Welcome to the self injury room

Self-injury can come in many forms such as, overeating, smoking, not exercising etc. Self-injury I think can be very apparent and sometiemes not. Today, our world is full of a lot of stress and people indulge in many ways that affect their health , income, and relationships with others. I think trying to love and respect yourself takes a long journey and improves with age due to life experieces and maturity. Self-injury is most frieghtening when one is sudicidal and strikes for immediate interevention and treatement. No one should be ashamed if they suffer from a mental illness, we all have weaknesses. I encourage anyone to seek help if they feel sudicial and not feel ashamed because depression is an imbance along with other mental illness.
Take care to everyone!

Thank You Very Much for creating the Self Injury section. I suffer from Bipolar and Social Anxiety Disorders and sometimes its just not appropriate to speak of in those sections, some people just dont understand.

I am new to the Psych Central Site and I already love it. I run my own group on Yahoo Health Groups but I was reading tonight and googled something and came across this awesome website packed with all sorts of information!!! I really enjoy it here so far.

Thanks Again
Take Care Doc
Mikey/PA

Hi
I am new to this and l can see why you may have apprehensions but this is probably the only place that l can talk about my cuttting as no one understands or even wants to understand.
So once again thank you

John,

think that this site is good for cutter's like me. I'm 34 married for the third time and have two boys 6 and 7. My husband now who is really a blessing in my life has taught me to Stop, Pray and Listen to what God is going to say.
It has taken a lot on my part as well to calm myself down, think and make that call to my husband before I do something stupid and cut again.
It is called self dicipline and it takes a lot of it. If a person is really tired of being sick and tired, they will want to do something about it in their life. You are only a victim as long as you allow yourself to be one. I know, I am a domestic violence survivor and I am no longer a victim because I will not allow that person to have control over my life any longer.

Good job with this site.

Cheers,
RHONDA FRANKS

Are there other ways to cause self-injury?..What about an adult that bites their nails until they bleed. Is that self injury or ocd?

((((((dalescooter))))))))) there are *many* ways to self-injure. Any action that causes yourself harm that is intentional and meant to cause harm equals self-injury.

As for your question... it depends on the motivation. It could be anxiety ... or it could be self-injury. Really depends on motivations and feelings behind doing the action. Just my opinion mind you.

Hello Dr.John,
You were wary about posting. I was wary about reading. I asked myself is this going to influence me in a bad way. I decided that if I remember maybe I can read here, at least, when I am in the frame of mind to hurt myself. I have never injured myself because of something I have seen or read. I have only done so when I am extremely low, frustrated, disappointed & very angry with myself. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't think reading anything here should give me ideas--I hope.

http://self-injury.net/

This site was checked out and approved by the moderators. I hope it is useful to some.

Im so pleased that this thread exists,its so hard to find understanding about si/sh.I myself am 41yrs old and theres very few people ,that no i sh.I have kept this a secret most my life which has prevented me from seeking help,Im hoping that by talking with others who understand,will help me and others find positive ways of dealing with sh.

I'm also happy this thread exists....
I haven't felt the need to cut myself in a long time...
But I just got out of a bad relationship..
And the guy I was with, I thought he was the greatest thing ever.
I thought I loved him...
But then he started drifting away from me for no reason.
I got scared.
I tried to talk to him but it didn't help any...
I cry myself to sleep every night...
I can't cut myself because I promised him along time ago that I wouldn't...
I feel guilty when I try to...
And now, he's spreading rumors about me.
People look at me differently because he's saying that we messed around...
When he knows that I was raped and abused and that I'm scared of guys.
I thought I could trust him.
Guess I was proved wrong...
What's wrong with me?
I'm so messed up...
He caused me to start feeling depressed and I know he knows.
I've been different since we broke up...
And yet he doesn't seem to care...
He doesn't even try to talk to me anymore...
I don't know if I can handle this anymore...

