cutting... what you think about it

[Nazo no Kanjojin]

I don't really know why I started...maybe it's because everything is so confusing and I can't get a mental bearing on anything (I have schizophrenia), so the pain is kinda like a handle on reality. And since I can't get a handle on anything, it's depressing. That's the other reason. Ok...maybe I DO know why...  

[Nazo no Kanjojin]

neverwinter33

Why is cutting such a bad thing? is it a disease or anything?
It doesn't harm you with a clean knife and it only makes you feel better so I don't see the point why it's that bad.
(And it's supposed to hurt)

faq, I did stop about a few months ago bcuz of friends

Some people think that it is a sign of weakness.
Some people think that the cutter is a bad person.
Some people think that the cutter is liable to self-destruct.
While others are worried that teh cutter is tearing themselves up from the outside. Sadly, I haven't been asked to stop, so I'll continue...  

[-_-BreakxMexAgain-_-]

Meh, not a bloody person in the least. I actually hate the idea of cutting myself. Though as I said before, I will occasionally pinch myself violently. The most that can come of it is a bruise, and that heals in a few days if not hours. I don't cut because I am weak or am depressed. I just like the idea of being able to take pain. If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger. You need to be able to have a way to cope with pain. I sprained my ankle and I remember the gnawing pain everytime I took a step. If you can learn to understand what pain is, what it comes from, why it does it and why it hurts, more power to ya.

PS: Once again, cutting shouldn't even be a choice. I'm trying to use a word beside idiotic, but it is just so *insert word here* to cut yourself when you can release pain in such an less violent way. Less harmful to yourself.  

[dahlia13]

*hugs everyone before* I myself have had a mixed relationship with cutting/self-injury. I have cut before a few times - and scratched myself deeply, tried to freeze myself etc. (I'm nothing if not creative) usually when everything gets too much or when I feel I should be 'punished' and my brain just feels as though it's been blendered. It's not something I do every day, but there are times I *REALLY* feel the need.

A few people know I do this. They have made me promise to try not to do it - I'm trying to control the urges *fingers crossed* And am trying to find ways to cope.

The problem came when my mum found out. She went beserk and told me to "Grow up" not very helpful... especially considering she was a nurse. Painful let me tell you.

I guess I'm just going to have to be extra vigilent with my self and careful around others. Wish me luck!  

[nightwing773]

I cut, or I used to anyway. well, I guess you wouldn't call it really butting because I never used something sharp. I'm a jeweler, so I used to take my jeweling pliers and peel parts of the skin on my fingers off, everone knew what I was in school for, so they all thought it was me injuring myself on the grinder for metal, no one ever found out. I quit, because one day I was cooking dinner, and got salt and vinegar in my cuts, and I figured that was enough pain to last me. My sister is a compulsive cutter who cuts when she hurts someone else. She takes a steak knife to her shoulders when she breaks someone elses bones, and she has a tendancy for it because of her temper. She never has been turned in though. I traded her normal knives for strong plastic a few weeks ago, she never feels the blade except on her back, so she just thinks they're dull. It's helped her a little though.

It helped me to go outside and punch trees, fences, and when I got the chance cylinder blocks stacked up with martial arts strikes. It took out my feelings, normally causing pain, but no blood or scars and martial arts also helps, it keeps your emotions in check.  

[Ether-Eating Eskimo]

Dead_Boy

lurichan

SadLittleFluffy

You cannot help someone who doesn�t want it. You wind up disappointed, and it makes things worse. I know quite a few cutters, and I know about this problem intimately. Ultimately, people will do as they wish and there isn�t anything you can do about it.
Granted, there are people that cut for attention, and that I think is ridiculous and stupid.

A very good point. Not everyone who cuts WANTS to be helped. Some people do it as an afirmation of life, others to cut the emotional pain they feel inside.

I do not know one person that cuts because there sad. Every one in my scool will do it for kicks and its cool. I think its cool. You can like be more then the pain.

Edit: Picture Removed by A Moderator

I know three people who cut or did cut. sad It sucks, and one of them doesn't even know I know. I can only hope they find help soon.  

[zz1000zz]

^ Wow. Just wow.  

