how often do you cut?

[Mirren]

Im glad you clarified the issue and would like to thank you . However cutting is forced in a maner of speeking for if the world weren't as crule than there wouldn't be as many cutters if any at all but then agen that's what allows us to see beauty and kindness . So who would ever change it in knowing that. But your right... if you have no artistic message behind cutting and strongly feel the need to stop by all means do seek help.

Since you've spoken to people who engage in Hairpulling as a form of OCD I'd like to ask: they must get headaches from it so is that part of the obsession as well?

My aunt has Trichotillomania, that's where you pull your hair out to the point of where you get bald spots. She catches herself doing it then stops only to continue. She says she doesn't get headaches and it doesn't hurt her at all. She has a phobia of medications as well, so she is stuck with this disorder. She is only 44, and has been doing it since she was a teen.

[countessnichole]

I have a girlfriend (i'm a lesbian) who has severe depression problems and has cutted. It's difficult to have to think that she suffers and i can't reach her at all but only on the phone and online (she is in New York and i in PA). I have a real adversion to cutting myself, i can't stand pain. I can't have needles go in me, which can often lead me to faint if I even give blood. I don't want to offend anyone who likes cutting but to me, I think its a serious problem.

[Jax]

I've never cut myself via self-mutilation. I did have a friend from Washington state who I used to talk to on MSN Messenger who was into that. He took pride in the number of scars he had, but he never said how many times he cut himself in a week, month or year.

I don't think self-mutilation is a turn on for me either. Actually, I'm more concerned about "scar fetishes" :p If you mutilate, there are scars from each cut that heal over time, so is there such a thing of guys/girls who are into scar fetishes? (*yeah I know, really silly question*)

Actually in a way it could be a fetish. I have a cutting on my leg I did myself, and actually like scarring, I pick at my suspension scabs just so they do scar. Weird, yeah, cant explain it.

[CPRB]

[CPRB]

I forgot what iwas going to say then....

[OliX]

I stoped doing it when I was around 16-17 (don't remember actualy, but I was young)
I remember that razors was best choice for "fancy" cuts... they leave best scar... (like when you cut hot-dog before puting it on grill)
actualy I liked big knifes, warmed up (those scars I still have)

[Thurbane316]

I used to occasionally back when I was at school, never any more. Ended up with some scars where I wanted a tattoo, and I stoppped

[bre.star]

i was at the Mac counter the other day and the girl who was helping me get my make-up was wearing a 3/4 sleeve shirt, and you could see she had cuts up and down EVERYWHERE, scabbed up, fresh, and scarred...i had never seen anyone cut up so badly...and the sad part was you could tell she thought she was cool because every chance she got she would flash the bottom of her arms in my direction.

[-=Asmodeus=-]

Not into cutting have no wish to bring pain upon myself if it can be avoided...But I looked this up and thought I would share for those who do...

Scarification

[Eternal throes]

Now I have few permanent scars on my arm because I told her that everytime I find her cutting herself i will make two times deeper cut to myself. With that thing I successed to get her to stop it.
I think there is nothing wrong if you really enjoy cutting youself, but if it's you get away from troubles it doesn't help anything.

I've had guys threaten to do so but they've all been full of shit. Had one of my boyfriends actually done that for me I would have never let him go. Although the one boyfriend that comes to mind never understood the difference between cutting because your convinced it will help you escape and cutting because you want to express the lack there of. So even if he had gone through with it the purpose would have been lost on me. While the sacrifice is such a turn on, I wouldn't be capable of maintaining a relationship in which my creativity is censored.
I think it's great that you went through such extremes to help you ex who obiviously needed an aid.

[Eternal throes]

Not into cutting have no wish to bring pain upon myself if it can be avoided...But I looked this up and thought I would share for those who do...

Scarification

Here are a couple which I like

[img]http://www.*******.com/scar/A30419/thumb/brand5.jpg[/img]

Now this one below I love! due to that it has a bit more meaning ( note the sarcasm)

[img]http://www.*******.com/scar/A30419/thumb/scar5.jpg[/img]

I'm considering going to work on myself.
Does anyone know where in N.Y. they might sell the tools they use for scarification?

[Morning Glory]

HAHAHA. I laugh at you fools. what cowards I see here and there that talk of "self-destruction". a scratch here and there, a mark on the flesh, and they are content to have overcame that which is base in them. would you call a catterpiller strong? a worm that crawls on the ground, and eat's hole's out of leaves to be great? what a joke! that is what you are. you should want to be butterflies, or better yet to be moths. A moth doesn't fear to fly into the flame, so would you wave your hand over a flame and call yourself burnt? I wish that you all could be true self-destroyers- so that you could then be self-(re)creators.

