[Sarevok1]

So people can be like "Oh noes you needz teh helpzors!!!! Attenshun fur jooo!!

[Chupachub]

She likes the rush. >:]

[RancidMind]

Originally Posted by Sarevok1 ↗

So people can be like "Oh noes you needz teh helpzors!!!! Attenshun fur jooo!!

Oh yeah, that clarified all!!

[StiffyWood]

How is this new?

[daughterofthenight]

Why would anybody intentionally hurt themselves?


Relief from feelings

Often people hurt themselves to try to relieve intense emotions and feel better. These intense feelings can seem uncontrollable, frightening, and dangerous. When people have them they may think that hurting themselves is the only way to escape these feelings.
People who hurt themselves often are unable to control their emotions. They cannot experience and express them the way most people do: by crying, screaming, yelling, etc. This can be due to a number of reasons.



It may have been unsafe — for psychological or physical reasons — to express your emotions at home, etc. The expression of your emotions may have been ignored, denied, or disputed.

Your parents or people you grew up with may have not been able to express their own emotions in a safe and direct manner. Or if they did express an emotion such as anger they did so through violence. You may have seen people relieve their feelings or depression or anxiety through drug and alcohol use. You may have never been shown how to express feelings in a normal and healthy manner.

You may have seen others SI to release their feelings, and have mimicked them.

People who SI often say that they feel depressed, isolated, alienated, isolated, or frustrated before they SI. This can cause an uncomfortable level of anxiety and torment, which they feel they must escape. SI will lessen these feelings temporarily.

Coping mechanism

A coping mechanism is a method of coping people use to help them get through difficult times. SI is an extreme method that provides a sense of relief — as you know by lessening physical or psychological feelings. Thy physical damage and pain cause the body to employ its own coping methods to deal with them. SI is a negative coping mechanism because it causes people further harm and puts them in dangerous or uncomfortable situations.

Stopping, Inducing, or Preventing Dissociation

Dissociation is "a psychological state in which the indivual experiences an alteration in consciousness, memory, and sometimes identity." People who experience it may feel detached from their bodies, a floating sensation, or a sense that they are separated from their bodies, watching themselves. Everybody has experienced mild dissociation — for example tuning out when someone is talking to you. But some people use dissociation as a coping mechanism. The dissociative states they may experience sometimes become overwhelming because of how long they last or their intensity. SI is way to reduce, prevent, or stop a dissociative state.
This is how it generally occurs: The extreme anxiety that precedes SI often can cause people to dissociate where physical pain is lessened. Some people welcome their dissociative feelings because they can be a relief from emotional pain. However, other people feel that dissociation is uncomfortable, frightening, or alienating. SI increases self-awareness in these dissociative states and reduce or end it.

There is an extreme form of dissociation which can lead to alterations in identity, known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder). For some people with DID SI is a way to gain control, avoid, or end the switching of personalities.

While people SI dissociation block or reduce the feelings of physical pain. This can be very dangerous at times because people lose awareness of how much damage they're inflicting on their bodies. They may hurt themselves more severely than they planned.

After SI-ing the level of dissociation decreases. You may return to a level of normal consciousness so that you might treat your injuries. SI helps you temporarily cope, tolerate, or reduce overwhelming emotions and control your level of dissociation.

Physically expressing pain

The physical expression of emotional pain causes some people to achieve certain goals such as:



Evidence (scars, etc.) that you are suffering psychologically. Sometimes people with SI minimize or doubt their internal feelings.








Self-punishment

Statistics show that more than half of the people who SI have been abused physically, sexually, and/or emotionally as children. It is common for people to blame themselves for the abuse or to feel that they 'deserve' it. They may have been taught that certain thoughts, feelings, or behaviors deserve punishment. People who SI are often critical of themselves which leads to feelings of condemnation and shame which leads to SI.


Establishing control

Control is a necessary part of people's lives. and knowing we have some control is important for mental health. When we feel we are in control we feel better. SI is a way some people use to replicate a sense of control over their own bodies. Episodes of SI might be triggered by overwhelming feelings of depression, alienation, isolation, etc. which are out of your control. By SI-ing you are controlling your emotional states. Also, you may be using SI to control a dissociative state. Thoughts can also be controlled by SI. By changing your behavior, emotions, and physical feelings you affect your thoughts.

