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jacarandash

jacarandash

ash, she/her 🖤
Feb 26, 2023
43
i spoke to my psychiatrist today. i told him i was doing a lot better, which for the most part is true. however towards the end of our session he asked me if there was anything i would like to add. i said no. but the one thing i hadn't told him is that ive begun harming myself again

truthfully, i feel happy. i do. but i feel the need to make myself bleed. every time i shower i find myself on the floor harming myself. it's such an impulsive feeling and i don't know how to stop it. i don't know if i want to stop it. it doesn't hurt too much and i like seeing myself bleed. i have a deep desire to cut deeper, as well, yet i thankfully do not have the resources to do so. im worried i may cause serious harm to myself out of pure impulse

does this happen to anybody else? would anybody be able to help me pinpoint why this is happening? i don't understand it myself
 
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iwantdeath6969

Member
Oct 17, 2022
81
i always feel really unsafe now because of how often i impulsively self harm. i normally just hit myself really hard in the legs but lately i've also been smashing my head really hard into things and cutting myself again. i feel like i might accidentally kill myself this way. i don't know if i have any advice but you aren't alone
 
H

HayBunny23

GuiltyLittleBunny
Feb 15, 2023
65
Cutting can be extremely addictive, and it can be hard to stop even without suicidal thoughts. It's hard to kick an addiction on your own, but you can try it. If you want to stop, it's best to start by throwing away what you use to self harm. You can wear rubber bands on your wrists to snap, that might help the impulsive feelings.
I'm impulsive but for me, once you take the thing away, the impulse comes but without anything to act on it fizzles out quickly. If I have the object, especially in front of me, it's harder to stop the impulse. I was a cutter, but now I just smash my head/ body into stuff for the most part. it's difficult to stop myself from smashing my head into the wall when the wall is right there, teasing me. 😂
 
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estrangered

estrangered

smiling days, summer holidays
Jan 25, 2023
9
I'm in a similar situation, i had mentioned my self harm to my therapist a while ago and he has been non stop prodding about stopping and when i last did it, why, which never fails to spiral my sessions into exclusive discussion around self harm which i am so conflicted about as i really dont feel ready to just stop.

I can relate to you as I also feel a lot better yet am stalling on staying clean, I consistently sabotage my streaks of being clean for the sake of it + with the added reason because deep down i feel it's truly not that 'bad'?

for me i think it might be as comfort, im used to dealing with negative emotions by cutting myself- and transitioning to being 'better' after years and years of feeling like total shit 24/7 is fucking weird, even though sure- i know growing is going to lead to me being a different person (for the better) but it feels like some sort of souvenir from my past, its hard letting go of something like that.
Another reason i suspect could be as 'proof' for myself of what i've been through, at my worst i used to be obsessive over scars nobody would even see because it was comforting to externalise (as cheesy as it sounds) invisible pain, and in my brain deeper= better representation of this as it should leave a bigger scar (which didn't play out as i hoped as i quickly learnt my skin is insanely good at healing deep wounds to look like my regular depth lmao)
i might try to externalise this into art projects or something and see if it gives me similar satisfaction?
but im uncontrollably impulsive when it comes to hitting myself/ into things as self harm despite not really leaving much of a mark? not entirely sure but im guessing this is from habit as a reaction of something that sets me off, and since ive normalised doing this so often over the years its a hard habit to break especially since it doesnt require any preparation or clean up. if you always have self harmed in the shower i can imagine it would be difficult to stay clean when you might associate that place with self harm?

