How to self harm safely?

[Pll143]

I've never rlly done SH much.. But when I do it's kinda underwhelming and was wondering if it's just the method I'm using
Is there any good method that doesn't carry any risk to idk accidentally cutting an artery or smth?
I usually end up using flattened out metal parts of pencils but barely does anything..

 

[Touhou]

The sides of your thighs & upper arms would be good first steps. I'd say gradually increase your body's tolerance by progressively increasing in intensity; e.g you could start out by simply poking holes in these parts & then move on to small cuts, et cetera.

 

[Pll143]

The sides of your thighs & upper arms would be good first steps. I'd say gradually increase your body's tolerance by progressively increasing in intensity; e.g you could start out by simply poking holes in these parts & then move on to small cuts, et cetera.

But what would I use? I don't rlly know of anything sharp I could use and I don't want to use anything risky and end up accidentally bleeding out lmao

 

[Gaga786]

Hello, I don't mean to derail or deviate from your post. Just wanted to send some love and support. Although, I did self harm– I totally regret it. it just wasn't worth it. Please try not to do anything deep where it might leave scars. Mutiliating yourself just doesn't work out in the long term. I hope your suffering eases. Feel free to DM me if you ever need anything

 

[Touhou]

But what would I use? I don't rlly know of anything sharp I could use and I don't want to use anything risky and end up accidentally bleeding out lmao

A kitchen knife if one's available. If you're afraid of the risk, carry bandaids or gauzepads with you & apply them once you see fit. Also, refer to Gaga's reply. I'd advise against extremely deep cuts that might leave permanent scars.

 

[Pll143]

A kitchen knife if one's available. If you're afraid of the risk, carry bandaids or gauzepads with you & apply them once you see fit.

Is there anything small and portable? or something- Just in case..

 

[Touhou]

Is there anything small and portable? or something- Just in case..

Easy, a box cutter. They're cheap, sharp & compact.

 

[Pll143]

Easy, a box cutter. They're cheap, sharp & compact.

Maybe.. I'll give it a try when I can
Thanks.

 

[symphony]

I always used razor blades.

You asked for safety tips. Here are some of mine.

• First aid always. Clean the wound as soon as you are done, apply an ointment like bacitracin or neosporin, and bandage it. Clean and rebandage every day until the wound closes
• Clean your blades before and after every use
• Be careful not to go too deep. I always started with a very shallow cut to get used to how much pressure I needed then worked up to cutting deeper. I've heard it recommended to practice on an orange peel to mimic the feel of skin to get a sense of how much pressure you need to use, but I've never tried that
• Cut far away from any major veins or arteries. Fleshy, fatty areas of the body work best for this. I used my thighs. Bonus points that it makes scars easier to hide
• If a cut won't stop bleeding or is "spouting" blood, get help ASAP

 

[hopefully]

if you're going to do it, the thighs are the best area. there's a lot of extra fat so bleeding out seems nearly impossible if you aren't going through too many layers of your skin. always have gauze/bandaids/steri strips/any first aid supplies on hand! self harm was always "safe" for me as long as i followed those two rules of thumb. having clean blades also helps

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

I've never rlly done SH much.. But when I do it's kinda underwhelming and was wondering if it's just the method I'm using
Is there any good method that doesn't carry any risk to idk accidentally cutting an artery or smth?
I usually end up using flattened out metal parts of pencils but barely does anything..

Back when I cut I'd use a pencil sharpener razor. You could get them for like 15p each. Looking back, I wonder what they thought of the kid buying loads of pencil sharpeners at once, lol.
I kept them in a tiny little box I'd carry with me; they'd blunt quick but that's okay cause they were cheap.
The method I found most success in was to use was to position the edge of the razor on my skin (almost always forearms.) and then in one swift motion I'd bring it up and down for some force, it'd zip right through the skin and produce a nice sharp pain followed by lovely sanguine stream. I'd do this maybe 3-4 times a session very quickly after one-another so the blood flowed better.
To avoid injury, I'd position the razor no more than about a milimetre over the skin, I got better and more accurate at it as time went on.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend this method to anyone, because it is kinda inaccurate and you might end up cutting way deeper than you intended to, but it worked for me.

