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Ok, I used to be a "cutter" as they call it, more specifically a self injurer, but I never sliced any veigns (sp?) I never tried to kill myself and yet everyone I knew would either beg me to stop or go about stopping me with threats. I eventually stopped, but not because of my friends, I just didn't feel like it anymore. So I wonder, why if the person is not doing any serious harm should we treat it as such? No I am not approving of the action it is a very unhealthy way of venting, but still, givin the person has no intent of serious harm, why do we pester them?

SI is like an addiction for some, and there are many and often very individual reasons for starting. It's wrong to tell the person they are not "special" and they shouldn't feel a certain way because you can never help how you feel. If they feel they need attention and are to the point of harming themselves then by all means baby them. It really doesn't matter what your opinion of their level attention is, because whats important is how the person themself is feeling. Also, to clear one thing up, for some and very few people it is merely an act of masochism (not that that is very healthy either). They don't want attention, they are not depressed, and they just like the sight of such things. Such was the case with me which is why I brought it up, but remember, this is a very tiny amount of people.

Cutting is a coping mechanism. It's what you do when you don't know how to deal with your emotions any other way. The reason you stopped was because you emotions became managable and you didn't need it anymore.

The problem is that it doesn't get you anywhere. It might make you forget for a little while but it really doesn't solve anything. Just like drinking or drugs. They help with the immediate pain but don't deal with the issues.

Now all the people who tried to force you to quit don't understand this point. They just think you want to hurt yourself and kill yourself. Most people who have no experience with cutting don't understand. They assume it is a suicide attempt even when you know and tell them it's not.

Another reason it's 'bad' is that you could seriously injure youself accidently.

So really what you want to do is get some help so that you can learn to deal with your emotions in a healthy way which will help and support you for the rest of your life. Once you confront the feelings you can get past them and move on and be a happy person again rather then being stuck. That is why some people do need professional help. They need new tools to deal with the things they can't manage.

I am a cutter, I have recently been trying --incredibly unsucessfully-- to stop because my cutting has gotten to the point to where I will do some 50 cuts minimum every other day. I can honestly say it ias addictive, I feel like if I don't cut I will actually kill myself. A friend of mine Timothy I think is honestly the only one who can help me right now because he went to mental hospitals for his cutting and suicide attempts. On the times I didn't cut, when something really bad happened to me I attempted suicide. That happened twice. I can say it is bad because it usually gets worse, you are a rare case where you could just stop most can't just stop and have to go through a lot of therapy or have a lot of support from family, friends, and spouses.

It's not, it is just how you look at it.