I do not engage in self injury, at least not physically ( mentally I do a pretty good job injuring myself). I have a question regarding how you first developed this behavior. If you can remember back to when you first figured out that SI provided you some temporary emotional benefit. I would like to hear your perspective on this since I have no first hand knowledge. My question might even reflect what little I understand about SI.

Do you think a child becoming aware at that a lot of people not only have self injury thoughts, but actually carry them out, could trigger a turning point between thinking about in and trying it?

Just so you understand the context in which I ask this question. My child who is elementary age experience a lot of intense anxiety at times and often speaks about harming himself. I know this is not atypical but some other anxiety behaviors he demonstrates suggest to me the potential is there and I shouldn't ignore it. I don't ignore them but I don't overreact to them either. Until this morning. He was really upset this morning about something, threating to hurt himself, and out of the blue he asked me what cutting meant. When I asked where he heard this term, he showed me a handout associated with an educational program dealing with different types of addictions. Cutting was mentioned as an addiction. I have no idea how this subject was presented in school but it clearly had caught his attention.

Do you think realization that people SI could result in a child actually attempting it?