To my understanding, self harm reinforces negative self talk. Say you got into a fight with your mom and she made you so upset that you wanted to take it out on yourself. Even if you aren't actively thinking "I need to be punished" but are instead just wanting to relieve some of the pain, by inflicting physical pain on yourself you are still implanting the idea that you are no good and you need to be punished for upsetting your mom.

I guess in my situation, cutting helps me manage my loneliness, self hatred, sui thoughts, etc. If I constantly use self harm to block out those feelings, then I just ignore the real problem and never actually treat the reason I'm being driven to that point.

I know it's a coping mechanism just like singing or drawing... but it's really not. How many completely happy and mentally individuals do you know that live a genuinely happy life and occasionally self harm?

But to be honest, I struggle with this too. For me, cutting defeats my sui thoughts for at least a little while. I have trouble figuring out if cutting is worse than sitting around thinking about dying or if it's best to just cut and move on with my life.