I started really small. In 7th grade I started Volleyball and I would mess up and I hated it when they wouldn't punish some of my mistakes so I'd pinch my self. Stupid, I know, but it didn't seem to matter - I would never have classified it as SI until I actually began cutting. Then I started hurting myself in other situations - pinching, hitting, biting. It was around February that year that I finally cut myself. I'd been feeling bad and stressed for a while and then I got the news that Grandpa (who I'm real close to) has cancer… it didn't have anything to do with me, but the blood was so distracting… when I stared at it everything else just faded away. I know we talk of SI in health class (mostly just depression, but it's mentioned) so I'm not sure if I knew of it already through a formal classroom situation, or just common knowledge… but I think SI was already somewhere in the back of my mind at the time.
@SheHasHope: I know what you mean about it being 'cool' to pretend to SI. My freshman year a lot of kids were drawing on their wrists with red pens and joking about cutting themselves.
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