Main Points:

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Types of self harm:

• Cutting or burning one's skin

• Punching or hitting yourself

• poisoning yourself with tablets or toxic chemicals

• misusing alcohol or drugs

• deliberately starving yourself or binge eating

• exercising to much

This thread will mostly focus on Cutting although I encourage you to learn more about all of them

Biggest Question:

Why did you start cutting?

I first cut when I was like 8 or 9. I was frustrated and had heard about it from TV and pop culture. I thought it would be worth trying.

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Recently my closest friend relapsed back into self harm, so I wanted to write this info thread to not only tell why someone might do it but to also get a users perspective!

Self harm comes in may forms, cutting or burning one's skin, punching or hitting yourself, poisoning yourself with tablets or toxic chemicals, misusing alcohol or drugs, deliberately starving yourself or binge eating, or exercising to much. Oxford defines it as:

"Deliberate injury to oneself, typically as a manifestation of a mental condition."

Why would someone Self Harm? In most cases, people who self-harm do it to help them cope with overwhelming emotional pain. This could be caused by social problems, trauma or psychological reasons.

Social Problems:

• Being bullied

• Having problems at work or school

• Having difficult relationships with friends or family

• Coping with expectations

Trauma:

• Physical or sexual abuse

• Death of a close family member or friend

• Having a miscarriage

Psychological causes:

• Dissociating - losing touch with who they are and with their surroundings

• Having repeated thoughts or voices telling them to self-harm

• Borderline personality disorder (BPD)

about 17% of all people will self harm in their lifetime!

45% of people Self Harming are using cutting.

The average age of onset for self-injury is 13!

Q/A:

Why did you start cutting?

I first cut when I was like 8 or 9. I was frustrated and had heard about it from TV and pop culture. I thought it would be worth trying.

Why did you continue to cut?

I liked it and felt that it helped me vent my frustration and depression as I wasn't being medicated at the time. Also at my height of cutting I was caught smoking and doing other drugs and my parents decided to outpatient rehab. I couldn't see any of my friends or use so the only thing I felt I could do was cut.

How destructive of a habit do you believe it to be in comparison to other ones such as Porn, Nicotine, Other drugs, etc.?

Cutting is really hard to stop once you get used to it. It can obviously get you killed if you cut too deep or something bad but it isn't as bad as something like heroin because hard drugs effect everyone in your life while cutting is easy to hide and don't do any damage to other people.

When my parents first found out I was cutting I didn't understand why it was a bid deal because I had been doing it for so long. I never really understood how much it hurts people around you until I found out my girlfriend was doing it.

Once we talked about it we decided to stop together.

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This interview was with: @Sadistac (Man in the first video)

Comment if you have any more questions you would like answered.

If you know someone who is struggling with self harm or you are Please reach out!

A thread was posted today on how to treat SH and I recommend you read it if you are struggling!

https://watchpeopledie.tv/h/social/post/145635/self-harm-aid-and-harm-reduction

Sources:

https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/self-harm/

https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/mental-health/self-harm/self-harm-statistics/

Lil Self Harm Collection:

Person hits an artery when cutting, bro squirts everywhere

Person rubs salt and lemon on self harm cuts

Sliced neck, most likely an attempted suicide

Man tries to pull out nerve endings

man cut off his penis

Indian Man cuts off his finger (light work for him)

This is my first attempt at an effort post lmk any changes to make it read better or such

Man records himself bleeding out then uploads it online. I've seen this video a couple years back and I don't know if it's on here but decided to share it. I don't know any more info besides what he says in the video.

some type of protest

I'm not sure where this comes from, I got it off discord

He swallowed the bullet...

Apart from this song, heres some advice:

Although when you generally think about self-harming, it is pretty much hard for you to focus on anything else or think about other things to do to cope healthily and thats especially for people who've done self harm for a very long time.

But generally when people typically think about doing it (including me), of course just try to do these if you feel these emotions while wanting to cope by self harming instead.