But what I can recommend is: After you're finished enjoying it, clean yourself, and then sterilise the wound(s). It'll likely split again, but that's fine. I used hand sanitiser for it, because it had denatured alcohol in. The pain from that is far more intense than the actual cutting.
After that, bandage the wound(s), I didn't have enough bandage so I improvised by using some tissue paper and tape to tape it over the wound (use skin safe tape, always; normal tape will really fuck your skin up as I found out first-hand...) You may have to rebandage or resterilise it, splits are pretty common, especially if you use areas where the skin stretches when you move.
Very important thing: If you ever think you need stitches, get the stitches; you'll be thankful you did. Area that scars over is far smaller, leaves you with more space. Remember: scar tissue is not skin. Also, scars don't always fade. For some people they do, for me though they're all still just as visible as they were 7 years ago. So, keep that in mind when choosing area. Places that are deposited with lots of adipose tissue and don't have vital organs in are probably the safest. So, thighs, hips, etc. Anywhere with fatty skin that doesn't stretch much.
Smaller and sharper things cut better but don't hurt as much, and vise-versa.

There will always be a risk of you fucking it up, cutting is just not a safe thing to do. The risk is fairly low if you're sensible about it and not rash though. When I had a breakdown I'd use a massive serrated bread-knife but that's kinda different situation and probably never safe.

Ah, I kinda wanna do it again now that I'm thinking about it lol.
Also, be warned that it is an addictive behaviour. You might end up enjoying it a bit too much, in which case... be prepared for that I guess.

I wish you the best dear. Stay safe.

 

[jacarandash]

i currently use a facial razor (if you google dermaplaning razor, that's what im talking about) on my thighs. it often heals over the course of a few days or a week and leaves a barely visible scar. i do this while in the shower to avoid suspicion from my parents. i usually do it at the beginning of my shower in order to let the blood flow and slowly stop as i wash myself and my hair. to me, this is a very safe method and has not been close to getting me caught

 

[Fwompje]

Highly recommend looking up guides and first aid before you do anything. This link is to a guide on a SH forum. Good to read.

Selfcare guide

 

[Disaster]

Are you adult, if you can't buy any cutting supplies? I'd hate to provide any advice to a kid. These things are cheap and easy to get. I'm aware that some people have disabilities etc., but for a typical depressed adult those supplies are easy to get.

 

[CellarBoy]

There isn't really a safe way to self harm, since there is always a possibility of infection, but I'd say start of small, then work your way up, commonly o the thighs.

i currently use a facial razor (if you google dermaplaning razor, that's what im talking about) on my thighs. it often heals over the course of a few days or a week and leaves a barely visible scar. i do this while in the shower to avoid suspicion from my parents. i usually do it at the beginning of my shower in order to let the blood flow and slowly stop as i wash myself and my hair. to me, this is a very safe method and has not been close to getting me caught

Have you tried the Japanese eyebrow razors? They're so much sharper, you'll love them.

 

[glitterypearls]

self harm can be a lot of things, doesn't just have to be cutting. my favorite is burning & bruises. they are safe! burning is the perfect way imo if you worried about infections and such.

 

[CentreMid]

Depends on how you're doing it and where. For me, I cut on the "fleshy" and more concealed areas of my body out of an abundance of caution. Usually I cut my thighs, shoulders, and belly. That way, I can easily cover it all up, with little risk of hitting any major veins or cutting too deeply, if that's what you're worried about. There will always be a risk of doing something drastic though. Do some research to see the parts of your body with the least amount of vital veins and go from there. Hope this helps

 

[targz]

I've never rlly done SH much.. But when I do it's kinda underwhelming and was wondering if it's just the method I'm using
Is there any good method that doesn't carry any risk to idk accidentally cutting an artery or smth?
I usually end up using flattened out metal parts of pencils but barely does anything..

