When it comes to cutting, since ive seen a lot of posts about it lately. Assuming not cutting in anyway that would require medical attention (basically a suicide attempt) is it really all that bad? I myself use it as a coping method, i know its not entirely preferable and i try not to if i can avoid it but i feel like its really no different than lighting up a cigarette. Or any other destresser bad habit.
Though i am curious about those who use it as a way to grab attention. I kinda dont get it unless its a silent cry for help kinda thing. Its like even though cutting is my stress relief i know some people are still not gonna understand that so i still have the issue of covering up the marks until theyre somewhat faded. I would think most would want to keep the marks covered up less it lead to other problems.
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I use cutting for expressing my feelings. I don’t really use it as a suicide attempt, but only when I want to. It’s like pouring out all the sadness in me. I guess it’s different for everyone. But you’re right when you said it’s no different than a cigarette, actually better in my case. People sort of noticed my cuts and when they did they’d just apologize whenever they’d accidentally hurt my wrist and they’d start asking questions about it so it kind of grabbed their attention, which I don’t like since I’m never used to opening up to others that much.
Hmm I get that, for me it’s usually opposite of sadness and it’s more so frustation or stress relief. That’s why I kinda compared it to smoking but you’re right it’s got a different feeling varying from person to person to person. And don’t worry those responses you’re not alone, though most people don’t really ask me about them only do the awkward look away and pretend no one discovered them.
I feel you 🙁 Especially when they’d accidentally hold my wrist and they’d immediately apologize and sometimes they try to be really sensitive towards me and acting as if just one wrong move and I’d be crying, I’m not entirely crazy you know 🙁 .
I’m sure “safe” cutting is no worse than drinking small amounts of poison habitually or, say, smoking.
But if you wanted to be addicted to something mildly unpleasant then why not do something that’s a net benefit, like eating undercooked kale?
In my opinion it really is no different than smoking or drinking, just a different kind of qoute on qoute poison heh. Yet people seem to make a big deal about small time cutting/cutters though which I don’t get.
…well that is unpleasant but for a different reason entirely I don’t think I could do it. Kale is pretty harsh haha.
Seriously, people here get upset about it because what you talk about doing “a little” is something they associate with severe stress and longing for death.
Also, drinking, smoking, and kale are all things it’s hard if not impossible to quickly kill yourself doing. But once you are used to cutting, it could go fatally bad very quickly without too much additional effort. That makes people nervous.
Personally I’m at the other end of the spectrum. Only pleasure relieves my stress, so I indulge in cooking (food), relationships (sex), and kittens (kittens). People who cut confuse me even after I read up on it. I’m like, “OW!” that hurts just to think about.
He said as he produced a kitten from his pocket.
I cat-sat for two kittens a while ago. They’re lethal! One of them in particular… he had the eyes of the Devil, and more importantly very sharp claws.
I think SeeSmith is right – it can get worse quickly. If you really don’t feel that it harms you psychologically or (severely) physically, then… well, it’s not like anyone can stop you, and why should they? But for me, I don’t see how many people could do it without experiencing further psychological harm as a result. I used to cut, and to be honest it was very, very light cutting. The scars are still there all over my arm, but they’re only faint, very thin white lines. You can only see them in bright sunlight, and even then my gorilla arms hide them quite nicely. I don’t think anyone would notice them, even if I tried to show them.
So physically it didn’t do much damage. I have stretch marks all over my body from when I put on weight as a teenager that are much more noticeable.
But psychologically it only made me worse. I had mixed opinions about it in the first place. I didn’t particularly want people to see them – I hated seeing their reactions – although I did them them an obvious place. But I liked watching the effect. It was like some of my pain was finally visible. It was like I’d woken a beast… it was like something in me knew that that could be a way to me finally dying. I was losing control over my mind. But a part of me liked it. It also felt like I’d crossed over a barrier. It was disturbing.
More important long term is that I ‘had’ to cut whenever I felt bad, which was often, because I was getting more unwell. I did it walking to school, under my jumper. I did it in class. Even after a long time not doing it, when something tipped me over the edge emotionally and I felt like I couldn’t handle it, I’d have an overwhelming urge to do it. It made any problems that rose more unbearable, especially if I couldn’t cut. I’d panic more, get more stressed. That’s the key problem with cutting – that it gets addictive, and in the process it can cause more of what it’s meant to release.
I’m a 49 y/o male and I first cut when aged 14 and I still cut today. I have thousands of scars on my arms and I don’t bother to ever cover them.
My Psychologist actually told me that my arms looked horrible in an attempt to get me to stop cutting. I told her that I did not care what my arms looked like because cutting is the only thing that has ever helped me with my depression and anger.
I don’t try to cover my arms because I am fat and ugly, so people will see me from a distance and immediately judge me because I am fat and ugly and they make the effort to avoid coming close to me, so few people really sees my scars. The times when I am close to people and they can see my scars does not bother me as they have already judged me for being fat and ugly. Having scars on my arms adds nothing to the judgement I already receive from people based on my appearance.
Not only am I fat and ugly and constantly get judged because of it, I also have hormone problems caused by pituitary tumors. The hormone problems caused me to grow huge female breasts when I went through puberty and my penis failed to develop at all, so I have also been judged on those things. I had 3 surgeries and the breasts have been removed but there is nothing that can give me a normal penis. I have never had any relationships, never been kissed and never been on a date, so I get judged on that as well with people assuming that I am either secretly gay or I am some sort of serial killer or pedophile simply because I have never had a girlfriend.
After years of being humiliated by prostitutes with every attempt at having sex I have developed a humiliation perversion. I become aroused sexually when women display disgust at the sight of my micropenis or when they laugh at me and humiliate. I will reach orgasm whilst being humiliated but that humiliation and knowing everyone is repulsed at the sight of me is only sexually arousing, it does not make me a confident, happy, well-adjusted human being. It is devastating to my psyche and I have had so many women tell me that I should kill myself that I now feel like everyone expects to see self-harm or failed suicide attempts when they see me. I now want people to see all my scars so they can see that I hate myself and that I do realize I am a freak and should kill myself, so there is no need for them to keep telling me.
I’m not sure about the so called safe cutting because the times when I tried to kill myself cutting deeply along my arm I missed all veins and arteries but when I have been cutting across my arms, as a coping mechanism I have on a number of occasions cut veins and an artery and almost died from self harming. I have found it is not the pain from cutting that helps me but it is the sight of my own blood so I tend to cut deeper to make myself bleed more as my arms are all scar tissue now and i don’t bleed much unless I cut deep.