Self harming over 30
 

I am going to leave his name out of it but he told me that people over 30 don't cut themselves anymore. That it's only people aged 14 to 28 that do it. I disagree with what he said because it made me feel like an idiot for starting again.

Discuss.

That's incredibly untrue. Many elderly self-injure because they feel alone, and have fears of dying; does he think their pain isn't real? Ultimately, it doesn't matter how old you are. What matters is the state you're in in this moment, and how much you have grown. I think the reason SI is more common in the younger population is because not everyone who SIs does it more than once, also, adults who SI may be less likely to share their experiences with SI because they grew up in a different generation. Both of these factor skew the percentage of the self-injuring population. I hope you are feeling better; you know yourself better than that guy does, don't let his misjudgments make you feel bad or belittled.

Agreed. The person who said this is very ignorant and is just making assumptions.

That's like saying there's a cut off age as to when people can develop mental health disorders; it can come any time in a persons' life.

Load of rubbish.
It might be more common in younger people, but self-harm can occur at any age.

ahh sorry i didnt realise i was suposed to have stopped last year, damn,

very silly comment indeed as if u suddenly wake up on your 29th bday and stop being ill

lmao...I was hoping someone would say something like that!

life doesnt work this way?
:confused:

maybe im cured and didnt realise it ;)

That's silly. It's like saying people over 30 don't have emotions.
He sounds ignorant to me.

Yikes. All these people reading this thread!

I'm in my early 40s, and, whilst cutting isn't a form of self harm I've used, I actually didn't start self harm until I was 27/28 [at least as far as I'm aware]. So there.

I find that comment re mental age insulting. Whilst I don't have the most emotionally mature psychological make up during times of breakdown, it doesn't mean that I'm less intelligent in general.

Depression and stress are no respecters of age, and self destructive thoughts and sometimes acts that go along forthwith.

And yeah, people of all ages can self harm.

its actually fairly common among the elderly as well

What absolute crap! While it is fact that self harm is more prevelant in younger people, any person of any age can self harm.

I'm 29 in 2 weeks and the older I get the worse I self harm so that throws that theory out of the window!........oh ferretmonster if only that could happen on your 29th!!.....I wish.....

So if that is true then... i have 5 years to get over it?

Some people are stupid!

Wow- that is pretty inaccurate. There's no set age that you have to be to self harm... people of any age can/do. I read a book about SI recently that mentioned an elderly woman in ther 70's I think who has been harming for most of her life (and still does). Definitely not only people 14-28

hahaha...I wont tell you how old i am, but hahahaha
what a load of bull!!

I was like 32 when i started so yeah this is bullshit.

Self harm isn't necessarily an immature act. It might manifest when one is in a desperate, perhaps regressed state, though. It can even be seen as a primitive defence mechanism gone a bit squiffy.
Drinking and smoking could then, by definition, be classed as an immature, childish thing, heh. [never done either myself.]

Someone who self harms as an adult approaching mid life often [not always, but often] has had a very wounded childhood, and never developed healthy, relational ways of soothing or controlling emotions and distress. Part of them may not have grown up. And it may be this dissonance/splitness within the self that causes self harm.
Oh yeah, and mid life crisis. They're not easy. Like being a teenager only worse! Don't knock it until you've been there!

Plus, living with depression or whatever for so many years, it can get to a person and wear them down more and more.

I'm working at not self harming, and have been free for several months [even though I am going through hell]. It's not easy though. I also wanted to speak in wider sense of what it is like being my age and living with a chronic mental health problem, and stress, and a difficult past.

And even people my age who don't self harm, which ones of those are 'perfectly mature' and have it all together?
It's not all black and white, or simple.

Well, I'm 28 and I've migrated from cuts to bruises. Mainly out of fear of staph infections, however. I wouldn't be surprised if I start again in a few years.

Well I started before I was 14 so how does that work.

You should post this in Vets!