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• If you're angry:

-Let that negative energy all out by running outside or doing other exercises, yes some people on this site no life like shit in there, but for the love of God going outside is free and only takes a couple of limbs assuming that all of you guys have arms and legs.

-Buying some stress free items (For example stress balls) may be considered childish, but it's a good way to distract yourself from doing other bad things to yourself. As a person with ADHD it is genuinely distracting and makes me forget that I even feel like wanting to do it myself.

-Hitting cushions also is pretty cool. Im assuming you all got cushions on your bed to punch on unless you guys decided to afford a phone to make your lives more miserable.

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• If you feel sad

-Crying is not something illegal to do, especially when you're a guy as well. You don't need to listen to what the fuck society says because sometimes you don't need to man up a little in your life and just let it all out since a good cry can reduce stress from the chemicals it releases out of your body which are endorphins.

-Writing down your emotions on a notebook isn't such a bad idea too, you can do it in any way you'd like to write it as long as you have paper and a pencil/pen at least.

-Listen to calming music like sounds of rain/thunder/nature sounds, this also applies with white noise or also songs generally with cheerful instrumentals and positive lyrics.

-Asking your friend if you can have a little talk is always alright. (Hopefully you guys have friends at least ) you aren't a burden just for expressing how you feel because everyone in fact has feelings. If you dont have feelings then you're just an edgelord.

-Try a breathing exercise, breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 2 seconds and then breath out for 7 seconds.

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• If you feel overwhelmed/numb

-Literally for the love of God don't go cutting yourself just because you feel numb, instead rub ice cubes on your skin. It seems like a stupid idea but it really isnt because it promotes sleep and offers temporary relief that eases anxiety.

-Watch some funny stuff on social medias or youtube. A good laugh can just make you forget why you were feeling negative in the first place.

-This seems childish but who the fuck cares, you can use a grounding exercise with your five senses using these steps. Simply just focus on what's in your surroundings and name:

5 things you can see

4 things you can feel

3 things you can hear

2 things you can smell

1 thing you can taste

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• If you feel alone:

-Go somewhere which is safe and public for example a park, you can invite your family members/friends/partner or you can also take your pet for a walk there if you have one.

-Calling your friend/family member can genuinely be helpful since it makes you realise that you don't have only yourself in your life.

-Listen to other people's stories on podcasts or videos and observe their experiences in their lives, this helps you realise that you arent the only person with the same struggles and that if that person handled that struggle by doing this certain advice then you could too.

-Call a helpline please. Self-harming shouldn't even be normalized nor should it even be encouraged, you should always google your helpline and feel free to copy and paste your helpline number in your device's notes or write it in your notebook or on a paper.

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• If you feel ashamed to the point where you deserve to be punished:

-Realise that everyone makes mistakes, everyone is in the SAME LEVEL as you and that we are all human with the same consciousness. Failure and making mistakes is always okay and it's a lesson that life gives you so you avoid to do it all over again. Even if it seems like a whole loop for you, it's because that you haven't analysed the full patterns of why you keep on experiencing it, so try to learn how to realise it's patterns so you could realise the mistakes.

-Spend less time with people with a bad influence, sometimes people make you feel ashamed just to get a reaction from you/so they can feel good about themselves/so they can try to bring you down, in conclusion, there are people in our lives that try to manipulate us to make us seem like bad people. Obviously as well just try to spend more time with people who care about you since they help you develop well and distract yourself from awful thoughts.

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• If you feel like you hate yourself to the point where you can't accept it so you hurt yourself:

-Fake being positive to yourself till you make it, or fake it till you make it. Look yourself on the mirror and think to yourself "I am actually really nice looking, I can for sure kick some ass!" or however you guys do it .

-Everyone has flaws in their lives, but obviously you only tend to look at the bad features on yourself because you are used to how you look because from all your lives you looked at yourself the most. You can try to take a picture of yourself, block out the feature that you hate the most and admire the rest of the features that you love on your face and body, you can brag about it, glorify it and whatever else that makes you feel good that is healthy to do.

