oookaaaaay
So I've read through all this and am going to try to respond.
It seems the big issue is people normalising cutting (or any type of self harming behaviour).
If you are cutting - something is wrong. A healthy (and mentally healthy) person doesn't hurt themselves when things get difficult.
Cutting is a maladaptive coping mechanism.
That is not to say that the person is bad, but they are dealing with something difficult (I'm being vague - there could be many reasons) and they are doing whatever they can to cope.
People do what they can to survive, there shouldn't be shame in that.
BUT any type of activity that involves harm to yourself is extremely damaging, physically, mentally, emotionally.
If you are hurting yourself alarm bells should be ringing! This is NOT normal behaviour, and while it can be very comforting to know you are not alone, we just can't say that it's ok, or it doesn't matter, as already said - it's not about the severity of the injury is no measure to the emotional pain someone is in. And if you are hurting yourself you are in emotional pain.
Smoking and drinking in moderation are not really comparable. It's about what's going on in someone's head.
If these threads arise - they need to be discussed, but we need to be talking about what is going on, the distress, the pain, people need to know that it isn't normal to be feeling like this - although it is perfectly valid.
I remember ages ago doing a counselling course and we discussed "feeling words" (I know this sounds cheesy - I'm going somewhere!)
These are usually divided into positive / negative / good/ bad. Whereas actually they are all just feelings. It is perfectly vaild to feel sad. Because you are feeling sad it isn't necessarily a negative thing, that's just the way you feel. But how you act on that will have positive or negative consequences on you.
If something is wrong and you are feeling bad, then we need to pointing people in the right direction on how to deal with it, talking about it, other coping mechanisms, rather than just saying yeah well don't hurt yourself too bad. (I'm generalising)
You aren't bad because you cut. But cutting is bad. There are other better, more effective, safer ways of coping.
As regards "safer cutting", I just can't see how that would work. As it goes Harm Reduction for self injury are things like the elastic band on the wrist, ice cubes and all that (can do slight damage but are drastically reducing harm) once a blade is involved, there just can't be guidelines on what is "safe".
I know this is long - I hope I made some kind of sense. This thread has got kind of intense, I was trying to choose my words carefully and I am also very tired
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