How to
Self-Harm
Before you self harm in any way, you should
probably know what you’re getting into.
Before you make that cut, please keep in mind that you will
find the pain release and blood strangely addictive.
You may think to yourself that you’ll be able to control
it, that you won’t let it get out of hand.
You may think that you can just stick to a few small, shallow
cuts here and there that won’t be deep and that will heal
quickly and easily.
But you’re wrong.
You can’t control it, it’s impossible to control.
It controls you. It’s an addiction.
The cuts will get deeper, they’ll scar. They’ll
take weeks to months to heal and years for the scars to
actually begin to fade.
You’ll find that soon, you depend on it. You can’t
go more than a few days without cutting. You’ll go crazy
as your skin itches and burns, your hands shake, your head
pounds, your vision goes blurry as you try to keep your mind
off of it, try to hold back from giving in. But you
will.
If you think you can limit the cuts to just one area of your
body, you better think again. It’ll spread slowly but
steadily, like a deadly virus. It’ll spread as you run
out of skin, from your wrists to arms, past your elbows, up
your shoulders down to your stomach, across your hips and waist
and soon will cover your every inch of your legs right down to
your ankles.
I hope you’re prepared to withdraw from others and live
in a constant state of shame and guilt. Even if you have been
the most honest person to ever live, you will lie to your
friends, family members, everyone around you who you care
about.
You’ll find yourself jerking back from the touch of
someone, as if their fingers and hands have been bathed in a
toxic, burning poison. You’ll be terrified that they will
feel a scar or cut from beneath the fabric of your shirt or
because it just plain hurts so much to simply be touched.
Be prepared to become your own worst enemy. You’ll fear
yourself, your head, the urges that taunt you every minute of
every day. You’ll come to fear the next time you cut
because you don’t know how bad it’ll be.
Wait for the 10 cuts to turn into 20 then 50 then 100.
You’ll be covered in scars and cuts.
Your entire life will begin to revolve around your addiction.
You’ll constantly be thinking about cutting, covering up
your cuts, how you’ll hide your blades, scissors, bobby
pins and the other objects you use to destroy your
body.
And then..the first time that you cut “too deep.”
The bleeding won’t stop and you’re gasping,
shaking, panicking, fear takes over you. You pray and hope that
the bleeding will stop. Your purpose wasn’t to die, you
won’t ever go that deep again. Right? Wrong. You’ll
go there again, and deeper.
But don’t worry. You’ll learn how to take care of
your cuts so you don’t have to take a trip to the
hospital every night. The better you get at treating your
wounds, the worse they become.
You’ll lie to yourself and try to justify it when you go
to the pharmacy and drug store, finding yourself spending 20,
30, 40 dollars on dressings, gauze, alcohol wipes and sterile
strips.
You’ll tap your foot impatiently, hoping that no one
stares and asks you why you’re buying all of these
things. But at the same time..you hope someone asks, so you
know they care.
Be prepared to spend even more money on an entire new wardrobe.
Long sleeved shirts, hoodies, long pants, boots, bracelets,
wristbands. The list goes on forever.
You’ll keep scanning other people’s bodies for
signs of self harm, hoping that there is someone else out there
who feels the same way you do. Hoping, praying that they will
be like you. But that’ll never happen. You’ll see
clean, uncut, unmarred arms and feel even more alone and
ashamed than before.
You’ll do a lot of things alone, be prepared to kiss your
social life goodbye. You’ll always be doing your laundry,
always in private so no one sees the blood stained towels and
clothes. You’ll be spending hours scrubbing blood from
the bathroom floor, and wiping dried blood off of your
keyboard.
You won’t be able to make it a day without cutting.
You’ll carry an emergency kit in your wallet or purse. A
key, safety pin, a needle, a paperclip, even a pencil.
Everything around you will become a weapon. It doesn’t
matter what it is, as long as it gives you that feeling that
sends you reeling.
Next thing you know, you’re in the bathroom stall at your
school or work, picking open the scab of an old cut with a
needle.
Say goodbye to all of the things you took for granted. Shorts,
sandals, tank tops, swimming in the summer, going to the beach.
All of these things will be a far off memory.
I hope you like itching and scratching non stop. You will itch
and itch and itch. It’ll be so much that it’ll look
like you have some sort of flesh eating disease.
You will become an expert on your body as you carefully destroy
it, taking it apart piece by piece.
You will dream of cutting, dreaming of getting caught. It will
haunt you day and night, in your dreams and when you are awake.
Cutting will take over your life. It now has it’s hold
over you, it controls you.
You’ll hate yourself, hate yourself for making that first
cut that threw you into this vicious, neverending
cycle.
You’ll wish you never made that first cut.
You’ll wish you had read something like this, or that
someone had told you what would happen.
But as much as you hate your addiction and self harm, you love
it and can’t live without it. You’d rather die than
go just a few weeks without cutting.
Now, I’ll tell you what the title pertains to.
How to self harm.
Here is where I tell you how to successfully hurt yourself.
Put down the blade.
Put down the pair of scissors.
Put down the knife.
Put down the needle, safety pin or paper clip.
Because you are so much better than this.
And believe me, you don’t want to get involved with
this.