could be something similar for you in here? hope some of this could help you figure out ur reason, im still working out this stuff by myself so im sorry i cant help you out much past this, really do wish you the best as i relate and empathise past what im able to articulate properly in this not proofread word vomit, hope you have a good one <3
 
jacarandash

jacarandash

ash, she/her 🖤
Feb 26, 2023
43
Cutting can be extremely addictive, and it can be hard to stop even without suicidal thoughts. It's hard to kick an addiction on your own, but you can try it. If you want to stop, it's best to start by throwing away what you use to self harm. You can wear rubber bands on your wrists to snap, that might help the impulsive feelings.
I'm impulsive but for me, once you take the thing away, the impulse comes but without anything to act on it fizzles out quickly. If I have the object, especially in front of me, it's harder to stop the impulse. I was a cutter, but now I just smash my head/ body into stuff for the most part. it's difficult to stop myself from smashing my head into the wall when the wall is right there, teasing me. 😂
i would love to throw out the things i use however i need to shave, otherwise people will point out my hairy legs because god forbid a woman have hairy legs. 😭
I'm in a similar situation, i had mentioned my self harm to my therapist a while ago and he has been non stop prodding about stopping and when i last did it, why, which never fails to spiral my sessions into exclusive discussion around self harm which i am so conflicted about as i really dont feel ready to just stop.

I can relate to you as I also feel a lot better yet am stalling on staying clean, I consistently sabotage my streaks of being clean for the sake of it + with the added reason because deep down i feel it's truly not that 'bad'?

for me i think it might be as comfort, im used to dealing with negative emotions by cutting myself- and transitioning to being 'better' after years and years of feeling like total shit 24/7 is fucking weird, even though sure- i know growing is going to lead to me being a different person (for the better) but it feels like some sort of souvenir from my past, its hard letting go of something like that.
Another reason i suspect could be as 'proof' for myself of what i've been through, at my worst i used to be obsessive over scars nobody would even see because it was comforting to externalise (as cheesy as it sounds) invisible pain, and in my brain deeper= better representation of this as it should leave a bigger scar (which didn't play out as i hoped as i quickly learnt my skin is insanely good at healing deep wounds to look like my regular depth lmao)
i might try to externalise this into art projects or something and see if it gives me similar satisfaction?
but im uncontrollably impulsive when it comes to hitting myself/ into things as self harm despite not really leaving much of a mark? not entirely sure but im guessing this is from habit as a reaction of something that sets me off, and since ive normalised doing this so often over the years its a hard habit to break especially since it doesnt require any preparation or clean up. if you always have self harmed in the shower i can imagine it would be difficult to stay clean when you might associate that place with self harm?

could be something similar for you in here? hope some of this could help you figure out ur reason, im still working out this stuff by myself so im sorry i cant help you out much past this, really do wish you the best as i relate and empathise past what im able to articulate properly in this not proofread word vomit, hope you have a good one <3
thank you for your words, i resonated with many things that you mentioned. im glad i am not alone in this, i hope you are also doing well!
 
H

HayBunny23

GuiltyLittleBunny
Feb 15, 2023
65
i would love to throw out the things i use however i need to shave, otherwise people will point out my hairy legs because god forbid a woman have hairy legs. 😭
I totally get it. Not ideal, but you can use a trimmer/electric shaver, wax or that nair stuff instead of razors?
 
estrangered

estrangered

smiling days, summer holidays
Jan 25, 2023
9
i would love to throw out the things i use however i need to shave, otherwise people will point out my hairy legs because god forbid a woman have hairy legs. 😭

thank you for your words, i resonated with many things that you mentioned. im glad i am not alone in this, i hope you are also doing well!
was surprised to see u and others echo feelings of my own i felt alone in too! & heyy ty :) i appreciate it,
and omg, ik ur replying to haybunny above & this is totally irrelevant but i just wanted to add, as some1 who's female presenting with hairy legs, jesus christ yeah its hell in public sometimes LOL.
 
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ElfenLied

ElfenLied

Aren't we all monsters inside?
Jan 15, 2023
43
When I was a teenager I always did this, somehow it made me feel good, I always cut myself in the shower, when I got home from school and sometimes when I went to sleep, and they were always very deep cuts, but after a while it was no longer making me feel good anymore, and since then I never did again.

