
How do you injure yourself?

   [INLINE] Quote added in last update (22 September 98)
   
     [INLINE] Like I said, picking my lips, my cuticles, any cuts or
     scrapes I may have gotten. When I was 14 or 15, I cut myself; I
     used to carve things on the side of my arm. It was never very deep
     though. I never had the guts to do it so it would scar. I also used
     to "slit" my wrists. The reason that this is in quotes is because I
     never wanted to kill myself; I only wanted people to think I tried
     so they would give me attention. This rarely worked. no one really
     cared. [female, age 23, 15 years SIB, 1 yr. of college]
     
     [INLINE] Run my fingers across my face/skin, feeling for bumps,
     roughness, imperfections to smooth out by scraping, picking at the
     skin/place with my fingernails. At home, I go to the bathroom
     mirror and use tweezers to pull at scabs, remove them. [female, age
     35, 23 years SIB, AA Telecommunications]
     
     I slam my hands/arms against something cement with corners until i
     hear something crack and I am convinced I've broken a bone. These
     sessions sometimes take 3-5 hours. I have never failed to break a
     bone. [female, age 22, 9 years of SIB, B.A. degree]
     
     [With] cuts, mostly on my feet, especially my ankle, because it's
     hard against the bone and I don't have to work terribly hard. It's
     on my ankle, so it's not too hard to hide. [male, minor, academic
     track in high school]
     
     Razor blades. I tried Swiss Army Knives at first, but they were too
     much pain for too little blood, if you know what I mean....I just
     pick a spot, remove any clothing over it, and slice away....It
     hurts like a cast-iron bitch, to be perfectly frank. [male, 17, 2
     years of SIB, academic track in high school]
     
     I pull my hair until the point becomes obvious... the roots that
     are red..vs black..are brittle..not pliant and that is what I am
     searching for...as the red tip sometimes have little feelers
     growing from the bulb..and there is a definite glowing throb deep
     inside the area the root just left. [female, 30s, HS education]
     
     I hit concrete walls until my hands are black and blue, and so
     swollen that I cannot write or do anything with them. But it's a
     good feeling, the pain, because I focus on that, and not the pain
     in my heart... all of the problems that I can never get worked out
     go away, even if just until the pain in my hands wears off. [?]
     
     Once I burned myself with my curling iron. Another time I cut lines
     down my face that looked like tears and a couple of times when I
     didn't have a razor I stabbed myself with a very sharp pencil.
     [female, 20, 7 years of SIB, college junior]
     
     I usually burn myself by heating the metal of a lighter and placing
     it against my skin. I used to cut myself but it is very addicting
     so I have promised myself I won't cut myself anymore. [female, 27,
     9 years of SIB, college senior]
     
     Beatings with fists, belts, wire hangers to bruising and welting.
     Head banging or hitting. [?]
     
     Mostly I hit myself with a wooden spoon or stick for a long time,
     usually a number of times, like I will think/say 100 hits. I have
     burned myself and used electricity to shock myself. [male, 31, 19
     years of SIB, B.S.]
     
     By placing caustic chemicals on my skin, then closing my eyes and
     seeing how long I can stand it. [female, 32, 3 yrs SIB, B.S.]
     
     Knitting Iron inside belly (navel or other). Scalpel (opened navel
     and took out bowels, a bit). Air inside the belly with home made
     trocar. Screwdrivers and other into and through the abdomen. Lot of
     other small injure on the abdomen. To hide S-I is sometimes quite
     hard, but I have been quite lucky till now. Normally I prepare some
     emergency escape (like a larger pseudo accidental wound). [male,
     age 35, 25 years SIB]
     
     I really loved punching in glass, I lived in a house with four
     other girls and every time I would get angry I would punch a
     window. I was evicted from so many places I finally had to leave
     the community. I punched walls, too, until I had black and blue
     hands. I was diagnosed with manic-depression/BPD. All this started
     after I was raped in the military. I'm not sure if my behavior
     resulted from that or my dysfunctional family. I know my story
     isn't as awful as the others [but] I kind of know where they are a
     little, and the pain they're going through: will this ever end or
     is it a way to feel better because constant crisis was the way we
     grew up? [female, age 23, 2 years SIB, some college]
     
     I like to get blunt objects, like tweezers, and use them to dig
     into my skin. I also use steel wool to scrape off large areas of
     skin at a time. I like to experiment with different ways, but I
     usually come back to steel wool. Sure [I feel pain], but that's the
     whole point. [female, age 19, 9 years SIB, college freshman]
     
     I use a needle. I don't have access to razor blades or anything
     like that, so I jam the needle down as far as I can, and then move
     it back and forth until I have a long cut on my finger. I repeat
     this until I've slashed up both my hands. I almost want someone to
     notice, to ask me what happened, but I'm so much of a loner that no
     one's ever even noticed. I wonder if people DID notice, if they
     would care. [female, age 19, 8 years SIB, college freshman]
     
     I cut with a craft knife. I tie off my right arm as if I was
     shooting up and wait for the veins to come up and then cut with a
     fresh blade, the snap-off type of craft knife always around the
     same place...the blood wells up and I love it so...then I lick the
     blood, so good. Usually 4 or five cuts...I just love everything
     about it, the feel of the blade the blood the colour the taste,
     even the sound of the edge going in. I have also done a lot of
     picking scabs to stop them healing. The scars endure. I love scars.
     [female, age 28, 14 years SIB, master's degree]
     
     I have not injured myself in close to two years yet the life that I
     must lead in an effort to not cut myself is hellish to say the very
     least. My therapist who I've seen for almost three years put the
     limit on me; if I cut then she won't see me so that is really the
     only reason why I hold back. I used to cut with scissors, knives or
     scratch myself with my fingernails. [female, age 19]
     
     Others reported rubbing dirt or noxious substances into wounds,
     injecting themselves with household cleaners, and one women even
     stated that she had inserted a large knife into her vagina and hurt
     herself badly enough to require emergency medical attention to stop
     the hemorrhaging.
     
   
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