Self-harm isn’t just cutting; a person can injure themselves through an unlimited amount of methods and practices, most that go unnoticed.
Some types of self-harm include:
- cutting, picking, scratching, tearing, piercing, carving or burning skin areas
- punching, bruising, hitting, grazing, pulling or puncturing themselves and/or other objects
- misusing, abusing, or overdosing on alcohol, drugs, or medication
- deprivation or overindulgent of food
- interfering with wound healing processes; picking persistently at a specific spot, e.g., scab created through self injury and is continuously tampered with, generating a repeating cycle.
The idea behind the concept is to create a coping mechanism to battle the emotional suffering and rage, through intentionally inflicted injury to oneself. However, it only brings a temporary relief of composure and distraction to suffers, with the consciousness of remorse and shame following after, accompanied by the actions of self-harm returning.
For me, I am continuously picking, scratching, tearing, and pulling my skin. I see a discolouration, doesn’t even have to be a pimple, but I get the tweezers and sewing needles out and try to dissect it. 95% of the time there is nothing under the surface of the skin, but I go further deep. I have numerous scars all over my legs, arms, face, chest, shoulders, & back; everywhere on my body. In addition, I interfere with the healing wounds.
I do these ‘procedures’ for one particular reason.
One, it’s a distraction from my emotions. I have my whole attention focused on the physical pain of the activity, that the emotional distress I have is overseen; a brief time where I don’t feel severely anxious and depressed, a rarity for me.
If you know me personally you might of heard me refer to the scars and scabs as a ‘rash,’ it isn’t something I wanted to admit to; therefore I had to find a reasonable coverup. I have also gone to the effort in hiding my scars on my legs in particular by either wearing a long skirt or jeans this summer and even editing them out in photos.
Here is a photo where my scars are visible.
There is so much to cover and understand about self-harm, that is why this post is the beginning of a 5-part series “Self-Harm & Self-Reflection” to provide insight, create awareness, and to interpret self-inflicted harm. Make sure you are subscribed to the blog, to ensure that you don’t miss a post!
Check out the posts here