-If you hate yourself mentally though, theres always time in your life for improvement, people's personalities including yours can always change from time to time as well, like days, weeks, months, it is clearly enough time to learn how to love and care for yourself.

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• Apart from all these

-Get rid of all the items you use to harm yourself. Yes its easier said than done, but realise that the longer you have these things, the more you put yourself in hot water, if you don't do the right action then why complain since it doesn't even give an outcome in your life?

-Do something you love to do, like a hobby that you're experienced in for example sketching, running, sports etc.

-Write a safety plan so you avoid self harming more. For example:

First, writing down what you think that makes you want to self harm

Second, list down the coping strategies which are safe and helpful for you.

Third, list a way your family/friends can help you and support you in the way you want it to be and to inform them so you get what you want.

Lastly, and most importantly to not forget, contact details of your doctor or helpline.

-Do what's called "riding the wave" which is a way to delay self harm. It can be hard to delay self harm so starting with small amounts can help, like trying to wait 30 seconds before you self harm, if you succeed then wait 30 seconds again, you can later increase the time and repeat it until you conclude that you don't want to do it.

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Oh yeah most importantly also you definitely don't want to fuck yourself up as much as Nickocado Avocado did himself.

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Carrot is out now, remember that cutting is bad.

//IF YOU'RE NOT MUCH OF A READER, SKIP TO TYPES OF SELF-HARM FOR IMAGES//

BRIEF LIST OF TOPICS

1). What is self-harm?
2). Why do people self-harm? Psychological and biological reasons.
3). Common self-harm terminology in online communities.
4). Types of self-harm [GRAPHIC]
5). [META] Why do people watch self-harm content?

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1). What is self-harm?

Self-harm is the act of purposeful pain caused to oneself. People can engage in this behaviour consciously or unknowingly.
Many people do not realize their outlet for negative (or even positive) emotions is classified as self-harm. The example that comes to mind, is a tattoo artist I used to know, who would do tattoos on himself to feel the pain when upset.
From the outside, it doesn't seem like the typical self-harm method, but the psychological and biological reasoning is the exact same.
Self-injury is typically done without the intention to end one's life.
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2). Why do people self-harm? Psychological and biological reasons.

Generally, it's to cope with negative emotions, especially when you have no other (healthy) way to work through your issues.
Important thing to mention is, self-harm is very addictive. More on that later.

//Interactions between psychology and biology//

The quote "Self-harm changes emotional pain into physical pain" might seem cliché, but that's the reality.
When it comes to sensing physical and emotional pain, our brains use the same two areas: the anterior insula and the anterior cingulate cortex.

These are the areas in the brain that process pain, regardless of whether we stubbed our toe or found out our parents are dead.
Pain relievers also act on these two areas, regardless of whether someone is experiencing emotional or physical pain. A 2010 study in Psychological Science revealed that the pain relievers such as Tylenol or paracetamol (acetaminophen) helped to relieve the distress associated with social rejection and also decreased activity in the anterior insula and the anterior cingulate cortex.

People who self-harm, have learned that, while the pain peaks with self-injury, it then comes down the other side.
The physical pain lessens – as does the emotional pain.

//Addiction//

Self-harm is incredibly addictive in its nature.
Recent neurobiological work indicates that drug addiction is due in part to the positive reinforcement associated with increasing extracellular dopamine levels in the brain.
Similarly, self-harm is believed to stimulate dopamine production in the brain, and the feelings of relief this hormone helps produce can lead vulnerable people to become addicted to the process.