You may use SI to control your thoughts. So, in SI, a person has control in a situation, over their body, their thoughts, their emotions, and their behaviors. This feeling of control may make a person feel more controlled, at peace, and comfortable.

Remember, some or not any of these reasons may apply to you or a person you know who SI's. They are just the one's most commonly known.


What is the connection between Self-Injury and shame?

One of the most common factors connected to SI is shame. 'Shame is a powerful emotion, able to alter thoughts, feelings, and even behaviors.' Any shame or embarrasment that comes from SI can have a big effect on all parts of a self-injurers life such as friendships, school, and job performance. Also, shame is often a feeling that precedes SI, coming from events that happened earlier in the individual's life. As has been stated earlier there is a obvious relationship between self-injury and child abuse. For many self-injurers, SI-ing is connected with a traumatic childhood. Feelings of shame and embarrasment often follow the traumas they have experienced. Many people who have been abused feel that it is their fault, that they somehow encouraged, initiated, or/and deserved the abuse. These thoughts and feelings become connected with the memories of abuse, and then are transferred to SI behaviors. So, possibly if you feel shame or guilt or think you deserved to be punished, then you might act in ways that correspond those beliefs. You might hurt yourself if you feel that you deserve to be punished, for example.

The punishment or SI act then implies that you are at fault (because generally you are punished when you have done something wrong), which then fosters feelings of shame or guilt. So an SI act often can cause the feelings of shame that before preceded the act of self-injury. Also, the shame from SI "breeds secrecy." Many people keep their self-injury secret because of their shame, and their fear of being judged or looked down upon by others. The stigma in our society placed on SI makes many people afraid to tell others about their SI behavior. The secretive nature of SI also increases the feelings of shame and isolation, which continues the cycle of self-injury.
The feeling of shame and embarrassment can result from many different parts of SI, such as scars, wound, bruises, cuts, feelings from past traumas, emotions, etc.


Thoughts during SI

As has been mentioned earlier many people who self-injure enter a dissociative state before hurting themselves. In this state they may feel detached from themselves or like they're floating, or even like they're watching themselves. And one of the functions of a dissociative state is to stop the body from feeling pain, and it doesn't let you feel much pain when you are hurting yourself. Dissociation can be helpful in a way, but it can also be negative. It can make it very hard for you to be aware of what you were exactly thinking at the time you hurt yourself. But it is during this time when your thinking is most irrational and destructive.
Thoughts you may have immediately before hurting yourself or during:



I need to hurt myself.

'Only a few more (cuts, burn, bruises, etc.) and I'll be ok.'

'This is the only way I can feel better'

Each of these thoughts are illogical, but at the time you are hurting yourself they seem to make perfect sense. (Let me interrupt: I've had these thoughts and they do make perfect sense when I'm hurting myself.)


What is the relationship between emotions and SI?

Quite similar to thoughts, emotions felt during self-injury also follow a predictable pattern. It is true that not everybody experiences these feelings but the majority of the people who self-injure come across some of them. You may not even be aware of what you're feeling at various times while you're hurting yourself.

Emotions before SI

Before an act of SI most people feel 'strong negative feelings that are overwhelming and intolerable. While the source of the feelings may vary, the emotions generally fall into several distinct, yet similar categories: anger and frustration, alienation, and depression.'

Generally, people feel angry and frustrated when they have an inability to fufill a desire, but these feelings can also come from a large number of situations. So, frustration may come from an inability 'to meet a variety of demands or wishes.' Sources of frustration are too numerous to count and every act of SI may be related to distinct source of this emotion.

Anger is an emotion similar to frustration in some ways but generally comes from feelings of hostility. Unlike frustration, anger is often caused by interactions with others (talking, etc.) that don't go as you planned. And this anger is often directed at a single person. Also, anger may be a response to treatment you see as unfair by others.

