Cutting:So it's more common with aspies? Let's see!

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What's your history with cutting? Say if you're not an aspie. I'm an aspie who's got some scars. EDIT:and I have new cuts!

Last edited by protest_the_hero on 26 Mar 2009, 3:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Usually daily.

The poll's not going to get a good response if you directly put the poll subject in the title--probably you'll get more people saying "yes", because those people are more likely to click on the topic.

Unfortnately, not very scientific.

But yes, I've done that, along with biting, hitting, headbanging, friction, etc... I remember the first time when I was about six or seven, but I'm pretty sure I did it before then. Most of it was an attempt to deal with sensory overload; my theory is that when you're physically hurt your body calls up extra resources--probably in the form of releasing epinephrine, as it does in emergencies in general--which should allow you to cope a little better, temporarily, until the "fight or flight" dies down. It doesn't help that I perceive some sorts of pain as neutral rather than aversive. Of course, self-injury of any sort only works temporarily and doesn't deal with the problem that made you desperate enough to try it in the first place; so I do encourage anyone who resorts to this to find alternatives. Best way: Find out why; then find some other way to fill that need. My solution was to start controlling sensory and unexpected-event overload, which means I hardly ever hurt myself now.

Remember the risk of being diagnosed with borderline personality if you self-injure--many people will assume that rather than autism in a teen or adult. It happened to me, and while my current counselors literally laugh at the idea of me being borderline, it's a label that can really stick with you and make it very hard to get proper treatment. They don't even treat the real borderlines very well... seriously, if you're borderline, stay out of the mental health system and find yourself a private counselor or mentor instead of a psychologist, or else be willing to switch doctors ten times to find someone who doesn't think "borderline" is a synonym for "annoying dramatic female".

To add, I like the pain and bleeding; it makes me feel, as I'm usually numb in the brain (other than fear).

It's nothing dangerous; I cut myself at work via accidents to far greater degrees.

If you do, just make sure you're safe about it--you need to know how to keep an injury clean so it doesn't get infected, and how to recognize if it does; and you need to have some safeguard against causing serious injury accidentally. While the biggest danger is that you'll depend on it rather than finding a useful coping strategy, there are small physical risks.

That's nice of you to say such. Thank you.

I'm well versed on secondary bacterial infections (go-go OCD), and I make sure to sterilise the blade beforehand with a match or alcohol gel. You are correct about accidents, and I have had one before; I learnt from such (losing feeling in one's finger tends to be a good reminder).

I haven't found a better coping strategy when I'm feeling completely empty barring fear/anxiety; I find hitting my head on stuff to carry greater risks (brain damage). Medication just makes me feel less (it takes some of the anxiety away, but I'm still "empty" inside); immersing myself in an interest helps when it's not too bad, but there's always times when nothing I've found but the pain of cuts works.

O, punching trees helps too, but that causes greater wounds due to splinters and flayed skin.

I don't cut, it's never occurred to me to cut, and the thought of cutting does not appeal to me at all. It makes me wince with horror, in fact. I've done other things that might be classified as self-harm, but the idea of actually breaking my skin and causing it to bleed is utterly repelling to me.

I like my skin to be intact. I don't like the mess of blood. I hate the experience of waiting for skin to heal and wondering when a scab will form and when it will fall off and when my skin will be intact again. In fact, my aversion to my skin being cut is such that I never ever peel my potatoes because of the fact that I'm clumsy and sometimes the potato peeler cuts me, and I find that experience horribly stressful. I even make mashed potatoes with the potato skins still on.

Cutting ... no, never. Never had the desire and don't think I could stand it. I do inflict one type of pain on myself that gives me an orgasmic feeling, however. I am an obsessive flosser, I floss every night before bed for 15-20 minutes and sometimes at work after lunch. I use floss "picks" and I actually use the pick part to do my own gum cleaning, and I love the feeling of poking my gums with that pick. It is truly an orgasmic feeling, the same feeling I get when I eat a mouthful of Nerds (candy) while drinking a canned soft drink. It's hard to explain and probably weird as all hell, but the feeling mimics an orgasm in my head and is just an amazing feeling that I just must have daily.

I haven't cut myself in 14 years. I did it from age 15-26.

I hardly do it...
realy...

And I always have a *good* excuse for it...

Same here, I used to do it when I was younger along with smashing my head off walls and I used it as a coping mechanism at the time I was in some very low places and that was how my frustration manifested.

I mangled my arms up pretty badly when I was a kid. Have not done it since I was a teenager.

I have not cut in several years but I used to. I would get into spirals of unexplainable non-emotion and cutting myself seemed to be the only thing that realeased it. Shortly thereafter I made a very feeble suicide attempt.

I have not felt that bad since those times. So I have not done it since.

I do a lot of damage to my skin, but I don't cut. The idea of deliberately applying something sharp to my flesh in that way makes my stomach respond in an unfriendly fashion. But I pick at my skin constantly and frequently have small wounds and bleeding because of it. That probably doesn't count, though.

As a second thought. To see if it is indeed 'more common' we'd have to poll a bunch of NT's and see how the totals add up.

Wikipedia: