I didn't tend to think of those habbits as self harm either. It is easy to focus on cutting as being self-harm and dismiss all those other "smaller" things. Truth is the smaller things can be more insideous because they can be done at anytime--even in your therapy sessions. I truly believe that knowledge is power. Knowing what it is gives you the power to conquer it but if you don't know what it is it tends to conquer you. Cutters don't tend to go for the vein. That is a suicidal act, for the most part self-injurers don't want to kill themselves. The act of cutting a vein is to end it all but the act of cutting elsewhere is to make it possible to continue. One is self destruction the other is self preservation.
Carrie

<font color=green>But the implicit and usually unconscious bargain we make with ourselves is that, yes, we want to be healed, we want to be made whole, we're willing to go some distance, but we're not willing to question the fundamental assumptions upon which our way of life has been built, both personally and societally.--Bill Plotkin, Soulcraft