Older and Worse?
 

Has anyone else noticed that the older they get, the worse their cutting becomes?

Like personally I've noticed that as I get older my clean periods are longer than the times when I'm actively cutting, but when I do slip up and start cutting again its always worse than when I slipped up when I was younger. Its not that the cuts themselves are necessarily worse so much as I do it more often and each time I'm less likely to want to quit.

Am I alone in this or have others noticed the same thing.

This is true...it's actually been researched or something. Cutting gets worse the older you get. They say that it subsides by your 30's but I think that's only if you actually try to stop.

My cutting is (usually) not as bad as it used to be actually. Well, so far! :s I think there is room for hope that the older you get, the more HEALTHY ways of release and control we learn, and that might help stop the cutting from getting any worse and ultimately help us recover.

Mine has gotten worse and the sometimes there are different reasons than when I was younger.

I have never heard that before, I'll have to be on the look out for that research.

When I started SIing, I always figured that I by the time I got to be this age I'd have stopped or at the very least be on the way to stopping. Its just really depressing that I really can't say I'm in either place. It is some what reassuring to know that my getting worse isn't totally my fault.

I've definately got worse as I got older. I started cutting at 17 (12 years ago) but back then it was always as a reaction to something, I only did it when I had a 'reason'. These days it's like I'm always having to look for a reason not to do it.

I read it somewhere. I don't remember where but if I come across it again, I'll let you know.

mine has too some degree
Harley said something about it in an article or something, that we get used to the endorphins and need worse and worse injuries to feel it
i think a part of it is also that we just get better at it, technically, like find better and more effective tools and become more skilled because it is a behavior like any other and the more practice you have the better you are at it

mmmm mine has definitely progressed and gotten worse. I think like other people said it is because our pain tolerance increases, we get more used to doing it and need a bigger 'fix' so to speak to feel better. Having said that I guess some people learn new coping mechanisms as they get older and therefore there SI gets better, not worse.

I have to agree that it gets worse. (well it did towards the end,) for lots of reasons: 1) you get more practiced. I use to be able, at a push to do the "business" while walking down the street. 2) We need more...after all what we do is addictive & we end up like any other addict needing a bigger fix to get high....& there was a 3rd that didn't just repeat what the other responses said, but I can't remember what it was...

xxx

mine got worse with longer gaps between, and i was always trying to stop...then i lost my reason for stopping...

and now it's more frequent but less severe, like just a habit, just something i do, often without triggering, just because it's me. i've stopped fighting it and feel i'll never stop now, but it is also less of a big deal, now it's so trivial (to me...although i guess not everyone who saw the scars would think so, but compared to at its peak)...meh, im not making much sense ...the more practised thing does have a lot to do with it though, and testing your limits... but now i know. just as long as i never have to show my scars, it's fine...damn social taboos...yeah, i should quit...xxx

I cut in my teens, in my twenties I never cut, now in the last 5 years my cutting has been the worse it has ever been. It also seems to increase (at least for me) during my more manicky cycles.

-Dracorogue

Again, like other people, the gaps between are much longer, so rather than everyday it can be a few months between, but it is worse when actually do it

i'm only 22 but i started SI when i was 5-7, not sure exactly of age. but mine has definately progressed/got worse, i used to do things like take run ups to throw myself into the gravel driveway etc, then went through a phase of using creative things to cut myself like cupboard handles then moved onto not eating, then to cutting and burning, all of this was regular i needed it all the time.
now i can last for longer without it, but when i do it it is worse or there is alot more of it.