I have something on my skin called vitiligo, they are white spots that appear on my skin whenever I hurt or burn myself, nowadays the scars on my cuts look like white lines, whenever I take a shower I look at them and I remember that time in my teens where I cut myself, and I always feel comfortable remembering.

Your scars are battle wounds, but you don't see them that way. Yet.
 
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Walpurgisnacht

Walpurgisnacht

Lavender
Feb 25, 2023
131
When I was a teenager I did this too, it was part of my daily routine for years. I calculated sometime I likely have over 2000 individual scars.

It was the same feeling you describe, I enjoyed watching myself bleed, seeing it stream down. I'd even play with the blood sometimes, or put a few drops of it in my drink to give it that irony taste. Occasionally when I had a breakdown I'd overdo it quite badly, but usually it was just something I did because I liked it. I think self-hatred was a motivator, I felt like I needed to be punished.
Self-harm is an addictive behaviour, and it making you feel good is pretty normal from what I have heard from others who do or have done this.

Then one day, I just didn't feel like doing it. I was at my most unstable in a long time back then, when I finally realised what was making me so unstable, I realised what I needed to do to stabalise my mental state. And after that I just, stopped... I still yearn for it when I think about it, but the feelings are not strong enough to make me go back to doing it, but the cravings never seemed to go away, I will always like to see myself bleed and hurt, and I have accepted that.

I can't really tell you what your core problem is for it, but impulsive self-destructive behaviour is usually a sign of some form of instability, for me it was BPD, and I didn't know I had it back then.
Very rarely I still do it, usually when I have a breakdown, and it's entirely on impulse; but my desire isn't so strong now.

I know this isn't very helpful, but I think that you will eventually figure out what is causing you to engage in impulsive behaviours, and once you do, you probably will be able to stop a lot easier than it feels now.

Until you are mentally ready to stop, I'd recommend harm reduction over just trying for total abstinence; it is an addiction in my opinion, and should be managed as one.
Try to engage in it in a way that leaves the least permanent damage while still satisfying your urge, ideally as little as possible to satisfy it. Always sanitise your wounds and if they need stiches, get the stiches; that's very important for reducing long term skin damage. Don't cut deep enough that you could hit a nerve or artery, you can still bleed a lot without having to go that deep. Hitting a nerve is the worst case scenario and an artery requires emergency surgery to stop you from bleeding out.
Your scars might fade over time, or they might not. The smaller they are, the less likely they are to be immediately visible (which is why stitches are important), but for some people they just don't fade unfortunately. All of mine are just as visible 7 years later, so be prepared for that possibility as well.
If you can't help the impulse to cut deeper, lock your tools away in a place that will take you at least a few minutes to get to; this will give you time to calm down and think before doing something too rash. I don't know if it's totally possible to entirely remove the impulse here, but there are things you can do to at least mitigate the potential damage, such as intentionally getting blunter tools.

Good luck. I wish you the best.
And whether they fade or not, don't ever be ashamed of your scars; they'll be proof you got through it one day.
 
prim

prim

pretty boy
Feb 28, 2023
76
i spoke to my psychiatrist today. i told him i was doing a lot better, which for the most part is true. however towards the end of our session he asked me if there was anything i would like to add. i said no. but the one thing i hadn't told him is that ive begun harming myself again

truthfully, i feel happy. i do. but i feel the need to make myself bleed. every time i shower i find myself on the floor harming myself. it's such an impulsive feeling and i don't know how to stop it. i don't know if i want to stop it. it doesn't hurt too much and i like seeing myself bleed. i have a deep desire to cut deeper, as well, yet i thankfully do not have the resources to do so. im worried i may cause serious harm to myself out of pure impulse

does this happen to anybody else? would anybody be able to help me pinpoint why this is happening? i don't understand it myself
i can fully relate to this.. i do it completely impulsively and i do it because i like to see myself bleed, among other reasons
 
The Eeyorish One

The Eeyorish One

Member
Oct 9, 2022
98
You're not alone. I've become much more impulsive with my sh, and I've often wanted to harm myself more severely but I can't (will get thrown out if I "permanently" harm myself). Tbf I'm also squeamish af and I might just panic and pass out if I ever make myself bleed lol. I don't think I really want to stop either. It helps me, and it's also almost… proof that I'm maybe as messed up as I think I am? Like it helps with imposter syndrome I guess.

