready so stopped at that point. BUT i did not do any SI again for over 5 years. and after that it is very infrequent. its been only once in the last two years. i still think about it prob at least once a month, but the compulsion is no longer there. i no longer need razor blades in my house to feel comfortable.

the internet has all kinds of good information of things you can do instead of SI. write on yourself with red marker. squeeze an ice cube really tight. theres lots of ideas out there. something just to interrupt that impulse to cut.

hang in there. you have lots of support here.