"But I don't think that I need to draw blood to see my affliction; I only need to look around at the clutter in my bedroom (which has only not degraded to filth because I allow my caregiver to clean once a week) for a visualization of what's going on in my head. And body.

Some of the photos on that website were very disturbing;

It's good that you don't need to draw blood to see your affliction! The problem for cutters is that they cannot see. That's where they resort to the harm. The pictures you see are not a very good depiction. Most of my scars are just little white lines. There's only one scar that is obviously from cutting, it's nasty and red and raised. Over time it will go down (I have to believe that). My wrists, they just have the tiniest semblance of redness. Inner arms have three unique lines, but my roommates assure me they never noticed until I showed them. Plus I use makeup on them.. When I got a tattoo, it's right near a scar. A friend tried to push up my sleeve past the tattoo and I freaked out. It wasn't a good way of trying to hide my secret obviously. But you have to realize those pictures are not reality for most people. We don't want to be seen. It's for us. It is hardly ever for attention.

As far as cutting paired with ideation - it is not any more riskier than ideation alone. My therapist has even stated this. I do not use cutting as a means for suicide, and I never have. If I did, I'd be doing it a totally different way, starting with direction. Cutting is honestly used to fight ideation, if you can believe it. This is the thing that angers me the most. My roommates don't trust that I'm "safe" because they don't understand that there's such a thing as nonsuicidal self-harm. Self harm is a symptom of depression. So is ideation. Your therapist doesn't run to call 911 when you tell them this. According to DSMV, it's a symptom that coexists with depression and other mental illnesses.