I will say with sh, you really should try to keep it to methods that won't cause serious damage. This 100% makes me a hypocrite since like… I want to do worse damage to myself but yeah… it's really not very good for you and there's still ways you can sh without it being as bad for you. Things like squeezing ice, snapping a rubber band, scraping your skin with a dull object instead of a sharp one, etc. If you really wanna stop, after reducing it to one of the previously mentioned methods, you could take another step down and just draw red lines on yourself with like a marker. No harm at that point, but I've heard it can still satisfy the urges for some.

I also think it may be a good idea to keep your psych more in the loop but… it really depends on where you are, how your psych handles this kind of stuff, etc. With mine, I can be 100% honest until I commit to and acquire everything needed to ctb. Basically if they don't think you're at serious immediate risk to yourself or others it should be ok. With you saying you bleed though… idk, it's possible they'd overreact to it. Hopefully someone who also does that can chime in.

In terms of trying to figure out why you're doing it… well you'll need to ask a professional to be sure but here's my thoughts. When I sh, sometimes I stop for a second and try to identify the current emotion and what triggered it. For me, it's often anger, guilt, and frustration due to video games, something someone says to me irl, or spiraling thoughts of feeling worthless. If you're able to do this, and then maybe track it somewhere private (phone notes or something). It could help you establish a pattern. It's also possible as someone else said, that it's due to an underlying health condition. I don't really know how to identify if that's the case, but my guess would be if you just simply feel the impulse to do it with no real emotion / desire to feel something attached to it, then there's probably something going on. I should add though, if you used to sh for specific reasons and it's more recent where you just feel the impulse to do it then it might simply just be the addiction. Like any other addiction, once you start, it's hard to stop, even if you're otherwise ok now.

Anyways, I hope you're able to find the answers you're looking for and that you're able to take whatever steps you feel are necessary.
 
Fwompje

Fwompje

life is cruel and time heals nothing
Feb 23, 2023
190
It's an addiction, you're chasing a certain feeling or release. If you can figure out why you want to do it, it might be easier to look for a replacement. You say you like watching yourself bleed, perhaps painting on yourself with makeup or watercolour and then getting into the shower might be something fun to try out.

That said, if you don't want to stop, you probably won't. That's the same with all addictions I think.

Wishing you the best with this, you're doing a great job by getting help and I'm rooting for you!
 
soysoysoy

soysoysoy

Dead girl walking
Feb 25, 2023
44
i spoke to my psychiatrist today. i told him i was doing a lot better, which for the most part is true. however towards the end of our session he asked me if there was anything i would like to add. i said no. but the one thing i hadn't told him is that ive begun harming myself again

truthfully, i feel happy. i do. but i feel the need to make myself bleed. every time i shower i find myself on the floor harming myself. it's such an impulsive feeling and i don't know how to stop it. i don't know if i want to stop it. it doesn't hurt too much and i like seeing myself bleed. i have a deep desire to cut deeper, as well, yet i thankfully do not have the resources to do so. im worried i may cause serious harm to myself out of pure impulse

does this happen to anybody else? would anybody be able to help me pinpoint why this is happening? i don't understand it myself
l the same way, I'm doing a lot better than i was in life but I guess SH just feels too good to give up? I've promised people I would try my best to quit, but truthfully I'm not sure that I really want to and it makes me feel like I'm letting them down. The serotonin and natural painkillers that our brain produces during SH can be very addictive, but I think I also do it to see myself bleed, and have the same problem of wanting to go deeper. I haven't been able to find a good substitute for what people like us look for in SH other than just trying to quit all together. Which I'm not sure I'm ready to do just yet.

