Self Injury, (SI) is when a person deliberately hurts themself, and is sometimes confused with suicide attempts/ideation. I will try and clear this up. The difference between SI and suicide, is that people commit suicide to end their pain, to stop feeling. People who SI are trying to feel something, anything to know that they are capable of feeling and that they are "alive". People SI for many different reasons. Some do it to punish themselves. When things are spinning out of control in a self injurers life, hurting themselves gives them a sense of control. It also gives the person a feeling of release, from all of the things going on in their life at that time. It is different for different people.
There are many forms of self injury that range from cutting, to burning, bone breaking, hair pulling, and bruising. The most common form is cutting. Some self injurers do more than one or even several of the above.
Some people stick to one area of the body (i.e. the arm or torso). Others will randomly slash at themselves. Most people tend to cut in a place where it can be easily hidden from people.
Most self injurers are masters of hiding their cuts and scars (I am the exception). Cutters will usually cut on places of the body that are not easily seen, and even wear long sleeves and sweaters in the summer. If someone were to ask what happened you will likely get the "cat" story, or anything they can think of to cover what their injuries really are. I will take this opportunity to say that alot of people must own cougars instead of the everyday house cat. As time goes on it is easier for the person to lie, and usually people don't dig any deeper for a better explaination, or a more credible excuse because they usually buy into what the cutter has told them. Why shouldn't they? Most people would never think that someone would deliberately cut themself. This isn't true for all self injurers. Some are proud of their scars, or just decide that they don't care what other people think. Others are just open with their situation and it doesn't matter to them if people know about it or not.
One of the worst things about any form of self injury is that is becomes extremely addictive. It is just like any other addiction like alcohol, smoking, and drugs. Once you are started on the path it is so hard to get turned back around. People will stop for a while, a few days, sometimes even months, but come back to it because they have to have that sense of control and the release that comes with SI.
Self injury is a vicious cycle. Example: It may start out as having something bad happen to you one day. Then you would think or focus on what had happened. Then it would play over and over in your mind and you would dwell on it. It would all build up until you felt that you HAD to do something to relieve this tension. That would lead to the self injurous behavior. The feelings of relief come when you cut, but do not last for long. So you do it again, and again. Alot of the time the person will feel bad or guilty for what they have done. Thus returning to dwelling on the problem, cutting, and so on repeating over and over. It is very hard to escape this cycle. Some people live with SI for many years. Note: This was a very rough and generic example, it's just to give you an idea.
Unless you are a self injurer you cannot comprehend what this does or how this helps the person who is hurting themselves. I'm not saying that SI is ok, and I'm not saying that it is a horrible thing either. You may think that they are CRAZY. They are not. They are just people who have problems like everyone else. They just use a different coping mechanism. This doesn't make them bad people. Often they are just asking for help, but don't know how to ask for it. What Can I Do? If you would like more information on SI, please click the back button and look at my links page.
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