//Strictly psychological reasons//

a) Acting out on impulse when under high emotional distress, clouded judgement, feeling the need to act out on one's overwhelming emotions
b) The belief you deserve to be hurt, self-blame, generally an attitude developed due to trauma (C-PTSD, PTSD, Borderline personality disorder).
c) Self-hate, this one is most likely going to lead to suicidal ideation.
d) Feelings of emotional numbness (caused by depression, dysthymia, cyclothymia, bipolar type 2) which cause the person affected to desperately try find a way to feel something. This reason is strongly tied to the mechanism described in //Interactions between psychology and biology//
e) Feelings of grandiosity, beliefs of one's immortality and greatness caused by mania (bipolar, especially type 1).
f) Poor emotional regulation, emotional outburts (borderline, autism).
g) Distraction from negative feelings, stopping traumatic memories and dissociation.
h) Craving and gaining a distorted sense of control in your life.
i) Self-hard addiction, without any additional reasons.
j) Having something in life that one can always rely on.
k) Real or perceived guilt.
l) "Attention-seeking", believing you need to do something drastic for people to care about you or believe you're experiencing issues.
m) Having no healthy outlet for emotions.
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3). Common self-harm terminology in online communities.

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4). Types of self-harm.

|CUTTING|

Probably the most common form of self-harm. No need for an explanation.

IMAGES AND VIDEOS:

|REMOVING PARTS OF BODY|

Ripping off body fat, ripping off skin, removing parts of tissue.

IMAGES AND VIDEOS:

|PIERCING|

Stabbing oneself, pushing objects into your body.

IMAGES AND VIDEOS:

|BURNING|

No explanation needed.

IMAGES AND VIDEOS:

|CARVING OR SCARIFICATION|

Carving/homemade scarification is about cutting/burning/etc patterns onto your skin.
This is also a body modification procedure, but people depicted in the following photos are doing this with the intention to cause oneself pain.
Some people prefer this to normal cutting since it requires more focus (it's more calming, takes away attention from your issue) and leaves prettier, more innocuous scars.

IMAGES AND VIDEOS:

|DELIBERATE SELF-NEGLECT|

This can involve many behaviours, it's about neglecting your health (broken bones, illness, diet, wounds, etc)
The images I have unfortunately only portray two of these types.

IMAGES AND VIDEOS:

|NOT LETTING INJURIES HEAL|

IMAGES AND VIDEOS:

|BLOODLETTING|

IMAGES AND VIDEOS:

|OTHER:|

Hitting, medicine misuse, drug consumption, biting, bone-breaking, choking.
While I do have examples of hitting, I feel uncomfortable including it in this post since it's mostly autisic meltdowns lol
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5). Why do people watch self-harm?

The reason why I'm such a big advocate for keeping the self-harm category on this site is because I know for a fact many self-harmers watch this type of content to stop harming their own self.
Seeing someone else do what you associate with relief, dopamine, and help can to some extent let you feel the associated feelings.

It's all thanks to empathy and imagination. You either empathize with the person harming themselves, which your brain can turn to actual sensations on your body, or you imagine that person is you.
Neither of those are exactly a healthy coping mechanism but it's a hundred times better than actually, physically harming yourself.

Of course, that's not the only reason (although the most important). Some people just watch it out of curiosity, or for the same reason you watch regular gore.
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!Closing notes!

It's often difficult for people who don't self-harm to understand why anyone would. But knowing about this bit of neuroscience might help make self-harm a little less mysterious.
Shedding a bit of light on the subject was my intention here, hopefully this will create a bit more understanding.

found on shtwt

GUYS CALM YOUR TITTIES THE PERSON IS OVERAGE

Hi everyone!

We have noticed a big influx of self-harmers here who upload photos of their own cuts. If you are one of those people, welcome! Now, let's get straight to the point of this post. We have observed that there has been an increase in romanticizing self-harm, which is something that we are not keen on.

The /h/selfharm flair rarely had OC (original content, the uploader is the one who did the cutting), but there has been a big increase recently. The flair has shifted from "watch someone cut" to "watch my cute cut". Therefore, we want to implement the following rule:

• Comments and posts that encourage/romanticize self-harm will be removed.

We don't want people to rile each other up by commenting on how pretty a cut is. We don't want people to upload their "cute cuts :3". Romanticizing self-harm is not allowed. By enforcing this rule, we hope to reduce these kinds of interactions with all posts.

We hope you understand. If anyone needs help with stopping self-harm or is interested in alternate coping methods that are not as damaging to the body, please let me know :) (been there, done that).

Thank you for your time !

(Posting this in /h/selfharm for more visibility)