Self-harming?

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I used to infrequently engage in hair pulling, skin picking, punching myself in the head, and then I stopped for a while and then out of the blue it started again. Hurting myself is my best coping mechanism at this point. I stopped for about a week and yesterday I had too much going on and I got extremely overwhelmed and had to utilize what was available to me and that was my fist to my head.

I've only cut once but it was a really heavy incident. It probably would be considered a suicide attempt based on the severity, but I was at my breaking point but I don't count it in my suicide attempt list, which is an entirely different list.

Last edited by Lilblizzy on 18 Sep 2014, 1:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

I used to SH by scratching/cutting my thighs. I got cognitive behavioral therapy for it and am self harm free now for about a year now. Have only had a couple of single incident relapses. I pretty much SH out of frustration over my disabilities. It was a combination of self punishment and a feeling of release.

I sometimes hurt myself by punching, pinching and hitting myself, I try to stop though.

Yeah I used to do that a lot to and still do sometimes like slapping my face and biting my hand.

i'm a skin picker. often my right arm ends up covered in open sores and dried streaks of blood.

i like to take scissors to my hair and cut off random locks but i wouldn't call that self harm for me. i also pulled it out when it was a bit longer.

I sometimes hurt myself because things are getting to be too much. I've discovered that being physically injured puts me into a sort of "emergency mode", and I get to tap into the energy that people usually keep in reserve for such times. Overload of any sort can get me to that point.

Of course it's not a long-term solution. Those reserves don't last forever, and if I get too stressed out, too often, then I just end up with total shutdown. Increasing frequency of SIBs isn't a problem in and of itself, because all of mine are very superficial and hardly risky at all, but it's a sign that I'm starting to lose the ability to cope and am probably going to need treatment for depression or at the very least, permission to drop all of the extra stuff that's stressing me out so much.

Usually if I self harm its due to feeling suicidal or getting in a self destructive mode where I just feel like I don't care. Mostly just substance abuse like drinking too much or whatever which is harmful, or hitting my head against a wall or hitting myself just in general actually had an urge to throw myself down the stairs of my house somewhat recently, kinda glad I didn't or I'd still be hurting and I've attempted suicide via overdose I also smoke cigarettes solely because they are harmful sometimes.

But yeah much of the time its usually stress combined with symptoms acting up that get me to that state.

This. I only ever self-harm in the midst of a meltdown (hitting my head and body, kicking walls, pulling hair, biting myself, etc.) I'm never in a calm state of mind when it happens, but I manage to retain just enough control not to break things, because I'd regret that and/or get in a lot of trouble for it, and somehow, feeling the pain on top of releasing all my pent up rage-induced energy makes me feel better. I always hate myself after the fact though.

Good to hear, for you and because we are trying our daughter with CBT.

My wrists have scars on them, mostly from knife infliction. It hurts, but the pain calms me down.

sometimes simple curiousity, mimicking my sister, and just plain meltdowns, i loose control and just start ramming my head into walls, i've been doing it all my life.