Quote Originally Posted by Stooj
that last poster is a little kid. Trust me.

Look, I ended up in a place for post traumatic stress disorder and I managed to befriend someone of whom I found out later liked to carve herself like a thanksgiving turkey.

I didn't understand it, because God, why would anyone do such a thing? My psychologist helped me with it, because I sounded like ol buddy Shiz over here talking about satan worship and whatnot.

So here it is. Cutting is an ineffective coping skill that people use for the same reasons that others become alcoholics or drug addicts.

All of these people are unhappy with their lives. Maybe they've been through a lot and seen things you hope to God you never saw. Some use drugs to alleviate the hurt. Others cut. Now why do they cut, you ask.

Its complicated, but generally the idea is that if you relocate the emotional pain to a physical pain on your leg or your arm or wherever, then it's such a visceral painful and real experience that it distracts you from the burning pain on the inside.

It kind of sounds nutty at this point so heres a great example of something similar.

When Jim Carrey had to don the Grinch suit 12 hours a day, it was incredibly incredibly painful, and so to focus on his performance and not the discomfort, he had a survival expert teach him some things. So what he ended up doing is randomly punching his leg as hard as he could every now and then so that he focused on his leg and not the claustrophobia of the suit...

This is what the cutter does, except that the suit is themselves and they'll never escape that. This is why cutting doesn't work, and why therapy is very important to find the sources of their discomfort.

That girl that freaked you out, u know, that was a very good thing you did to help her. Good for you. A lot of people including me might have gotten scared and run for the hills.

That is an extreme case of cutting, but there are actually some incredibly normal people that cut and don't tell anyone. Just like the pretty girl that you have a crush on that goes to the toilet and pukes her guts up 3 times a day. You just never know.

So it any case, promote understanding, everybody. Not fear of what you don't understand.
yes and self harm is often a big indicator of mental illness as is drug abuse. I spend hours trying to explain that drugs are an atempt to allieviate in many cases bad existences of fucked upness, the drugs didnt cause it - it caused the drugs. but simple (religious) people always believe the easiest to understand solution and their inherent desire to simplify existence is the cause of so many problems. life is not black and white but christianity would have you believe that. dont fall prey to institutionalised stupidity, live through human nature and not a hatred for our inherent being.