I'm sorry that you are going through all this pain. Hugs if you want them: If you don't want hugs then I'll just send my love:

I'm 40 yrs old and have been into self injury since I was a preteen. It started with biting my nails off until they bled and my fingers hurt. By highschool I was an acne/pimple scratcher, again until I bled. But my friends & family just thought it was typical, normal....I don't know. I believed them. But by college it became peeling my lips until all the skin was gone & covering the wound with layers of cold sore lip balm. I blotted out the blood with napkins and stared at the bright red until it became chocolate brown. I would become OCD, obsessed with filling up the whole white square with my blood. the pain was soothing in a way...I'm not sure why. I began to pull off my toe nails until they bled. I had trouble walking. I started picking at my scalp... It was surprisingly easy to hide my secret. No one ever noticed or they choose not to see. And it confirms that I'm invisible, that my fears & pain don't matter. I have 6 tattoos, 2 on my shoulder blades, 2 on my ankles, 2 on my wrists. They are my sacred scars. I loved the pain of the needle, the scabbing above the art, the blood mixed with the ink, and the approval that my personal ink received. It is the pain/wound/scar I could control, that I didn't have to hide, that I was prepared for, I knew it was coming....I got high off of the tattoos. I finally had to stop myself. I've wanted to slash my wrists , to cut myself with knives but I'm too afraid, of the pain and of the inappropriate markings that I couldn't hide. I don't really want anybody to notice my self-injury issues. When I am feeling desperate, I daydream about smashing my face through glass windows, A LOT, almost NONSTOP. Sounds of glass or the sight of windows can be a trigger, just to completely shred my face, to destroy myself, slice off the mask... Now I'm 40 yrs old and I'm STILL having these thoughts, still peeling my lips, still scratching at moles & bumps on my body until the blood flows. For me, self-injury is part self-hatred, part desperation to feel something/anything, part OCD, part some warped idea of my taking control of my emotions. Sometimes it's just a phenomenal RELEASE. I don't drink, smoke or have sex. I don't scream or fight or exercise. I just ....you know....

I found this site on a whim. I'm feeling...you know...so I thought I'd go online instead of bleed. I hope this works.

You are not invisible and you do matter -- every part of you -- your best and your worst parts.

Please, don't start cutting yourself. People will notice your cuts and even if they don't, you will feel guilty long afterwards especially if they leave scars. I've learned the hard way...I'll always have to wear long sleeves to hide all my scars.

By the way, welcome to Psych Central! I'm sure you'll find this place to be very helpful. I have.

Thanks for making this room because I never tell anyone about self-injury. Whenever my psych asks me, I deny everything.

I really appreciate your response. I made it. Didn't cut. Every day is a new struggle but now I have this forum to help me fight the urge, well, that and the latest season of Survivor...

I'm glad you didn't cut. Yay for you!!!

Hi everyone out there I just found this space today and Im glad to be able to distract myself from self harm by writing to you instead lots of things trigger it so I have been looking for anyone to talk to about my mental illness My name is Roxy and Im brand new to the internet, just 1 week now My doc says it can be very helpful. I suffer from bipolar, depression.panic attacks, PTSD, agoraphobia, anxiety plus some medical problems Ive been homebound for 5 years but I have been selk-injurious since high school. I havent stopped yet even after all these years. Well I guess thats enough about me for now if anyone out there wants to talk Ill be here waiting thanks for listening hope you are all well ROXY

Thanks!!! This is going to be so helpful for me because I've been having trouble with SI and it's nice to see I'm not the only one and there is help out there!

I think that this thread will be very helpful for me.

There are just episodes that... I feel the need to talk about but never have.

... did I do the trigger thing right?
I want to make sure before I post more specific things.

Hey Apple!

Feel free to talk about them as much as you want here.

You didn’t have to use the trigger button for that but when in doubt use it. Use it if you’re going to post something or including details that you think might be triggering to others or when mentioning SU or anything of that nature. Use your best judgement as to when you should use the trigger button. If you still have questions check here: http://forums.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=107951