Started just after my 14th birthday. I'm now 21. I go through stages with it. Sometimes just scratching, sometimes cutting, and now I can go 8 or 9 months without doing it. I think my longest was 11 months. I can never go any longer than that. it still swamps my mind. I want to be free of it. But I just can't imagine life without some form of SI.
11, but I'd always had habits of biting at my hands when i was anxious and other small stuff.
this time she said, it's over
she said next time, forever
i can't explain, i'll take the blame.
i brought this all on myself.
visions that i've seen
always haunt me in my dreams
they say that you two just friends,
oh, but that's not the way it seems
now it's not like i'm trying to be up all night,
just trying to come to terms with all the love i've lost.
i did it first when i was 12..and then a year later i got into more heavily unfortunately. The transition to highschool and my freshman year triggered it.
i started probably around twelve.... but not bad, just every once in a while. it only got to the point where i can hardly go a week without it this year (i'm 14)
12, it was always scratching, i went through periods where i'd do it a lot then it would ease off. I stopped when i was 17, not really consciously tho,one day i just realised id nearly not done it for a year. Now i just do it randomly.
I was about 14 or 15 when I very first did it (although, and I'm ashamed to admit it, it was a subconscious attention seeking thing D: ), but it didn't become a problem until I was 17
I actually was 22 the first time. I was really ashamed because I was older but I now know that age doesn't matter.
"Whenever someone sorrows, I do not say, "forget it," or "it will pass," or "it could be worse" -- all of which deny the integrity of the painful experience. But I say, to the contrary, "It is worse than you may allow yourself to think. Delve into the depth. Stay with the feeling. Think of it as a precious source of knowledge and guidance. Then and only then will you be ready to face it and be transformed in the process."
for as long as i remember ( from abou the age of 6) i used to grate my fingers with the cheese grater and the walls, but i didnt know it was self harm. When i was in year five at school i cut myself in the girls bathroom, but never realized wat i was donig. Then i stopped and it started again wen i was about 13 (year 8 at scool), but it seemed far more dangerous in my teens than it ever did whe ni was younger.
I started when i was 10 nearly 11. I was hiding from my bullied in the girls toilets. Saw some broken glass on the floor. I stopped when i was 11. Then started again at 13. And on and off since then really.
13. I first scratched my arms from the wrist to the elbow with my fingernails until it bled/scabbed. I said I fell off my bike to everyone that asked. Not until I was 15 did I have my first bad cutting incident. Pretty much stopped from 17 until 21 years. Started again, waiting to stop.
12. I remember not knowing much about it until a guy in my class started proudly showing off his marks and I told a friend I had who was a bit older (who I kind of idolised) about it and she was like "yeah I do that too". So I tried it. Nearly 9 years later and still at it.
Looking back now, I was young when I first harmed (wound interference) - I was about 6/7, first intentionally caused separate harm when 9ish. Cut later on in life and have now been continually harming (in various ways) since I was 24 - hope that makes you young ones feel better as I am now 26 and still struggle - it isn't something you '"grow out of" and you are not immature or "attention seeking" for doing it. If some of you younger ones need reassurance from someone older who is following a professional career (fully qualified lawyer in 6 weeks with Cambridge law degree and apparently good A-levels) please feel free to pm me as I get so annoyed when people belittle the feelings and angst of younger people - sorry rant over as is gramatiacally incorrect post I often find that it is the intelligent ones who over-analyse and end up doing such things.
It may sometimes take a little while for me to pm back as I do try to go without RYL sometimes but end up coming back.
Take care - your feelings are real and should not be pushed aside or discounted!
"Everything is possible through Christ, who gives me strength". Phillipians 4:13
I often find that it is the intelligent ones who over-analyse and end up doing such things.