[morbid_lady]

i've never cut myself, but i used to burn myself on a near daily basis.

i never got caught, my mom knew i was a pyro and played with candles alot, when ever she saw a burn on me she thought it was an accident and told me to be more careful.

[Amethyst]

Ahahaaaaa... Sorry but I can't help it. That first guy has Nerv logo from anime called Neon Genesis Evangelion. He is so gothic

[Thurbane316]

I knew a dude who burned some words into his arm with a heated soldering iron. He thought it was pretty cool at the time, but felt like a total fool a few months later when the scars were still there, and the words had lost their meaning to him. *shrugs* I think there's some kind of moral in there...

[GasmaskGirl]

cutting turns me off too, and i'll tell you why.

I went to highschool with this girl who was a total attention-whore drama queen. Every other day she had some sort of scheme to make people pay attention to her (she would make up stories about family members dying, etc) and one day she cut her arms up really badly, you could tell they were just superficial scratches, and she wore a little tank top to school that day so everyone could see her arms (this was the dead of winter in the middle of canada, by the way).... Of course everyone was immediately like "Oh my god are you okay? Are you okay? Poor girl" and showering her with attention.

Several weeks later I was waiting for the bus, standing outside. There was this really unpopular girl standing a few feet away from me. Basically everyone in the whole school ignored her, she was quiet and "nerdy" and wore long conservative old-fashioned dresses. Suddenly a gust of wind blew, and her dress kinda blew around in the wind, and i could see that underneath her dress and her long sleeves she was completely covered in cuts. I was so shocked, and I couldn't believe that while everyone was busy showering attention onto this other popular girl, this other girl who obviously had real problems was keeping it all to herself and nobody cared.

Anyway.
I have cut myself a few times when i was an angry little teenager full of angst, and my brother made me stop.

This is why i hate cutting. I especially hate it when people take pictures of their arms all cut up with razors and then post them on the internet for sympathy or to look cool.

[Darkstalker]

I'm sure my opinion won't be a popular one, but here it is anyway. I think "cutting" from what I've read means different things to different people. To those who do it to seek attention, to "release" emotion, prove they are mortal, enhance sex (another emotional thing). I think it's unhealthy and I think you need to learn to face life and what life brings you without self destructing. It's like drug addicts, alcoholics, etc. Cutting won't solve your problems, only add to them. It's seems to me it's a way of you "belonging" to something. Something that isn't mainstream therefore you feel special. It seems to me that somewhere in your life you feel like you have been neglected, and probably have, so you have a need to belong to something somewhere.

But I could be waaaaaaay wrong too, just my thoughts.

[morbid_lady]

I'm sure my opinion won't be a popular one, but here it is anyway. I think "cutting" from what I've read means different things to different people. To those who do it to seek attention, to "release" emotion, prove they are mortal, enhance sex (another emotional thing). I think it's unhealthy and I think you need to learn to face life and what life brings you without self destructing. It's like drug addicts, alcoholics, etc. Cutting won't solve your problems, only add to them. It's seems to me it's a way of you "belonging" to something. Something that isn't mainstream therefore you feel special. It seems to me that somewhere in your life you feel like you have been neglected, and probably have, so you have a need to belong to something somewhere.

But I could be waaaaaaay wrong too, just my thoughts.

i completely agree w/ u. when i started burning myself i was gettin made fun at skewl, alot and there was a bunch of other shit happening, i was in seventh grade and we had to go over to the highschool for track and field. i heard some highschool students talking about cutting and one said something about how it helped ease emotional pain. i tried cutting myself but i never had the guts to accually break skin, so i just burned myself, it happened so quick i didnt have time to second guess.

i burned myself for a few years, but when i got a bit older i realized that it wasnt helping, that it was just a different pain to mask the other. i stopped burning myself and starting writting poetry, which was alot better, physically and mentally.

[SindelChaos]

I don't cut. I never have and never will. I find it lame and I don't recommend it to anyone. It's unattractive, unsanitary, and unhealthy. To each their own, though.

[Eternal throes]

cutting turns me off too, and i'll tell you why.

I went to highschool with this girl who was a total attention-whore drama queen. Every other day she had some sort of scheme to make people pay attention to her (she would make up stories about family members dying, etc) and one day she cut her arms up really badly, you could tell they were just superficial scratches, and she wore a little tank top to school that day so everyone could see her arms (this was the dead of winter in the middle of canada, by the way).... Of course everyone was immediately like "Oh my god are you okay? Are you okay? Poor girl" and showering her with attention.

