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JeanneA
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10 Jan 2013, 10:11 am

I am just curious as to know why autistic children/adults self harm or hit others or objects. For those of you who can answer please tell me, it would be interesting to know. Thank you.



zer0netgain
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10 Jan 2013, 10:23 am

Frustration...mostly.



CocoNuts
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10 Jan 2013, 11:16 am

I want to stress that I am not diagnosed, but I do it because of misophonia.


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10 Jan 2013, 1:02 pm

it just happens during meltdowns I dont even think about it, I never hit others though



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10 Jan 2013, 1:04 pm

I don't.
Not all autistics do.


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10 Jan 2013, 5:26 pm

I used to self harm because of a combination of reasons, frustration at myself, self-hatred, as a way of feeling something rather than nothing and really occasionally as a way of focusing when I was getting overwhelmed with negative emotions. However, it's very rare for me to hit out at other people as the last thing I want is to hurt other people and it's pretty much always last resort trying to get away from people.

As far as I know my reasons for self-harming are similar to others regardless of if they are on the autism spectrum.
Hope this helps :)



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11 Jan 2013, 6:44 am

I have ever since I was a kid. Mainly punching, biting, and scratching myself, hitting my head, and throwing stuff. I do these things because of being unbearably frustrated and not knowing how else to release the frustration.



JeanneA
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11 Jan 2013, 9:28 am

Thanks so much for your replies, I thought frustration would be one of the reasons for self harming, makes a lot of sense.



Kinme
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11 Jan 2013, 5:00 pm

I forgot to mention that I may also do it when I'm sad as well. It's of just crying or whatever, I'll throw things or hurt myself... Makes it worse, lol.



JeanneA
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11 Jan 2013, 5:47 pm

Thanks kinme :-)



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11 Jan 2013, 5:54 pm

I pick at my cuticles and nailbeds out of compulsive habit. I used to cut myself because of clinical depression--my compulsive finger picking is probably done because of clinical depression, too.


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11 Jan 2013, 6:10 pm

I used to hurt myself sometimes when I was still a child. For example, I would rub my finger knuckle against a rough stone wall until the skin was off and it bled. I had a rather unusual reason though: I didn't do it because I was unhappy or distressed, it was more like an interesting experiment for me. That sounds kind of disturbing, but for some reason I like to see (my) blood and to get small wounds or bruises. I like to look at it and it kind of fascinates me. 8O I don't do that anymore, but if I cut myself by accident, I might stop and just look at the blood running for a few minutes.



Kinme
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12 Jan 2013, 6:39 am

JeanneA wrote:
Thanks kinme :-)


You're welcome. :)



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12 Jan 2013, 11:21 am

I used to self-harm when I was a teenager....sometimes when I was frustrated, but mostly because I felt I needed to punish myself for being "bad." Whenever I made a mistake or did something that everyone else thought of as "bad," I would bite my arms and hands, scratch/claw my arms, legs, and stomach, and beat my head against a hard suface, or beat it with my fists. My line of reasoning was that the more often I did this, the more "normal" I'd become. That, and I also thought that everyone else thought I was "bad," too, so if they knew I was doing it, they'd be more or less okay with it.

I once submitted a poem about my self-harm for my Health class, and remember being genuinely surprised when my Health teacher became alarmed and let my parents know and they (my teacher, the guidance counselor, and my parents) all wanted me to stop....like I said, I thought that if I thought I was bad, they thought so too.

I haven't done any of the self-harming behaviors that I've listed above for years now, but that doesn't mean I don't get urges to every now and then. I do still bite my nails and pick at my cuticles until they bleed....it's like a stress/anxiety reliever for me.


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