Good apps that helped me a lot during my initial recovery efforts were sobriety apps like 'I Am Sober.' Any progress, not matter how small it may seem, is progress regardless. If you're willing to tell someone and dedicate yourself to recovering for them if you don't want to recover for yourself, that can also help a lot. I wish you the best of luck in your efforts of pursuing recovery if you so choose to do so. It's a long road but I believe that anyone can do it with the right motivation.
 
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Cabbiesevvie

Cabbiesevvie

Member
Mar 1, 2023
19
I cut myself I think weekly. Sometimes it's because I feel bad but most of the times I just feel like I need to suffer equally as hard or harder than those who I make suffer.
Don't worry, I do desinfect my cuts.
 
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jacarandash

jacarandash

ash, she/her 🖤
Feb 26, 2023
43
When I was a teenager I did this too, it was part of my daily routine for years. I calculated sometime I likely have over 2000 individual scars.

It was the same feeling you describe, I enjoyed watching myself bleed, seeing it stream down. I'd even play with the blood sometimes, or put a few drops of it in my drink to give it that irony taste. Occasionally when I had a breakdown I'd overdo it quite badly, but usually it was just something I did because I liked it. I think self-hatred was a motivator, I felt like I needed to be punished.
Self-harm is an addictive behaviour, and it making you feel good is pretty normal from what I have heard from others who do or have done this.

Then one day, I just didn't feel like doing it. I was at my most unstable in a long time back then, when I finally realised what was making me so unstable, I realised what I needed to do to stabalise my mental state. And after that I just, stopped... I still yearn for it when I think about it, but the feelings are not strong enough to make me go back to doing it, but the cravings never seemed to go away, I will always like to see myself bleed and hurt, and I have accepted that.

I can't really tell you what your core problem is for it, but impulsive self-destructive behaviour is usually a sign of some form of instability, for me it was BPD, and I didn't know I had it back then.
Very rarely I still do it, usually when I have a breakdown, and it's entirely on impulse; but my desire isn't so strong now.

I know this isn't very helpful, but I think that you will eventually figure out what is causing you to engage in impulsive behaviours, and once you do, you probably will be able to stop a lot easier than it feels now.

Until you are mentally ready to stop, I'd recommend harm reduction over just trying for total abstinence; it is an addiction in my opinion, and should be managed as one.
Try to engage in it in a way that leaves the least permanent damage while still satisfying your urge, ideally as little as possible to satisfy it. Always sanitise your wounds and if they need stiches, get the stiches; that's very important for reducing long term skin damage. Don't cut deep enough that you could hit a nerve or artery, you can still bleed a lot without having to go that deep. Hitting a nerve is the worst case scenario and an artery requires emergency surgery to stop you from bleeding out.
Your scars might fade over time, or they might not. The smaller they are, the less likely they are to be immediately visible (which is why stitches are important), but for some people they just don't fade unfortunately. All of mine are just as visible 7 years later, so be prepared for that possibility as well.
If you can't help the impulse to cut deeper, lock your tools away in a place that will take you at least a few minutes to get to; this will give you time to calm down and think before doing something too rash. I don't know if it's totally possible to entirely remove the impulse here, but there are things you can do to at least mitigate the potential damage, such as intentionally getting blunter tools.

Good luck. I wish you the best.
And whether they fade or not, don't ever be ashamed of your scars; they'll be proof you got through it one day.
thank you so much for your words, hearing your story has been incredibly comforting. thank you for the advice, it is all much appreciated
It's an addiction, you're chasing a certain feeling or release. If you can figure out why you want to do it, it might be easier to look for a replacement. You say you like watching yourself bleed, perhaps painting on yourself with makeup or watercolour and then getting into the shower might be something fun to try out.

That said, if you don't want to stop, you probably won't. That's the same with all addictions I think.

Wishing you the best with this, you're doing a great job by getting help and I'm rooting for you!
thank you so much for the advice and the words of encouragement! i appreciate you
 
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