Are you a self injurer??   How does one know if one self injures? Some people aren't sure if what they do is "really" self injury. The following is taken from Self Injury: You are Not Alone.   1. Do you deliberately cause physical harm to yourself to the extent of causing tissue damage (breaking the skin, bruising, leaving marks that last for more than an hour)?   2. Do you cause this harm to yourself as a way of dealing with unpleasant or overwhelming emotions, obsessive thoughts, or dissociation?   3. If your self-harm is not compulsive, do you often think about SI even when you're relatively calm and not doing it at the moment?   If you answer #1 and #2 yes, you are a self-injurer. If you answer #3 yes, you are most likely a repetitive self-injurer. The way you choose to hurt yourself could be cutting, hitting, burning, scratching, skin-picking, banging your head, breaking bones, not letting wounds heal, etc. How you do it isn't as important as recognizing that you do.