[screwed pixie]

dahlia13

*hugs everyone before* I myself have had a mixed relationship with cutting/self-injury. I have cut before a few times - and scratched myself deeply, tried to freeze myself etc. (I'm nothing if not creative) usually when everything gets too much or when I feel I should be 'punished' and my brain just feels as though it's been blendered. It's not something I do every day, but there are times I *REALLY* feel the need.

A few people know I do this. They have made me promise to try not to do it - I'm trying to control the urges *fingers crossed* And am trying to find ways to cope.

The problem came when my mum found out. She went beserk and told me to "Grow up" not very helpful... especially considering she was a nurse. Painful let me tell you.

I guess I'm just going to have to be extra vigilent with my self and careful around others. Wish me luck!

good luck!!! i hope you can get through this!!!

i cut too. but i made a promise to my love that i would stop. so far i have stopped. the desire to continue is there of course and the feelings that cause me to cut are still there. but i have been able to hold a knife in a room by myself and not cut. i wouldnt call this a test its more something that i want to continue doing but i force myself not to. then i end up crying.  

[xAsh-chanx]

I have gone almost a year without cutting. Atleast I did...I've been having the urges since I stopped but recently this month they got even stronger.

I broke it yesterday when I cut after a trigger happened.

It'll take me forever to get of the habit again xp  

[Sanddru]

I know cutting is a way to try and transfer mental pain to physical pain, so you can control it
and releases something into the body that can make you addicted

i dont get the whole fad about it though


I am not a cutter, I have never been, and I will never be
I recent it, and if you are a cutter you do need to seek help


if you are doing it to be cool (as much as i hate to say it, such people exists) then ******** stop it
you are retardet


Cutters - please get help, and talk with someone close about what you are having troubles with 3nodding i in NO way hate cutters, and I do not look down on them

fad cutters - ...go away  

[Amthezia]

I find this to be a very difficult subject.
I have friends that have these problems and I always try to help them as much as possible. In the end they have to do it theirselfs, and i'm really proud of them that they finded the strength in their selfs...

I wish this to everyone heart  

[DustyOHara]

Abusive Mana

I know cutting is a way to try and transfer mental pain to physical pain, so you can control it
and releases something into the body that can make you addicted

i dont get the whole fad about it though

I am not a cutter, I have never been, and I will never be
I recent it, and if you are a cutter you do need to seek help

if you are doing it to be cool (as much as i hate to say it, such people exists) then ******** stop it
you are retardet

Cutters - please get help, and talk with someone close about what you are having troubles with 3nodding i in NO way hate cutters, and I do not look down on them
fad cutters - ...go away

some cutters don't need help and some do. i am a cutter even though i cut maybe once a month or something...only when i feel panicky and i can't form an intelligent thought due to whatever mental stress i am going through. in 8th grade, thats when i needed help. my girlfriend was egging me on and when, the only person who even cared to notice that i cut did, my gf beat me for not hiding it better. after i broke up with her i didn't feel the need to cut anymore. she was the reason why i was so panicky and shaky and all.

my ex was abusive and that was one reason why i cut, plus it was a turn on for her. she would beat me until i would cry and she would hand over the razor and proceed to tell me where and how deep. i would becasue i felt like i was living and not just her slave.

my friends liberated me of her due to my best friend finding us in a compromising position that i clearly did not want to be in. scince then i have overcome to need to cut every single day or so.

now i cut so that i can clear my head and rid myself of anxiety, mental weight and disturbing thoughts. i don't need help, i just need a less hectic life. and now that that has been said...

first person who tries to get me to stop cuting is getting a butcher knife in thier gut. im fine with my life, in fact las year i did not cut at all from january until september. the first time i cut this year was the night before my ocean, math and american history semester exams - - i hadn't studdied that well  

[Kristoya]

I started cutting in seventh grade. I actually heard a friend talking about it a few months earlier and how it calmed her down. So one night, when I was particularly stressed out after a bad day at school and a long, horrible fight with my mother, I got one of my dad's razorblades out of the bathroom and went into my room.

