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.
hey there humans and other species. I suffer from self harm and suicidal thoughts and depression and all that. it sucks, but i know one day i will get better. i believe that and i want others to know this. I love you. I literally have no clue who you are but you are amazing. Put diwn th object for cutting and find something healthy to do. Hell, tyr holding ice if you really need pain. You are better that cutting. Remeber this.
Hey I'm Sammy and im 18 and I've been cutting off and on... A few years back I went a year without cutting but then I picked it up again I guess it's relieving to see myself bleed kinda like when you crack an egg and watch the yoke and the egg whites pour out And yes I agree it's an escape from reality and it's just a way to escape emotional pain to have physical pain instead!
Hi there I'm not going to say my name but I'm 14 and iv been cutting since 2014 because my mother and father are in a rough patch and they started taking there anger out on me and all the do is feel sorry about them self's and never take note of how I'm feeling and nether one of them still to this day even know I cut, thank u for reading
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hey i know its unusal but I am a 44 year old woman about to be 45 in July..I have been a cutter for more than 25 years..luckily I am smart and know how to cover it up ...I do not cut my arms I only cut my legs and I am smart enough I put neosporin on my cuts and they heal like nothing ever happened this is what helps my cutting I can do it and I am so smart noone ever finds out..I can still be as messed up and I can do something that allows me a release...I am bulimic and anorexic and bi polar and have ocd and depression since my mom died 9 years ago..i am medicated for all of those things but when I am in crisis it does not help. The only reason I have not killed myself is because it would kill my father who is 81 and my baby sister and my best friend and her girls who are like mine..oh and my 2 choloate labs who love me so much and their lives revolve around me..without them I would kill myself..so instead of that I cut it makes me feel better...I probably do it every six months to get the relase it helps me to deal with life and not kill myself..I have been raped and molested multiple times by family and raped again..hit, and mentally abused..scared to death that my boyfriend at the time was going to kill me..he dragged me by my hair acroos the shreshold of a doot i wen into a coma like state and unvoluntary my eyes closed tight and close gently..all the while I couldnot hear him I went into a kind ofcoma..for howlong i dont know..he then hit me in the face to try and wake me up multiple times finally i woke up he said it was my fault if only I had listed to him..it was the day before my birthday.......before that my boyfriend broke myh arm gave me a concussion told me I was fat and ugly andworthless and noon would ever love me...this has been and more men mistreating me since them..thats why i cut when i get a release from my crappy life,, but I am too chicken to kill myself so i cut it helps me
I used to cut myself b/c I liked a boy and he liked me back but I didn't tell him I liked him.. but I also had to hide it from my friends, my sister and my step-mom and dad. Some of my friends knew and they didn't seem to care either way only one friend cared. But now I have scars and my parents never found out that I cut myself I cut my self with a TAC instead of a blade I know it sounds stupid but I feel something inside me when I look at them and it makes me feel better about myself......