Anger and frustration can be useful feelings at times but they can also be destructive and dangerous if not handled properly. Feelings or emotions that are not released or changed can have negative side effects. It has been found that hostility is related to the occurences of heart disease.

Alienation is the second emotion that often is felt before an individual hurts themselves. Feelings of alienation, loneliness, and isolation can come from a large number of events (example: rejection, abandonment, mistreatment, separation from a loved one, etc.) Feelings of disconnection are common before an act of self-injury. And because SI is an act that is usually done in isolation these feelings of isolation and disconnection are often increased. It is hard not to feel alienated or disconnected if you have secluded yourself.

Also, you may notice that after you have hurt yourself you may tend to isolate yourself from others even more. You may do this isolation physically (by staying away from other people) or emotionally (by hiding your self-injury or how you are feeling). Therefore, alienation, disconnection, and isolation are feelings that often come after an act of self-injury as well as before it.

Depression is the third feeling often felt before an act of self-injury. Feelings of sadness, unhappiness, or melancholy often come before a person hurts themselves. People feel depression in many different ways: a feeling of boredom or emptiness or dissatisfaction with their life. But no matter how its felt these emotions often produce other emotions of pointlessness and hopelessness.
These three feelings of anger, alienation, and depression can combine 'to form the ideal emotional environment for an act of self-injury.' If you feel frustrated, alone, and hopeless you are likely to hurt yourself to escape these often overwhelming feelings. There is also a high tension level that stems from the interaction of these feelings that may make you want to hurt yourself even more. It is possible to change or lessen this emotional state but many people with self-injury don't know how to without hurting themselves.

Emotional states during SI

During an act of self-injury it may be difficult to identify your emotional state. As has been said before, one of the goals of self-injury is to change or mask the experience of emotions that are overwhelming. Because SI does this, most people are unable to identify their emotional state while hurting themselves.
Many people also dissociate while hurting themselves. "Dissociation can be both an emotional as well as physical state." Therefore during dissociation you level of consciousness is change, which may distort or obscure your memories and make your feelings more difficult to identify. Last of all, the release of endorphins ('neurotransmitters that help block the feeling of physical pain') that come in response to the self-injury also masks feelings.


Positive effects

Immediately after the act of self-injury comes a sense of relief. The endorphins that were released during self-injury are still present, allowing you to feel a sense of euphoria (joy and calmness) and well-being. Also, the act of SI has allowed you to change your negative feelings into something physical and controllable. 'By performing and then nurturing the self-injury, you have turned a negative psychological state into something manageable, regaining control over your emotional and physical states. It is the effectiveness of this coping mechanism that allows SI to provide such a strong and necessary sense of temporary relief and freedom from psychological distress.'

Emotions after SI

After an act of self-injury most people go throught two distinct stages of emotion. First is the experience of a great sense of relief. Hurting yourself has dissipated the large amount of tension that you felt previously. Also, you may feel a sense of calmness and happiness which has been produced by the endorphins that were released. These feelings may continue for some time. Because of this, immediately after hurting yourself, you probably feel pretty good. These good feelings are probably part of the reason that SI is so addicting. Most people would like to feel that way more often. But most don't go to the lengths that self-injurers do.

The second emotional state is where many people feel guilt, regret, shame, and the return of emotions that they felt before hurting themselves. This often occurs after the positive feelings have worn off. When you reach this stage you may even feel worse than you did before hurting yourself. You may even feel so bad that you want to hurt yourself again. 'It is precisely this emotional experience that creates the cylic pattern of SI.'

[Sharon]

Emo means "emotional"? There are many emotions, good & bad, running from A-Z so why are Emo's always like "woe is me"?? I don't get it.

Am I an Emo because I am happy a lot?

[Sharon]

Emotional doesn't always mean you're down and negative.

It can be the complete opposite!

[NoizCrew69]

get a fucking gun and make it easy!

[Cheshireheir]

Originally Posted by daughterothenight ↗

Why would anybody intentionally hurt themselves?

She wants attention. Simple as that. She wants people to look at her is honor, in disgust. To talk about her. And shes getting it.

too bad shes an idiot

[Wolfinator]

Whatta stupid twat.