Several weeks later I was waiting for the bus, standing outside. There was this really unpopular girl standing a few feet away from me. Basically everyone in the whole school ignored her, she was quiet and "nerdy" and wore long conservative old-fashioned dresses. Suddenly a gust of wind blew, and her dress kinda blew around in the wind, and i could see that underneath her dress and her long sleeves she was completely covered in cuts. I was so shocked, and I couldn't believe that while everyone was busy showering attention onto this other popular girl, this other girl who obviously had real problems was keeping it all to herself and nobody cared.

Anyway.
I have cut myself a few times when i was an angry little teenager full of angst, and my brother made me stop.

This is why i hate cutting. I especially hate it when people take pictures of their arms all cut up with razors and then post them on the internet for sympathy or to look cool.

I've seen this happen a lot of times during my highschool career. There was this one girl I new to have cut only to be a part of something or to gain some sort of legitimacy. I'm not sure which of the two was more relivant. I new she probably did cut in privacy (she was the kind that would mope in front of everyone and think she was cool for it) but one day she showed up to class with a tank top, same as the girl you new, in the dead of winter. Through out our conversation she kept smiling at me in such an unnatural way for her extremlly mellow personality, as well as she was almost not even in the conversation due to that it seemed her mind was only on the freshly cut lines in her arms, so I new she just wanted me to see them and possibly give her the you need help talk. I knew I had to say something other wise she'd take my silence for merit. So I I told her that she should have worn a long sleeve shirt to cover her cuts. Her smile was gone by then she wanted to commence the dramatic scene in which we argue her nasty little habit but I just told her ''don't wind up in the councellors office over dumb shit'' I couldn't believe what she said next "Aren't you going to get me to stop? god your a great friend" I told her ''No... cut deeper and verticallly the next time''. She became out raged at the idea and refused to take my advice on cutting. What a shit head . She never came up to me with that shit agen.

I can't agree with those who cut to get attention that might cause failure to aid someone who really needs help. I don't cut nearly as much as I use to but I've always made it a point to keep it out of sight when around people who might misunderstand my intentions.

I really don't like how popular cutting has become there are to many reasons that revolve around gaining acceptance and getting attention that I'm sickened and just like everything else the people who give cutters a bad name out number those which hold a deeper purpose behind their actions . So unless you know the person well you don't have the right to push them into a office and expect them to tell you all the sad stories in their life that they can think of within 45 minutes.

As for girls such as the unpopular girl ,you spoke of, I wouldn't count on anyone els ever actually giving them any mind . People (especialy those in high school) like to come across problems they can handle. Everyone knew (in some form or another) that the popular girl was only doing it for attention and her friends were more than happy to give it to her. Sadly its just to much trouble to reach out to someone you don't know (who might have real problems) than to reach out to a friend who is in need of a little attention.

[Ouroboros]

I was in a relationship with a girl who liked cutting, among other things. She was a real sadistic freak, but I, being the idiot I was (hopefully no anymore), thought it was cool back then. The result: scars aplenty on my forearms and eleven years of long sleeves. It was only until last year that I stopped feeling ashamed of my arms and decided not to give a fuck.
I'd never self-mutilate. And I'm sure as hell never gonna let anyone else do it. I worship this body I got and if anyone's gonna abuse it, he or she better be ready to have his or her fucking head smashed.

... or something.

[ofdarkblood]

I just cut last week. I'm not proud of it. I was weak and I feel ashamed. . .*hides*

[author unknown]

i cut. not often anymore, but i used to cut so often it was terrible (about a year ago.) not like twice-a-week often, but twice-a-day often. now i cut maybe twice a month at the most.

i'm not ashamed but i'm sure as hell not proud. i really don't think it's cool, it's stupid and unhealthy. i'm in therapy and i'm on a shitload of meds. best way to fuck up your life is by cutting.

[TheQuietPlace]

If someone could PLEASE explain how cutting helps anything, that'd be great.

[author unknown]

If someone could PLEASE explain how cutting helps anything, that'd be great.

it doesn't, really. it does in theory. it's a placebo. the illusion of release. it turns the emotional pain into something physical, something that is tangible and real.

that's just my theory.

[Thurbane316]

Well, technically, the pain does release endorphins, natures own uber-drug - but the long term losses generally outweigh the short term gains.

You can't really pigeon-hole cutters or other self mutilators, though. Just like tattoos, piercings, drugs, alcohol, smoking and many other things, different people perform the act for a myriad of different reasons.

[ravenofdeath]

I just cut like a day or two ago. When people see it they think im crazy both when i cut my wrist and cut im hand and shoulders and other things.