I was just thinking. Why do people guilt trip over cutting themselves?
Who the fuck cares what other people think? (Well, maybe that’s more of my perspective.) It’s non-lethal, it hurts less than getting a tattoo, you just don’t get a pretty picture at the end. I mean, for pain itself, there would be constructive and productive things to do like yoga, or running till your legs give out, that hurt a lot more than some scrapes. The intensity of pain you feel from pushing your bodily limits are usually a lot worse than the actual act of cutting. If you consistently need stitches and are at risk of bleeding to death, maybe cutting is a problem. But I’ve given blood plenty of times before, and the amount of blood that people seem to lose cutting on average won’t affect your body at all.
So maybe we do it because the idea of it is romanticized in our heads, we like to see the drops of blood flowering, maybe it’s the symbolic nature of it – bringing some kind of destruction upon ourselves.
But I really don’t get why it’s such a big deal. The only shame I’ve ever felt from cutting is the shame from not loving myself more.
And that’s something else entirely.
9 comments
The problem with cutting is that it isn’t a reasonable answer to the problems which give rise to it. It’s an ad hoc solution, and in many cases an addiction, granted, it is a way for people to temporarily relieve themselves, and in that sense, if controlled, may not be the worst thing for a time. Cutting involves the risk of infection and severing an artery, aswell as perhaps the most prevelent of negative side effects, scars that will last a life time.
There’s no shame to be felt in cutting and is in no way something to be reproached by others who don’t understand the emotions which bring it about, however it’s certainly not something to be advocated for people trying to overcome their siutations in life. Can you imagine if we told teenagers in highschool “If you feel that life is too painful and you need a release just cut yourself with a razor blade–voilia– the problem disappears.”
I apologize for the lengthy post, and no one should feel ashamed of themselves for cutting. Sadly, society will stigmatize those which dissent from the standard of the majority, but that is what it means to be a society.
The big deal is that others will see the cuts and ask why?
That’s why I stopped cutting my arms and just cut my thighs,
The physical is not the same as feeling of your skin oppening, the sharp pain you feel, the stress that is relieved, the feeling of watching the blood flow down, plus most of us just don’t have the energy to do much physical activity,
I feel shame because I can’t believe how pathetic I am that I resort to cutting, that the only way my pain can find a remedy is by cutting my skin, I also feel shame because so much people look down upon people that cut, they don’t understand why we do it, and so we are judged.
Why does it matter if others see? Or ask why?
Does the acceptance of people who judge you matter to you?
It matters because I don’t like pitty, I don’t like when people that truly dont care about me ask why I cut myself, I don’t want people to know I’m depressed, I don’t want them to act like they care about me. The only person that I care to tell about my cuts is the only person I want to know about them
I know exactly how you fell people ask why I do it all the time and the other day. One of the girls who absolutely hates me asked and I was like none of your business and then she said go die nobody cares about you that’s when you stop listening to them.
Its not that most of us care what ppl think, its the annoying looks and questions. Most especially when I go to the pool.
My main reasons to self mute are self hatred and dulling one pain with another.
I feel the same. It seems like saying that your a cutter alone automatically qualifies you as a “freak”. I don’t do it very often, and when I do its extemely minor. They could be straches from my cat! But all the same people make preconcieved notions about something they don’t know anything about.
if you can make sure you don’t get an infection and keep it hidden, then i dont see a big deal either.
plus, cutting doesn’t mean youre suicidal either. i think that most people who cut actually don’t kill themselves. if you let the urge build up it’s even worse. i dont get it either. i’d rather be looking at someones scar rather than their casket.