In my reading I came across something rather interesting. I am going to paraphrase the section because it is really quite long. I just wonder what you think about the affect this has on our recovery.

"Cutting, burning and other sef-injurious behaviors may be a way to manage unbearable emotions by altering interpersonal conditions as well as by altering the body's biological ballance...Research on nonhuman primates has demonstrated that self-mutilation is a common reaction to social isolation and fear...Fear activates the secreation of endogenous (internally produced) opioids, which can become highly addictive. In animals that have been severely stressed, WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS CAN BE PRODUCED BY STOPPING THE STRESSFUL STIMULUS...Van der Kolk, Perry and Herman (1991) found that two decades after the original trauma, people with ptsd developed opioid-mediated analgesia (numbing) in response to a stimulus resembling the original traumatic stressor, which they correlated with a secretion of endogenous opioids equivalent ot 8 mg of morphine."

What I get from this article is that when we injure ourself we flood our systems with opioids which make us feel good but the process is highly addicting like any sort of drug use and like drug use there are withdrawel symptoms which push us to injure again so we can elliviate the discomfort. What do you all think? If this is true, how does this affect our efforts to stop this coping behavior?
Carrie