CAN I GET an ANSWER!?
Question:
Answers:
They are NOT psychos! If I understand correctly, there are at least two reasons people cut themselves. Sometimes people are unable to feel anything at all. They are emotionally numb. This is such a depressing feeling, that they want to feel something. Cutting gives them a release from the numbness they feel.
The other reason that I know of is that they have so much emotional pain in their lives and the physical pain of cutting is nothing compared to the emotional pain.
Once someone has started cutting, they can become addicted to the endorphins released.
If you know someone who is cutting, please call SAFE. They can answer all your questions and help you understand why this happens.
SAFE (Self-Abuse Finally Ends)
1-800-DONT-CUT (1-800-366-8288)
http://www.selfinjury.com/
No. And stop being so agressive.
i cant even answer that question and no they are not psychos
No they are not psychos. People cut themselves for a variety of reasons. The most common is that they feel intense pain and the only way they feel they can relase it is by cutting. Also it gives a level of control to a person when they feel they might not have control.
First of all, people who cut themselves need help. Secondly, the term "psychos" is rude and pejorative. Third, stop shouting. You'll find that if you're more polite, people will be more likely to take you seriously and give you good answers.
People cut themselves because it is a release of emotion, and oddly enough, distracts or takes away emotional pain - for a while. Unfortunately, it can be addictive and hard to stop. "Cutters" are not psychotic, they are basically overwhelmed with emotion, and find cutting to be a method they can use to temporarily relieve some of the emotional hurt. In order to stop cutting, a person has to really want to stop, and will go the extra steps to try to find another way to ease the hurt. This is easier said than done, of course. Other ways to help ease the emotional overflow is by excersizing. I know this sounds too simple, but excersizing (even a brisk walk), allows you to get rid of pent up stress, in addition to releasing endorphins (feel good chemicals) in the brain.
If you cause physical harm to your body in order to deal with overwhelming feelings, then you are not alone. There is nothing shameful about this behaviour. It is likely that this is the only way one has right now for coping with difficult feelings
Self-harm includes the following:
-deliberate physical harm to yourself to the extent of causing tissue damage. (Breaking the skin, brusing, leaving marks that last for more than an hour).
-Causing harm to yourself as a way of dealing with unpleasant or overwhelming emotions, obsessive thoughts or dissociation.
-Thinking about self-harm even when you are relatively calm and not doing it at the moment.
The way you choose to harm yourself could be cutting, hitting, burning, scratching, skin-picking, banging your head, breaking bones, not letting wounds heal and others.
If you self-harm this may inicate that somewhere along the line you did not have the oppotunity to learn alternative ways of coping with overwhelming feelings. People who self-harm are people in pain who have developed self-harm as a coping mechanisim. Whilst being a coping mechanisim however it is also self-destructive. Learning other, less harmful ways to cope can help to break the vicious cycle.
There is evidence that people who self-harm, when faced with strong emotions or overwhelming situations choose to harm themselves because it brings a rapid release from tension and anxiety. These situations cause an increase in psychological arousal, and self-harm reduces that level of arousal, so it feels manageable. The person may feel a release of emotion and may feel guilty or angry with themselves afterwards.
People who self-harm say that self-harm can provide:
-Escape from emptiness, depresion and feelings of unreality.
-A release of tension.
-Expression of emotional pain
-An escape from numbness
-A feeling of euphoria.
-A way of punishing oneself for being 'bad'
-Relief of anger
-A sense of control over one's body
-A way of expressing or coping with feelings of alienation.
When memories, thoughts, beliefs or events are excessively painful, instead of facing them directly and feeling emotional pain, we sometimes deflect distress into pain that seems understandable and controllable, like that of self-harm. The emotional feelings associated with the event that are being avoided get over-ridden by those of the situation you create to distract yourself. It hurts, but it is a controllable familiar hurt, whereas the pain you are avoiding seems scary and overwhelming.
You might feel that if you ever exposed yourself to the emotional pain you would loose control. It is a clever mechanisim. It takes what seems unbearable and transforms it into something you can control. The problem is that when we deflect pain, we never face up directly to what it is that has caused such problems in our lives. This pain then never lessens in intensity. It keeps coming back and the self-harm continues.
Every time you can meet the emotional pain head on and feel it, and tolerate the distress, it looses a little of it's ability to overwhelm you. Exposure over time will build your tolerence to these events and enable you to lay them to rest. The key is learning to tolerate distress.
So the answer is no we are not psychos cause we cut ourselves!! But we do need psychological help.
Hi rocketgirl:
Well, why dont you so a search on the web to help guide you to your answer as you will not get very many positive helpful answers with your rude and mean words.
i agree with helly... i think that was how she spelled it anyways. i was a cutter for a long time... i outgrew it and by the grace of God i never succeeded any of the times i cut too deep on purpose. we are not psychos... we just need God in our lives. it is not from God that we do what we do... get my point??
are we psycho? not entirely, but i guess it depends on your definition. some cutters cut to help themselves deal with powerful emotions, such as anger and depression, it makes them feel numb, and able to deal with the emotions. while i guess other cutters cut to make themselves "feel", because they feel dead inside and want to feel again. if you are so ignorant as to be asking if we are psychos, then im guessing that you've never cut before. it is something that you really cant understand unless you try it, which i would def recommend that you NEVER do! btw...i would perfer not to be called psycho, maybe mentally unstable or something less harsh like that.
NO. they, or should i say we, are not psychos! we are ordinary people, just like you, that use cutting as a coping method, just as a person may use drinking as a coping method.
there are many reasons, each person is different. one of the main reasons is to turn emotional pain into physical pain, which can be controlled. people often do it when they feel a lack of control over their life. it can also be so that the person feels something - some people feel completely numb, and need to feel pain or see blood to remind themselves that they are alive. also, the pain releases endorphins that make the person feel 'good', and it is these endorphins that become addictive. also, some do it as they want to see the blood - they feel the pain washes out of their body with the blood. others just need to see a lasting mark upon their skin. some do it as a cry for help when they feel that there is no other way to express their pain and how they truly feel. others do it for self-punishment - when they feel they have done something really wrong and need to be punished for it. others, though only a VERY SMALL NUMBER of people do it for attention - these people often show off their cuts (or any other marks of self harm). MOST PEOPLE however actually hide their cuts/marks/scars and feel ashamed about it or regret doing it, so people that say self harmers do it for attention are completely wrong. mainly, self harm is caused by some form of abuse, mental illness or low self esteem. it IS NOT a suicide attempt - self harm is used as a coping method to try to prevent the killing of oneself, though those who self harm are more likely to kill themselves.
i hope this has helped.
More Questions & Answers...