I found that the pain didn't help my mental state of mind at all, and in fact made it worse. But when it started bleeding... that's what got me addicted. I need the blood. It's not a sexual thing, I don't get turned on by it or anything. I don't want to drink it. I just want to bleed. I feel like when I bleed, all the bad emotions and stress are leaving my body with it.

I haven't done it as often since I met my current boyfriend/fiance. He's done wonders in clearing up my life and teaching me not to care about the little things I'd normally have cut over. But I do go back to it from time to time, just really shallow cuts barely deep enough for me to bleed (though normally I make six or seven of them at once).

I've yet to find an alternative to bleeding. Some people talk about the rubber band thing when you feel like it, or drawing on yourself with a marker to see the blood. I've tried many alternative methods, but nothing compares with the bleeding.

So I've decided that I don't need help. I don't ever hurt myself badly, and I'm disgusted by the thought of cutting myself deep enough to scar. I don't do it often; maybe once every two or three months now as opposed to every day.  

[-Resurrected Writer-]

*Sigh* My gf cuts herself... I keep trying to get her to stop, but she still hasn't. cry  

[lysseee]

oh wow. what a thread. lots of nice people who know what they're dealing with, and honest posts.
sadly, i couldn't concentrate well after this bit;

blackrose1186

you can say all you want.. in the end i know your just an ignorant little freak who doesnt know the difference between real and fake.. living in your world of fantasy where you think people like you.. and there is no 3 arms.. they were taken on different days and second from the amount of blood my a**.. you dont die from lack of blood if you lose a couple cups of blood.. your heart reproduces blood.. if you botherd to think then you'd know that... next time you want to disagree do some research.. and if you want to continue this... pm me i wont subject the rest of the guild to your ignorance.. they at least know about a thing called time..

very informative, isn't it? as much as i'd like to roll in this puddle of knowledge i assume the reason noone has until now was because doing so is completely useless, and would do nothing but ruin an otherwise very nice thread. so i'll let his heart produce anything it wishes.


as nice as this thread is, it's a bit too un-categorised for my neurotic taste. so i'll try to compile what has been stated in easy-to-swollow bits, with the hope that it will be useful to someone who doesn't have the patience to read through 12 pages of tragic stories.


firstly, i believe it will be useful to point out the two main -and fundamentally different- reasons people resort to harming themselves;
-deal with emotional stress caused by traumatic events (there are some very, very upsetting stories in prior pages)
-deal with the overwhelming feelings of emptiness, which can be caused by many different factors, (life-style, general disability to meld into the society, chemical imbalance, etc.).

if any of you wonder what's wrong with it i can sum up the biggest reasons as
-it's highly addictive,
-and in case one of your causing factors involve disability to meld into the society it puts you into a vicious cycle, as society will not think twice before labeling you as having a 'mental-disorder'.

are there people doing it for attention? well, of course. it's what being a teenager is about; one'll do anything to be different and to draw shocking attention to one's self. but addicts will not put themselves out there for attention. it's just pulling too much negative attention, which is the kind they don't need.

are there health issues? well, not too much, unless you've no idea what you're doing. the biggest problem will be the possibility of infection -tho it's not easy to get one bad enough to pose a threat to your health-. bloodloss is also not an issue unless -as i said- you've no idea of what you're doing.

are self-harming people suicidal? some are, some aren't. it would really be wrong to make a generalization. as it has been said before; self harming is a way to try and deal with things. it shows that the person is TRYING at life, and not death. but if one's having so much difficulty at life that s/he needs to harm themselves to go on, s/he's really not too many steps away from getting too frustrated and giving up.


if anyone who wants to stop but doesn't know where to start should somehow read this, my humble advice would be to try to figure out what you're trying to deal with; what is/are your cause(s)? -which adds upto finding the meaning of life for some, but we leave them for now-. unless you at least try to answer that it's really difficult to stop harming yourself, and you'll likely just end up submitting something else in it's place because self-harming is just a symptomatic cure.
'how does one resolve one's issues/disorders/problems/etc.?' is a question that is beyond me. the answer is different for each person, and you cannot find the answer unless you're looking for it -which requires quite a bit of courage, and it's something to be proud of-

and to all those whose 'issues' add up to finding a meaning to it all... welll, what can i say? once you stare into the abyys...

ps: oh yay. textwall.