57 Things People Wish They Had Known Before They Started Self Harming:

 

AKA- reasons to not start self harming.
 

1. It can be messy. If you cut or scratch, blood can get on your clothes, your skin, anything.
 

2. At some point your clothes will get stuck to a cut and pulling it off will hurt really bad.
 

3. Washing dried blood off your skin hurts, especially with open or fresh cuts.
 

4. Bruising is dangerous too and can cause blood clots (which you can die from).
 

5. No matter how good you are at hiding the injuries, someone will find out.
 

6. The look on your parent’s/friend’s face when they find out is heartbreaking.
 

7. Self harm is addicting and once you start it’s incredibly hard to stop. It’s a real addiction.
 

8. It’s only a temporary release. It helps for a bit, but then it stops helping and you have to hurt yourself again to get more temporary relief.
 

9. People might assume you’re only seeking attention and/or might dismiss what you’re doing.

 It’s still dangerous even if the injuries are superficial. Infection can happen to cuts, scrapes, and burns. You could accidentally slip and go too deep. All self harm is dangerous, physically and mentally.

 

10. Eventually superficial cuts won’t be enough and you’ll cut deeper and deeper to get the same release because your body becomes used to the pain and builds up a tolerance to it.

 

11. It pushes away your emotions, which is what the self harmer wants, but it only delays dealing with the feelings and emotions and thoughts, which is inevitable. Sooner or later they’ll overwhelm you again and it’ll happen all over again and it’s a vicious cycle. It prevents healing mentally.

 

12. It hurts the people who care about you. When they find out they’ll be devastated.

 

13. People will treat you differently when they see the cuts, marks, or scars.

 

14. People won’t understand. They’ll tell you to “just stop”, they’ll say they don’t understand, and you won’t know how to explain it to them.

 

15. It can leave permanent scars. Any cut can scar, especially if it gets infected. Even shallow cuts. Burns can scar too. And if your scars are exposed to sunlight that can darken them and make them more noticeable.

 

16. It doesn’t always help. You won’t always feel the release or feeling you want. Sometimes it’ll just hurt and that will suck. Sometimes no matter how hard you try you won’t get what you want.

 

17. Some people will make fun of you for your scars or injuries. They’ll make a joke out of it and that will hurt. Because it’s not a joke, it’s a real problem, but no one will get that.

 

18. Hiding injuries is exhausting. It takes work and effort and you’re constantly aware of yourself and your movements and whether your sleeves are slipping down or whether your shorts are long enough or whether your shirt is covering your hips/stomach. You have to be self aware at all times when you’re not alone and it claims so much of your mental energy.

 

19. You’ll want to stop, you’ll be so tired of hurting yourself and being in pain, or maybe you’ll have other reasons, but you won’t be able to do it on your own. It will take all of your energy fighting it.

 

20. Relapses happen. Self harm recovery isn’t always a battle you’ll be able to win. Recovery isn't a straight line. There will be times where you can’t fight it, you’re too tired to hold on, you get triggered, or something happens and the next thing you know you’re hurting yourself because it's all you know. And it sucks.

 

21. You’ll waste a lot of money you could have saved buying supplies (bandaids, razors, anything you put on the injuries).

 

22. Razors are a pain to take apart and you’ll probably cut your fingers the first few times (and trust me, it’ll sting like hell).

 

23. It will probably get to the point where you feel out of control and it’ll terrify you.

 

24. Everything can be a trigger- shaving, ads on TV with razors, pictures of blades or whatever tools you used, pictures of cuts, burns, bruises, or other injuries, even just simple lines or marks. Everything.

 

25. Cuts itch. like. hell.

 

26. Cuts sting in the shower.

 

27. If you cut deep, it will hurt long after you cleaned and bandaged the cut.

 

28. You might become ashamed or embarrassed of the scars (although you shouldn’t be!)

 

29. If you cut on your thighs and then put on jeans, it will really, really burn and hurt.

 

30. At some point you’ll accidentally expose yourself and you’ll panic, even if no one notices. Your clothes won’t always stay perfectly in place.

 

31. No matter how many times you say you’ll just cut once, or one more time, or just shallow, it’s never enough. You’ll always want more.

 

32. You’ll get scars that you’ll have to live with for the rest of your life.

 

33. You won’t know how to stop.

 

34. You’ll panic if you lose or forget your tools.

 

35. Some places feel better to self harm on than others and you won't always understand why.

 

36. Sometimes people won’t listen or understand when you try to explain.

 

37. Blood smells gross and metallic and you might start craving the sight of it.

 

38. Sometimes you’ll cut deeper than you meant and there’s more blood than you’re used to and it’ll scare you but you still keep cutting no matter how scared you are.

 

39. You’ll wear long sleeves or pants when it’s hot out and that seems suspicious. You’ll feel like you’re melting.

 

40. Sometimes once people accuse you of doing it for attention, it sticks, and you start to believe it too.

 

41. Some people will pity you.

 

42. Some people will treat you like you’re glass balancing on the edge, walking eggshells around you.

 

43. You’ll throw your tools away one day and dump out the trash searching for them the next.

 

44. Nobody else will think your reasons for self harm are valid- and that’s because they aren’t. Your feelings and thoughts are valid, and self harm is understandable, but the actions will never be valid. No one deserves to hurt themselves or go through this.

 

45. You may not regret it now, but someday you might. And it’ll kill you that you ever did this to yourself.

 

46. Walking can be painful if you have injuries on your thighs/legs/hips/stomach.

 

47. Sometimes your parents/family members/friends won’t react in supportive way and/or they’ll be angry.

 

48. You’ll plan self harm around doctors appointments so you don’t show up with fresh injuries. Sometimes you show up with fresh injuries anyway. Your whole life revolves around self harm.

 

49. You’ll probably end up doing a lot of laundry on your own to hide the blood on clothes/towels.

 

50. Scars take a long time to fade.

 

51. Some people will tell you to just stop and they’ll act like it’s easy and it’ll frustrate you to no end but they won’t believe you when you tell them it’s not that simple.

 

52. When you do stop or are trying to stay clean, you’ll miss it. You’ll miss it so much.

 

53. You won’t be able to join the military if you have self harm scars.

 

54. Nicking yourself accidentally with a razor can be triggering.

 

55. Sometimes all pain, even if it’s not self harm related, will start to feel good and you’ll crave that pain, too.

 

56. When you're self harming, sometimes you don't really care that you're creating scars/marks- you want them, even.

 

57. People will point and stare at your scars.