Self-injury | Page 1 | Extended Discussion | Guild Forums

IamSTRANGE

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Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:22 am

"We are each our own devil,

This topic has always interested me, and I would like to know your opinions about it.
Some people injure themselves because of built up pain that they think they cannot express any other way, or to deal with a feeling of loneliness. Some people even cut just to get attention.
A friend of mine started cutting because she had a lot of built up anger and sadness, and then her boyfriend dumped her. That just pushed her over the edge, so she began cutting. She finally got help, and was feeling happy, but the urge to cut never went away, it was always at the back of her mind every time she saw something sharp. She started cutting again recently, not because she's sad, but because she missed the feeling.

Do you think that this 'cutting' can become addicting. If so why? Do you think that cutting can actually be a real way of attempting to deal, or that it's just a way to get attention?

and we make this world our hell."

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:52 pm

Oh, of course it's (well, can be) addicting. It provides the 'cutter' with a brief adrenaline rush, the animal thrill of drawing blood, and a means for attention. Can it help a person deal with an issue facing them? Simply put, no. You are just replacing one more permanent situation with a stimulus quite less so. Once you've finished mopping up the blood and getting the stains out of your clothes, you will realise that you really don't feel any better and this physical situation really hasn't gone anywhere.

Now, have I e'er cut myself? Certainly. Very rarely, but I still shall on occasion. And why? To remind myself that I am still human and will bleed like any other. I don't do it for attention, nor to relieve anger or other emotions--I have far healthier channels for what little anger I do have.

It's like how the Roman emperors would have a slave follow them around whispering: 'memento mori'--remember that you must die. Except we don't like slavery any more...

Kazemuki
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Raige No Kaze

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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:09 pm

I agree; cutting can be addictive. not just for the reasons Kazemuki mentioned, but also, for a short period of time it can make the person doing the cutting feel in control. For some people, life is so far out of their control that it's almost physically painful. Almost. They can't control their weight or their appearance, they have no true control over other people around them. So, sometimes, I think cutting is a way of having some control in their lives. They decide that they're going to cut. They cut for as long as they want, as deep as they want/can. That, added to the aforementioned adrenaline rush, is quite an addicting concept.

Have I ever cut myself? Once or twice. Once was a futile attempt to understand someone very close to me. They told me, when I was trying my best to help, that I would NEVER understand... I was a lot less mature then than I am now, and thought that by replicating the cut, I could duplicate the feelings and reasoning behind them. A word of advice to anyone reading this; it doesn't work that way.

The other time was for a reason something similar to Kazemuki's.

It's not always to get attention, in fact, some people do everything they can to hide the fact that they've done it. As for helping to deal, I don't think it ever can help. It doesn't replace the problems. It just gives you another one to deal with.

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