I've seen documentaries that showed schizophrenia in all its awful glory, and it makes me grateful that I'm "only" bipolar. I feel so bad for people with that illness.

I also do not understand cutting/burning. My oldest daughter used to burn herself on her arms and then wear long-sleeved shirts to hide the scars. She hasn't self-harmed in many years now, but as hard as I tried to understand what it was that made her do it, I just couldn't...all I could do was hurt for her.

But I did do something when I was young (about 10-13) that could have been a form of self-harm. I used to sit out in the rain and wind and let myself get soaking wet in the hope that I'd get pneumonia and die. Of course, I didn't know then that you can't get sick like that without a virus or bacteria present, and sometimes I actually succeeded in my mission and became ill. But I never came anywhere near death thanks to modern antibiotics, so I was making myself miserable for nothing and I eventually gave up.