May be not what you were going for, but some people I've known 'self-harm' mentally, like intentionally finding communities online that hate them (can work for LGBT I guess :/). Very dark stuff...

 

[beyondgone]

I like to cut myself with a razor sharp knife very lightly running it over my skin feeling it break through makes me feel something or self strangulation with a belt until you pass out and let go that's abit more risky but hey

 

[succ09]

I cut myself with dull knife with pointy things. Those really hurt and makes your body feel hot. Also never have had bandages or anything like that ready. I just leave cuts to stop bleeding. In the next day i go shower in the morning and use hot water (cuts really starts to hurt at this point) Dunno why i did it like this. discarded any safety mecanisms with cutting close to veins with strong force since it's dull knife and no bandages, paper, disinfections >.> Mainly just cutting whole area of arms (both sides) Anyways don't do as i did. Oh and i'm using sauna regularly. You bet 100°+ hot room makes wounds hurt like a fucking hell fire >.>

 

[plastic]

I don't like self-harm on my body, but that's why I destroy myself in other ways, consuming various chemicals, such as acetic acid, hair perm, etc.

 

[Kasumi]

I'd also kinda recommend against knifes etc, a letter opener or any similar pointy /sharp-alike but not knife-sharp object will scrape the skin more rather than cutting it.
Results in much shallower injuries, but it hurts more, and for longer, I've tried razor blades too, if you really wanna cut, say if u have the urge to see ur blood, I'd recommend rezor blades but not kitchen knifes or anything bigger, the size and weight makes it harder to control.

Try to research skin thickness at different parts of the body, you can also pinch your skin so u can imagine, half of that is about the thickness of ur skin.
Don't cut deeper, you'll have maybe 1-2mm at most on ur arms, also depending on how skinny you are, your thighs have by far the thickest skin, your tummy is also reasonably thick, that said even then 1-2mm is totally enough for quiet some blood to flow, I've tried never cutting deeper cause I obviously didn't wanna have lasting problems.

But yea in the end, personally I didn't like razors that much, hurts only really while cutting, but the cut is so clean it stops hurting really fast.
If I want pain right now I bite my hands and fingers, I can control how hard I bite and how much it hurts and for how long, no injuries either.

Scraping my skin definitely hurt for longer, burned slightly when showering, it basically did "the job" for me as in it was constantly there hurting a little and keeping me distracted.

If you cut or anything be sure you have stuff there to clean the cut and the blade, etc like some posts mentioned above.

 

[Valky]

Really depends on the location you want to cut. Helps to know where humans have more flash than any veins

 

[AresCohere]

I used a steak knife. Was not good for cutting but I feel like the constant effort and pain it took to dig in really make every cut have a deeper meaning and purpose.

 

[jaxxon_sunn]

Like some others have said, I use a eyebrow razor? Face razor? The not too sharp serrated edge blades. Very easy to get at stores. I cut my upper arms and shoulders, sometimes thighs and hips. Places it won't get seen. I do it kinda lightly, enough to feel pain and bleed a little. But not enough to go too deep or permanently scar. I just swipe it lightly but firmly on my skin. While it heals it leaves nice scars that i really like the texture of. A few times I've gone too deep that thicker and stickier blood comes out instead of watery and I hate the texture and feeling of that and don't recommend. I've cut on my wrists and hands too, but sometimes people would point it out or ask me about it and that makes me so insecure so I keep it in hidden places.

 

[juxtajuno]

if you're just barely starting to self-harm, please quit while you're ahead. it seems like such a small and meaningless thing now, but it becomes a lifelong addiction that is very hard to recover from. if you still plan on self-harming please do it safely, but i'm asking you to reconsider. i've been self-harming since i was 13, even though you think you can stop whenever you want, i promise you that you can't. i hope things start to look up for you; you deserve better.