There is so much confusion around the addiction of cutting. It's hard for some people to understand why you, or someone you know, would repeatedly harm themselves on purpose. I want to break through the confusion and help those who practice cutting as a way of life. I've heard a lot of people say, why would anyone do such a thing as purposely cause pain to their bodies? So, let's begin to uncover the reasons why so many people cut themselves.
Most People Cut to Cover an Even Deeper Emotional Pain
As I have talked with hundreds of people that self-harm, one major reason emerges over and over again: Most people cut themselves to try to cope with an even deeper emotional pain. If you or anybody you know is cutting, please understand cutting is a way of covering something much deeper and painful going on inside.
Cover Self-Hate
An anonymous blogger put it this way: I used to cut because I felt like it was the only way to feel something other than the hurt and confusion and self-hate that was driving me insane. I would cut because I hated myself so much that I wanted to tear myself to pieces.
Cover Past Trauma
Most cutters' ability to cope with life is overwhelmed by powerful emotions or extreme pressure that seem too intense to bear. Jenessa said she's been a cutter for 7 years. I was sexually abused by someone very close to me. I started cutting because I always thought that what happened was my fault. I have never gotten over it, so I used to cope with any problem I had by cutting. Taking it out on myself was so much easier than figuring out what to do emotionally.
Can't Express Emotional Pain
When these emotions aren't dealt with, tension builds up. Cutting can feel like a release of this tension. Rachel said cutting is a way for her to deal with her pain: It's an escape from reality. No matter how temporary it is it's a relief to escape all the pain.
Most cutters struggle to express their pain to others. Without the words or outlet to express their emotional pain, they give into a short cut, a destructive physical expression toward themself. Laken said cutting is her first reaction when she feels disappointment or difficulty. When I fail a test, when I get in a fight, when I am called a mean name, or when anything bad happens the first thought is to cut. It is horrible and I always fall back on it.
The physical pain has a calming effect on her more agonizing emotional pain. Cutting is the treating of one pain with another. A cutter's life is one of the choices between one kind of pain or a much greater one. Amy said: It feels good when you have physical pain to take away from your emotional pain.
Avoid Dealing with Deep Feelings
The problem with self-injury as with any addiction, is that by harming yourself you never really are able to confront your deepest feelings. Perhaps that is you. You are using cutting to try to cope with an even deeper emotional pain. It is hard to say no to something that feels so good. But in the end, cutting will fail you every time.
Don't lose hope. There are healthy ways to deal with your emotions and to stop cutting for good. Check out these helpful resources on self-harm from TheHopeLine.
If you or someone you know is struggling with self-harm, check out TheHopeLine's free eBook.
How can you stop cutting yourself? It goes away and then it comes back. Sometimes i like doing it but the next day im so mad at myself. My parents made me promes them to never cut again, but how is that even possible to promise something like that. What can i do different from cutting myself. Please help me??
So true i feel exactly the same!
I am terrified of ever calling 911 or going to a hospital because of the potential shaming or other comments.
I used to cut in middle school and then went years without it. I picked it back up my freshmen year of college and it got really bad. I did it mainly when I felt alone in the world and just like I wasn't enough. Not pretty enough, not smart enough, not funny enough, any of those. Cutting made it easy to rate that emotional pain. You know how when you go to the doctor and they tell you to rate your pain on a scale of 1-10. With emotional pain it just feels like a deep ache inside your chest and it's hard to get rid of or understand how it comares to other pain. By cutting I was able to see how much certain events or situations really hurt. Whether something made me want to cut 100 times or if I stopped after 10. I started going to a therapist at college and that has really helped. And a tip for the parents out there, it's not always the wrists. A lot of people go for the thighs and ankles because they are easy to hide.
aslso a cutter. I started when I was 12. Y? Idk. But maybe becuz I have always been very emotional. Meaning that well, I would take everything to the heart. I have been abused by this man that was supposed to be my uncle . it started when i was like 6 and endwd when i was probably 8. my parents got deported when I was 14 I decided to go with them to mexico and I worked for 1 year. I came back to america when I was 16 and to the same shit him making unessary comments .me without my parents and an aunt that well don't get me wrong she always took care of me but she chose to ignore what was happening with me because she was going to get her papers fixed. At least that's what I think. Now I'm 22. But I feel like I'm stuck in my teenage years still. I have a husband and 2 daughters. I got together with my then 35 yr old husband when I was 17 and guess what? I got pregnant. All was nice until I started getting to know the real him. I started to become a victim of domestic violence while being pregnant at 17 . 3 punches across the face. That was the first time. And I let it go and thru out the years It was hits to the head so no one could see them it was a punch to the mouth lip open and was mjorly bleeding. The next worse time was that I wanted to surprise him by going to his job and for my luck that day he got out early from work. I was on the bus when he called me . I only had money for that one bus.. He didn't go pick me up. I had to call one of his co workers to give me a ride home. When I got home he whipped me with a belt and hit me several times in the head. Another time he grabbed those scissors that you use to cut flowers with on the side of my stomach. The last time was that he grabbed a miniature flash light and hite with it in my arm and on my inner thigh. And that is y I continue to cut myself. I can't let go of what has happened to me whenever he makes mad I want to cut myself but I try not to. But when I just can't take it anymore that's what I go to. I feel like if my anger gets out like that.