Self-mutilation means deliberately injuring yourself. The people who suffer from self-harm are not consciously intent on suicide. They self-harm because it makes them feel ‘better’. It is an addiction, and it mainly occurs in people with borderline disorder.
Self-injury
Self-injury can take many forms. This could be; scratching, hitting something or cutting or burning yourself.
Almost all people who self-injure are often unhappy, deeply depressed and bottling up problems. These people have once experienced very painful or shocking experiences that aroused strong feelings of guilt, anger, fear and pain. They often feel that no one understands them and that they have nowhere to turn.
They start hurting themselves, with the hope that they will feel better afterwards. They feel relaxed again and have the idea that by injuring themselves they have temporarily solved the problems. This feeling is only for a short time. The feeling of being unhappy and bad again will soon return. Self-harm has negative consequences, such as self-loathing, feelings of guilt, worthlessness and weakness. The permanent damage, the scars, can also give you a bad feeling.
Self-injury also has physical consequences. The scars may be visible your entire life. The consequences of this are that, for example, you wear long-sleeved T-shirts in the summer and do not dare to go swimming or exercise. You are afraid that others will see it and look at you strangely, call you crazy or ask you about it. People may react differently because they do not understand why you are injuring yourself. Most people don’t understand it and can’t deal with it well.
Reasons to injure yourself are:
- Filling inner emptiness, seeing self-injury as ‘something that belongs to you’, because you feel less lonely.
- Reducing negative feelings, you injure yourself so that you can start thinking more positively again.
- Feeling powerful, having control over the pain and proving that you can tolerate it well.
- Expression of anger or fear.
- Showing that you need help, asking for attention.
- Filling a void.
Stop hurting yourself.
If you want to stop hurting yourself, you have to give it 100%. It will be difficult because you will often have setbacks, which will in turn give you the urge to hurt yourself. Therefore, make sure that you always have someone to talk to, who you can call at any time of the day to seek support, a person who understands you. What can also help against urges is seeking distraction. Grab a good book and read, or go for a run. Writing down your feelings every day in some sort of diary is also a good idea.
Another option is to seek professional help. You also have to support this 100%, otherwise there is no point. If you really want to stop, you can and do everything you can to put an end to the self-harm . There will often be days when you want to give up and no longer feel like continuing, but it is precisely on those days that you have to persevere and try to persevere. Because the longer you hold on, the better off you will be.