It’s something that I’ve wondered about since I was younger but whenever I look online the opinions seem divided and I’m curious what people here think.
When we talk about self-harm it’s always about cutting, but aren’t there other ways of harming yourself other than that? The reason I ask is because I used to dig my nails in as far as they could possibly go until it hurt, it’d often left a mark for a while and it made me feel better to see that I’d done that to myself. I don’t have a fear of blood, but I have a fear of razors and the idea of sharp objects near my skin terrifies me so I could never bring myself to even contemplate cutting – my nails were the next best thing I guess. I felt the pain, and I could hurt myself by digging in without it being permanent or without anybody really noticing because it faded eventually.
I didn’t become addicted to it, but I used to wonder if anybody knew the extent that I did it – would they say I was harming myself? These days I’m more likely to let my skin get really bad so that it gets to the point I can scratch it ’til it’s almost red raw – so that when I put cream on it it’ll sting and hurt. I don’t do it often but when I do I feel like I deserve it and I take slight pleasure in it.
Would you say those sort of things would come under the umbrella of self-harm, or is cutting the only form to you?
