is it SI?
 

If i do scratches that aren't deep and have little or no blood, is it self-harming?i used to do cuts which were deep but now i can't.I don't know why.Am i still a self-harmer?I do it almost every day.

umm i don't think SI should be a classification or diagnosis type word really... you scratch yourself...end of story. Sorry if that seems harsh, I didnt mean it in that way, i just get pissed when people label it and label people as 'self-harmers' sorry.. just me.

It doesn't matter how bad it is, if you are delibrately harming yourself in any way, or causing yourself pain, then it is self harm.
It doesn't matter how deep or 'bad' it is.

Self harm is the purposeful harm of ones own body to get some form of gratification.

It doesn't matter if you punch a wall, scratch yourself, burn yourself, or cut yourself. It's ALL self harm. Just because the phsyical side of things may not be as severe, it doesn't make it NOT self harm. And most certainly doesn't indicate the person is going through less mental issues then anyone else.

So to answer your question Irene. If you are scratching yourself, even if it is superficial, it IS still classed as self harm.

Hope you're ok. Take care.

Yes.

That's all my self harm has ever been, really. But it's still hurting yourself. It leaves a mark.

Try not to define yourself as a self harmer, though. Rather as someone who's in distress and needs help in finding safer ways of managing that distress. It sounds like you starting to minimise the harm you do to yourself, and that's good.

If you try to deliberatly hurt your self then it's self-harm no matter how 'bad' it is.

:)

I do it almost every day.many times i feel the need to hurt myself but lately it hasn't been working.i mean when i do it,many times i don't get the feeling of relief and i get angry and do more and more.I don't know why it has stopped working.

You need to find other ways of finding relief. Ways of expressing your feelings without hurting yourself

This is a good place to start - What to do RIGHT NOW instead of SI [link]

You might like to start a journal, and maybe do some artwork. Your feelings need expression. But you don't have to hurt yourself to express them.

why has it stopped working?i know what i can do instead of SIing, but i want to hurt myself.i feel the need to do it.i have started a journal.

You don't have to do it just because you want to. You have the choice.

I don't know why it's stopped working for you, but it may be that your body is very wise and is wanting you to take better care of yourself.

Well done for starting the journal. :)

do you think that my body has got used to this method, you know, the tool im using and thats why it has stopped working?or i don't do it hard enough?i don't know what to believe.

i have a psychotherapist but im not sure if she can help me want to stop SIing.i feel like she doesn't understand how i feel.

What do you talk about in therapy?

well i went to her to get help because i SI, but we talk about other things too.i have told her to help me become more sociable.
she made me write down the reasons i want to and the reasons i don't want to stop SIing, but i don't think she understands me very well.
i once told her that i don't wanna live anymore and she told me that if i wanna die, she will have to send me to a psychiatrist, but when i told her that i don't want to, she made me promise that i won't kill myself.
now im finding it hard to keep living and i want to SI so badly, but i know that i will get angrier if i SI coz it won't work very much.

What exactly do you feel she doesn't understand?

i have told her that i love seeing blood and that the more the blood is, the better and she kinda made fun of me(she didn't do it to annoy me)and said to buy clothes that are red, and stuff that are red etc.

What is it about blood for you?

Hey this might not work but one way to try and help is draw lines on your arm in a red pen? It's not the same but worth a go.
x

when i was first starting out with SI and I was trying to stop, I got a red sharpie and let it bleed through pages and pages of paper, and that kind of helped. I don't know if it would work for anyone else, though.

I don't know why i like blood so much.i love the color and the way it gets out of the wound.its like all my problems get out with the blood, i can't really explain how i feel.if the cut is deep with blood, i feel better.only then i feel like it has worked.but i can't get that very often.

i don't know if it would help the thing you said about the pen.but i will try it!

It's just an illusion. Distress can't be bled out. Tears, talking with someone you trust, comforting yourself.. all those can ease distress.

I've found finger painting helpful too. :)