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ms.astral_01

ms.astral_01

like fireflies to a flame, life begets death.
Mar 29, 2023
286
Self-harm is something that is defined by many people on this site differently. Personally, I define it as hurting yourself until there is noticeable bleeding, but I've seen others describe it to the point of just a noticeable bruise. Wanted to know y'alls thoughts on this. What would you consider to be the definition of "self-harm"?
 
Zetsubou

Zetsubou

Friend of Despair
Mar 16, 2023
65
Hmmm, your username sounds very familiar šŸ¤”

I personally define self-harm as inflicting any sort of mental or physical pain on yourself during distress. This would include the "classic" definition of self-harm such as cutting, but it also includes things like hitting yourself, purposely viewing content that you know is triggering to you, purposely starving yourself, etc.
 
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ms.astral_01

ms.astral_01

like fireflies to a flame, life begets death.
Mar 29, 2023
286
Hmmm, your username sounds very familiar šŸ¤”

I personally define self-harm as inflicting any sort of mental or physical pain on yourself during distress. This would include the "classic" definition of self-harm such as cutting, but it also includes things like hitting yourself, purposely viewing content that you know is triggering to you, purposely starving yourself, etc.
We do have similar usernames, haha. Thanks for your response, watching things like gore often seems like self harm to me, even though it's not physical.
 
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dimstar

dimstar

Poor little woodpecker
Mar 17, 2023
320
I think if your doing something with intent on harming yourself that's self harm. Can even be small but if its intentional for the purpose of hurting yourself I'd count it. When I'd be in one of my lows I'd push people away because I knew it might make things better, even exploding normal relationships to feel worse. I'd call that self harm. I use to burn myself I think most people would consider that self harm. I also at times drank till I'd black out or throw up or at least feel like shit the next day for the sole purpose of hurting myself with out leaving any viable "self harm".
 
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ms.astral_01

ms.astral_01

like fireflies to a flame, life begets death.
Mar 29, 2023
286
I think if your doing something with intent on harming yourself that's self harm. Can even be small but if its intentional for the purpose of hurting yourself I'd count it. When I'd be in one of my lows I'd push people away because I knew it might make things better, even exploding normal relationships to feel worse. I'd call that self harm. I use to burn myself I think most people would consider that self harm. I also at times drank till I'd black out or throw up or at least feel like shit the next day for the sole purpose of hurting myself with out leaving any viable "self harm".
I agree with burning as a self-harm method - although I do have one question. Did you purposely light yourself on fire, or did you actively look places where fire is common and just... jump in?
 
saltero

saltero

Member
Mar 23, 2023
12
Self-harm is something that is defined by many people on this site differently. Personally, I define it as hurting yourself until there is noticeable bleeding, but I've seen others describe it to the point of just a noticeable bruise. Wanted to know y'alls thoughts on this. What would you consider to be the definition of "self-harm"?
Self harm is anything done to hurt yourself without the intent to ctb. I'd class just about any attack on oneself as self harm, and I think any type of self harm should be respected as it is and never classified as being done for "attention".
 
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locked*n*loaded

locked*n*loaded

Archangel
Apr 15, 2022
8,012
Self harm could be defined as harming yourself in any way, be it physically, emotionally, financially, socially...................perhaps in a self-sabotaging manner whereby you push friends away, spend more than you can afford, beat yourself up over perceived, or even real, physical attributes, etc., such that it harms your self-esteem and creates an inner belief that your worth is less than others.
 
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dimstar

dimstar

Poor little woodpecker
Mar 17, 2023
320
I agree with burning as a self-harm method - although I do have one question. Did you purposely light yourself on fire, or did you actively look places where fire is common and just... jump in?
Oh no, I would put cigarettes out on myself or heat up metal and press it into my skin. Actually made some sorta pretty scar patterns.
 
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ms.astral_01

ms.astral_01

like fireflies to a flame, life begets death.
Mar 29, 2023
286
Oh no, I would put cigarettes out on myself or heat up metal and press it into my skin. Actually made some sorta pretty scar patterns.
In that case, self-harm was a form of art. You might wanna stop doing that though...
 
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dimstar

dimstar

Poor little woodpecker
Mar 17, 2023
320
In that case, self-harm was a form of art. You might wanna stop doing that though...
Scarification. I haven't done that in a few years. Partially because it was really addicting and secondly I was running out of room where I could hide it without going over other scars. Now if I get the urge and it wont go away I have a little patch for old fashioned cutting.
 
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FuneralCry

FuneralCry

Just wanting some peace
Sep 24, 2020
41,503
I see it as being someone choosing to inflict more suffering onto themselves for the sake of doing so. I believe that self harm is largely a coping mechanism for many people, but it's in no way my thing. Existence in itself is harmful enough for me without this, I wouldn't wish to cause harm to myself as with life comes unlimited potential to be harmed.
 
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E

empty

Member
Jan 5, 2021
50
I guess I use a stricter definition of self-harm than some. I think self-harm is deliberately causing direct physical damage to yourself without trying to die from it. I think that "emotional self-harm" is really just self-sabotage.
 
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redbathingduck

redbathingduck

Student
Mar 20, 2023
145
I think it can be pretty broad. I think it can even be unintentional sometimes with people who like don't or aren't able to take care of themselves due to mental distress resulting in not eating for days, poor hygiene and things like that. I could see why people wouldn't really classify that as self harm though. I used to cut myself to try and distract myself from the thoughts but the scars just made me feel worse so I stopped doing that. Nowadays I often repeatedly smash my fists on like a hard surface to have the pain as a distraction from my thoughts, or smash my head into the closet or wall and things like that. It doesn't really leave any visible scars but I still get to turn off my thoughts for a bit at least
 
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M

marudekinoumitai

Member
Mar 28, 2023
38
I've recently expanded my understanding of self-harm as I've realized that it's a big motivator for a lot of my actions. For example I struggle with a form of bulimia and I think that counts as self-harm, even if that's not what people would usually think of. But it could totally be even more abstract than that, like I've heard of "digital self-harm" where someone might read hate messages against a group they're part of, etc. There's definitely more to it than hurting yourself until you bleed/bruise imo
 
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hellispink

hellispink

poisonous
May 26, 2022
1,231
Anything that harms you emotionally or physically. Not just scars and cutting or hitting. It can be pulling hair, staying with abusive people because one thinks thats all one deserves etc. There is million of ways to harm oneself and die slowly because of it
 
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ThrowedAway

ThrowedAway

thinking about things
Apr 1, 2023
10
I would define it as anything that hurts you physically, mentally or causes any distress to you. For example if you hate horror movies and forced yourself to watch one, I would consider that as self harm.
 
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senzim

senzim

Member
Apr 15, 2023
13
Self-harm is something that is defined by many people on this site differently. Personally, I define it as hurting yourself until there is noticeable bleeding, but I've seen others describe it to the point of just a noticeable bruise. Wanted to know y'alls thoughts on this. What would you consider to be the definition of "self-harm"?
For me, I define self harm as any action that causes pain to yourself physically or mentally. The most common form is cutting so I can see why you would define it as that.
 
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ms.astral_01

ms.astral_01

like fireflies to a flame, life begets death.
Mar 29, 2023
286
For me, I define self harm as any action that causes pain to yourself physically or mentally. The most common form is cutting so I can see why you would define it as that.
Through opening this thread I received many insightful responses I didn't even imagine. Like for example, I didn't exactly think trash talking yourself or watching gore could be self-harm, but now I can see it. I often do both, and very much know that it's true that I feel terrible about myself.
 
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