Have you ever self harmed?

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Is it common for people with AS to self harm, i have once, when going through a difficult period in life.

Yes. I used to do it a lot. Now only occasionally.

I literally made real bloody mess of myself as a preschooler banging my head on the concrete pavement which was the most serious. I had to be rushed off the hospital on several occasions and I still bare the scars to this from times I needed to be stitched, about 12 stitches one occasion. On one occasion when home nanny took a noisy door bell off me, I banged my head so hard against the wall I stagged around everywhere and vomited.
Sometimes to this day I am temped to but my head against something if I get frustrated.

Also I put cigarette burns on my arms when I was about 29.

Paul

i did

still do a bit

not much

Yet again answering this question... (The next person to ask it should really do a search instead):

First of all, this is going to sound like I'm "really messed up"; but I'm not actually doing that badly. Self-injury, except for a few months a couple of years ago, has never dominated my life or become anything other than a way to control myself when I felt nothing else could do it.

I've used self-injury in various forms since I was about six; before that I'd just tantrum, run and bounce off things till I was exhausted. By the time I was 11 I was drawing blood, and it turned into "classic" superficial self-injury with razors and pins during college. I've also been known to bang my head, but usually it was gentle and repetitive, against a pillow... only once did I do it so hard that I left a bruise (and gave myself a mild concussion, if the dizziness was any sign of it).

The biggest triggers for self-injury for me were that I'd feel overwhelmed by an unpredictable environment, or overwhelmed by my own emotions, or suicidal enough to know that injuring myself was the only thing that could reliably force my brain out of its "kill myself" mode.

Self-injury, for me, has always been a rather brutal sort of distraction; a way to control myself, to feel strong, to escape. It amplified as my meltdowns decreased; so, likely, it is a way of staving off the "out of control" feeling you have during a meltdown, panic attack, or other such intense state.

Lately, I've been working on finding other ways to do the same things I used to do with razors. Logically, it's not a good idea to scar yourself up when you're already known as "weird", socially; and then there are the small risks from infection to worry about. Learning a better way of emotion-control and stress tolerance is really necessary, since self-injury is generally unproductive, works only for a short time, and doesn't help you deal permanently with whatever's bothering you.

For a year, the frequency of SI has decreased steadily, so that now it's been about three or four months since I did anything that broke the skin (I still pull my hair or bang my hand/arm against the edge of a desk or slap myself, but those are more stims). My replacement is mostly to know myself well enough that I know when I'm headed into one of those uncontrolled states, and to either use logic to withdraw and talk myself through things, or to find a way to avoid the situation.

I'm also using my old trick of imagining myself inside a blue force field through which nothing can penetrate, not even noise... this works well in situations where I'm going into sensory overload.

I'm not sure if the Lexapro I've been taking for the past two years is helping with the SI specifically; but I don't think about suicide as much now than before I started it, so maybe it's helping indirectly.

Anyway, my advice to people who hurt themselves:
--Find out why, then find out a better way to fill that need.
--Take care of yourself, physically. You don't want anything getting infected.
--If you need meds, take 'em. It can't hurt to try.
--If you're an Aspie, you're probably pretty good at logic. Use that to help yourself.

Self harming might be a way of diverting pain in much the same way as acupuncture. One time I feel so depressed and trapped I wanted to cut myself, but instead I stuck some needle into myself. It heart but the pain was better then depression.

Yes, sometimes I do some self-harming

Yes, a lot in the past but not so much lately.

At one time I would punch things, like post boxes, JCB's (That big diggers, I think they are called backos (sp?) in America?) I broke my hands on several occasions. I also used to use cigarets to burn myself. I also started cutting a few years later. I have not done any of these things for several years now, but still have the urge from time to time.

GreyArea

I have this weird area on the back of my legs that has no feeling,so when im bored I cut at it (never too deep though)

I guess so. I don't consider myself harmed, though, maybe I should. I'll decide that I want a certain scar and put it there. I scratched a heart into my upper left arm, and I scar easily so it looks quite lovely. I did that maybe a year ago, and I redo it every few months or so, usually to mark something significant in my life, and to make sure that it stays there without having to slice the hell out of myself at any one time. The shape has varied slightly over time, and I redid it yesterday - this time with a line up the middle of it with smaller scratches across it - it looks like a broken, stitched-back-together heart. I was in such a dark, numb place before I redid it, and it improved my mindset so much, I have a hard time viewing it negatively.

Throughout my life, I have often banged my head against walls as a way of releasing angry tension.

From November to January last year, I went through a period in which I would cut the skin on my abdomen, stomach and chest, using a double-sided blade from a blender which I named "Asklepios".

This was because of a serious emotional difficulty that I was experiencing at the time, but I believe it was also a way of proving to myself that I could "take the pain", as it were.

I still have a network of fine, white scars across my body, and the initials "MT" carved into my abdomen.

Yes, I have in the past.

I guess I was depressed at the time. I made cuts in both upper arms with a piece of glass.

Someone once asked me why I did it and I lied and said a cat scratched me. I think they knew the truth though.

I would never do it again.

I was a head basher when I was a little kid.

I did it out of frustration for many things.

There are still times where I want to do it today.

I've actually cut the skin on my right hand, with a pair of scissors, once.

I used to bang my head a little and dig my nails into my hands hard enough to draw blood.. past few years I started using a tattoo gun I aquired without ink on the outside of my ankle.. heals up fast and doesnt leave a mark (if thats not available I split my nail at the edge and tear it down into the nailbed).

For others who do things like this my advice is find something as or more painful but not as damaging and always sterilize your tools first

No. It would conform to too many people's expectations of me, and god forbid I should do that.