I have been involved in SI for almost three years. To be honest, I never thought I'd be saying that. I thought it'd be something that happened for a couple of months and then forgot about. But it plagues me every day. I cannot go a day without at least thinking about it. It used to be a lot worse; I used to hurt myself at least 3 times a week, if not more. Now it's much less frequent, but it still happens, and sometimes it's worse than others. i have scars all over the tops of my legs and my arms. It's embarassing. I have a boyfriend and he knows that I have done it before but he doesn't know that it's still going on and I don't know how much longer I can hide it. People seem to think that SI is a way of slowly killing yourself. But it's not. It's not at all. When people smoke cigarettes, it puts tar into their lungs and can lead to lung cancer, which can lead to death. You can't say the same type of thing for SI. I could keep doing this for the rest of my life and as long as I'm smart about it, it's not going to kill me. So, really - what's the big deal? If it helps me to cope, and if nothing else works as well, and it's not going to kill me - then seriously, what's the HUGE problem that makes this so taboo and shameful and serious?