Why do people on the spectrum cut themselves/self injure?

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Emptiness is a terrible feeling, as are depression, fear, loneliness, etc. Self-harming is an effective coping mechanism because physical pain draws you into the moment (distracts you from emotional pain), gives you a sense of control over yourself, and creates a kind of euphoria.

There are probably other reasons as well, of course, but that's how it worked for me.

The scars are typically not well-regarded socially, incidentally, and if only for that reason I don't recommend cutting/burning (though I don't know of anything else as satisfying, and I think there's something satisfying about seeing real structural damage done to your flesh - I also feel like the scars help my sense of self-identity, I feel "more myself" with scars, but I still don't intend to self-harm again).

I'd also like to see evidence that cutting is higher among AS because I'm not sure there is a relationship there. Though I will say that while I've never gone so far as to cut myself I do pick at my skin a lot and pull my hair (trichotillomania?). I'm not sure what got me started but tend to do it when I'm really stressed or overwhelmed. Something about it is soothing. Though I'd really like to stop because picking leaves scars and the hair pulling has left my eyebrows kind of sparse and people look at me weird when they notice.

AS is associated with a number of comorbid psychopathologies, some of which do increase the likelihood of self-harming. Ergo, assuming all the other variables are independent, we should expect to see a correlation between AS and self-harmers.

That doesn't suggest that AS itself is related to self-harm, just that there are some people who have AS in addition to other "issues."

My father is in his late 80s and started self-harming about a decade ago after a car accident. I think he has AS, but I don't dare bring up the subject up with him because we had him locked up in a psych ward for two weeks because of cutting. When he got out, he told fantastic stories about what his meds were doing to him, and then we found out he was just flushing them down the toilet anyway.

I think there are other members of my family that have AS, but I haven't dared bring up the subject with them. I self-harm in that I crack my joints until I'm in pain, but at least the awareness of that has led to a reduction in that behavior.

My AS isn't the problem, it's the memories that I have of my parents that's the problem. I'm happy to be on the spectrum.

More years ago than I might care to admit to, a fellow remarked, in an off-hand manner, that often people cut not to inflict pain, but to let the pain out. For me, that is a deep truth.

My diagnosis, two years ago, induced in me a profound sense of pain and hopelessness. Much to my horror, I was compelled to cut myself. A practice I thought I left behind thirty years ago. Trying to deal with the nebulous issues of Asperger's and the resulting pain seemed too much. The cut, the blood, was tangible, easily understood: there was a cause and an effect. Although I have long given up the practice, I do remember that Roman Catholics declared a sacrament to be an outward sign of an inward grace. By that measure, cutting (or any other self-injuring behaviour) is an outward sign of an inward turmoil.

After some months of this had gone by, I got a branding on my arm: a question mark. It seemed appropriate at the time. "It seemed appropriate at the time" is something I say a lot. After the branding, I have had not the slightest desire to cut myself.

No other way to express feelings sometimes. I'll answer better tomorrow (it's 11 pm here and a long answer now might ruin my sleep)

Does drug abuse count as self harm?

I'd never cut myself and don't relate at all to people who do - we are totally different personality types

I certainly would not term it a typical autistic trait, more a typical histrionic personality trait

Mental pain has caused me to take several overdoses in the past but didn't take enough to finish the job luckily/unluckily(?)

Just hurting yourself but staying alive makes no logical sense to me as it's just adding more pain to the mix

I prefer to comfort eat, which can be seen as self harm but doesn't feel unpleasant to me at all

I prefer to imagine pain befalling people who've hurt me - that's far more satisfying and safer too

Maybe it's simple as this: You have agression and want to hurt somebody, but you can't hurt other people so you say: Let's hurt myself.

I did it sometimes too because of this reason. I didn't cut myself though.

You can hurt other people - verbally or via imagination and I'd say it's far better for your mental health to do this too instead of internalising it.

If more people punched bullies in the face or even killed them there would be far less suicides and amen to that!

I'd have all bullying types executed if I ran the world - it would be my first action.

Then the few of us remaining would have a happy time

When people get angry at me, I get angry at myself. If I get angry at myself enough, I hit myself with stuff. Never enough to cause a visible mark that anyone could notice. No one has ever noticed. Even that time I think I sprained my leg of my own accord.

I use to bite the skin on my hands until they bled when I was little. I still bang my forehead when extremely frustrated, but I have never heard of anyone on the spectrum cutting themselves. I suffer with depression and anxiety and have never ever thought about harming myself any other way.

I have made many friends over the years that live with Bi-polar, they all cut themselves. I always thought self-harm was connected to bi-polar, not autism.

I get like this too but unfortunatly I tend to cause visible marks.

I used to bite my arms as well, they left marks that looked like bruises. It hadn't occurred to me that it could be related to ASD until I read your post.

I find it hard to deal with the scars. They're always there to remind me of past pain.