today is Self-Injury Awareness Day

what is self-injury, you ask? this site explains it well. why am I posting this here? because it's a medical issue that desperately needs to be noticed and taken seriously. it's kind of like anorexia was 20 years ago, psychiatrists and doctors have no idea what to do with self-harming patients, and some turn away these patients as a policy, because their problem is too tough to deal with. anorexia now gets taken seriously (it's not merely adoloescent attention-seeking, it's a disorder that affects people of all ages and genders), as should self-injury.

read up on it, feel good about knowing how to help yourself or loved ones who are cutters/burners/etc., and help to erase the stigma of this disordered behavior.

edited. I'm not giving that kid more attention. thank you to the mod that took care of that post

[Edited on 3/1/2004 by MorningtonCrescent]

I've dealt with enough cutters to know it's not a sign of weakness. It's hard for people who haven't cut to understand, but it can actually help. I've seen it go too far, though.

DE

Your comment offended me quite a bit actually. This summer I got severly depressed and just about started to do "something stupid". It is in no way fair of you to make fun of people about this. Why dont you try to be neglected by your family for your whole life..it #ing makes you feel like #. Especially if you bottle up your emotions, because yet again you have no one to turn to when your family is the one #ing you over. I did get psychologist help, and am doing 100% better, but your comment is un-needed, and I personally think you should get banned from these forums for stating such a derogatory remark.

And therin lies the problem, is lack of public knowledge, recognition, and sensitivity to this issue.

How many people have never sought treatment for managable issue's, becouse of the common public mis-perception displayed openly, as well as stereotyping.

I will never understand why people with mental illnesses are regarded as 'weak' as opposed to sick. sigma towards the issue is the whole point of an awareness day.

[Edited on 3/1/2004 by MorningtonCrescent]

EliteXizer's comments (now deleted) at least serve to demonstrate Smirkley's point beautifully that IGNORANCE is the true enemy to overcoming mental health problems.

this is a very personal nerve with me

i used to be both...a cutter and anorexic, bulimic for a short period of time, i stopped before it became natural.

many people wonder, "why cant they jsut stop?!?!"

the answer, it doesnt matter, even if they WANT to , they CANT. with bulimia especially, the body gets into a habit where eventually you no longer have to shove your fingers down your throat, you will simply naturally throw up about 20 minutes after every meal. if you try to hold it dow, it will jsut be more intense. THIS is why we cant stop and THIS is why i get really pissed off at ignorant people who HAVE NEVER BEEN THERE and dont get that its like blinking...you can try and try and try, but eventually, if you keep trying to not blink, youll end up crying.

I'm not trying to troll... I'm being serious here.

Why can't you just quit cutting yourself?

It seems like needless pain to me... and a bad way to attempt suicide...

If a depressed person wants to commit suicide so bad, why don't they do something quick and painless and get it over with instead of dragging it on and probably not even making it happen?

It doesn't make sense to me why someone would want to suffer even more when they already are apparently.

I'm sorry I just don't understand how you manage to get depressed / find it so difficult to not be depressed

Just because you cut doesn't mean you want to commit suicide...

Well then what is the point of cutting?

To mess up your body and harm yourself, making you even more depressed? That seems pointless and...well, *not trolling* stupid to me...

I'd like to know what exactly a depressed person expects to gain from mutilating themselves.

Thank you for clarifying your previously blunt opinion EliteXizer, but Parrhesia is correct.

In fact, a significant number of "cutters" are merely lashing out some pain they aren't equipped to otherwise deal with. It may be abuse, parental or spousal or otherwise, that they feel the need to "scream about" but simply can't.

They do need help, and professionals are trained to recognize the behavior not as the problem itself, but indicitive of a more severe underlying problem.

And otehrs aren't depressed at all. They do it for the "rush"... again there's some underlying problem, but you can't just characterize them all as suicidal.

Do you smoke? Why don't you just quit?
Do you drink? Why don't you just quit?
Instead of making remarks like "I just don't understand" READ , REASEARCH, FIND OUT why instead of saying that it is just a weakness. Mental Illness is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. It is NO FAULT of the person.
I doubt you have ever been in a situation where you felt you had absolutley no one to turn to and I really hope you never find yourself in that situation, it is the LONELIEST feeling in the world. I'm pretty sure that you yourself have a weakness, look inside , you'll find it.


[Edited on 1-3-2004 by NetStorm]

...Peculiar.

What rush does one get from cutting themselves? I certainly wouldn't think it would be a pleasureful rush, like sex or smoking marijuana...

It can be a release of pain felt inside. A transfer of the inner pain to actual physical pain that can offer some sort of relief to the person doing it, because nothing else may offer such a relief.

I get a rush when I get tattoos. Could be a similar effect, I don't know.

I think it can be like that Parrhesia. Tattoos, piercing your johnson, dying your hair green, picking a fight with someone that's going to kick your butt, drinking something you know will make you puke.... or if you're 13 and not allowed to do any of those things (for example), taking control of the ONE thing you can control and cutting.

Absolutely, RANT.
I've heard the same thing about eating disorders. Life seems to be out of control, so the affected persons takes control of the one thing they can - their intake of food.

I'm ADD, depressive, suffer from bouts of extreme anxiety, and antisocial to top it all off. I have never tried to commit suicide, and I usually don't purposefully harm myself (except for body art). Doesn't mean that I can't simpathize with someone who does inflict bodily harm upon themselves. Thing is that I've been forced to deal with it by myself. When I realized that noone was gonna help me and all the kids that used to pick on me wouldn't be bugged at all if I was gone, I decided that I was gonna get back at all the people that made me upset by living so I could torment their arses. That's just me, though.

The best way I can think of to describe why (some)one would hurt themselves over stuff is this: When you get mad and frustrated, what is the most common reaction? Something violent. Punch the wall, puch out whoever pissed you off, etc. Well, some people feel abandoned by the world and are frustrated, angry, whatever. They want to break something, so they 'break' themselves. Sometimes, if they feel like they are being a burden and useless to society and noone wants them, they try to actually kill themselves.

Parhessia actually put it into reasonable terms:


Sad thing is that when you feel abandoned by the world, you are blind to help. When someone tries to give you a hug when you are depressed (not just 'blue') and tell you you are a good person, alot of the time you will feel like they are just patronizing you, or even making fun at you. It seems like everything good that happens to you is just there to prolong the pain. So it will feel good to feel physical pain. The physical pain temprarily overwrites the pain you feel inside.

Sometimes people self-mutilate.

Sometimes people turn to drugs.

Sometimes people hurt other people.

Me? I break stuff.

yep thats true parrhesia!!

I suffered with Anorexia from an early age.
due to things happening in my life at that point in which i felt i could not controll

My body was what became my contoll ..i decided what went in to it...

It was also something to rebel with, no matter what people told me...i could still do what i wanted with my own body...

though i am 6 yrs recoverd now! And a happy 8 and a half stone!