Any other Men?

Not sure if this is the appropriate place, but just wondering if there are any men that SH?

It seems like there are few. Curious to see if it's more common than I think, or maybe men are much less likely to let it be known.

Feeling sort of dumb I don't know what SH stand for????

SH = Self Harm

How ironic! I was thinking the same thing. Today, in another forum, a guy (he identified himself as such) was responding to another entry and mentioned that he was thinking about harming himself. He said he was holding the tool he used before but didn't do anything this time.

That made me think that I've never read or heard of a guy cutting himself (assuming SH to be cutting). I've read a lot of entries in the different forms here from females about SH/SI. Other web sites like this one must have their share of entries from females who self-harm, I would think.

So, I know of one male. Maybe males don't talk about it because they think it would be embarrassing.

Hey guys . I don't know if what I do qualifies as SH or not, but since I have some scars I guess it does. I have this tendency to want to see my own blood for some reason (I must be so screwed up in the head I guess), but I don't cut myself, I just squeeze hair follicles or pores in my skin until it bleeds. I do this on my arms mostly. It has left scars, and I've been doing it for years.

It comes from my teenage years when I used to have some acne. Luckily I don't do it on my face.

One of my closest male friends in college was a cutter. Little slices all up and down his arms.

For me it was punching brick walls until my knuckles looked like raw hamburger. All through HS and college. I am paying for it now with seriously stiff knuckles.

I have also done a lot to my self "accidentally". I put it in quotes because it's hard to know how much was really accidental, how much was recklessness, and how much was intentional.

I believe there's a whole sub-forum on PsychCentral
on the topic of Self-Injury. One moment, please, while
I post the link:

Self Injury - Forums at Psych Central

I don't but had a friend who did. None of us knew anything about SH at the time. I will sometimes pick at my cuticles to the point of pain and bleeding and I couldn't tell you why. It seems too minor to really be classed as SH.

I'm 30 and I have struggled with self-mutilation since I was 16. It's something of an addiction, in a way, because for me it is an effective way of immediate relief for the emotional pain I deal with on a daily basis. I did not use this maladaptive coping mechanism for the greater part of my 20s; however, when I was 27, I became addicted to heroin, and it is only now that I am recovered from that addiction that I realize intravenous heroin use is just another form of self-mutilation. Every time I used I wished it would be enough to be an overdose.

For me, in addition to the temporary relief from emotional pain, I also realize that I was putting scars on myself in visible places because I felt like my outside had to match my scarred inside that no one could see because I present well and appear to have my ducks all in a row.

My most recent episode was on August 15, where I severed an artery in my forearm (my place of choice) and had to have 6 stitches to close it up in the ER. I haven't done it since, and I think it was a good wakeup call, because I could very easily have let myself bleed to death. I have never seen so much blood coming from my body; it was like a faucet. It scared me enough to drive myself to the ER, and also pointed out my desire to live. It's important to note that people who self-mutilate generally do not want to commit suicide, although the two can of course exist concomitantly.

I don't ever want to cut myself again, but at the same time, I get some wicked little pleasure from seeing the self-inflicted scars that plague my left upper arm and forearm. I think it's because, like I said before, with those visible scars, people can see that I'm hurting despite the well-kept appearance that I maintain.

I'm in therapy and on medications, so it's getting better. The psychologist I have now has honestly saved my life. I started working with him in February of 2013 and the improvement has been significant and lasting. I still struggle with the desire to self-harm, and I have very intrusive thoughts of suicidal ideation multiple times throughout the day, but I have no intention to act on those thoughts because I'm learning that it's okay to feel what I'm feeling and express it in other ways besides slicing my body apart.

Sorry for the long reply.