It would seem to me that SG promotes little if anything except better convos than other sites. Give me crap if you must, but oh well, I don't care. People will do what they want, all you can do is accept it and move on. If they ask for help then great, elsewise we have what I usually say about stuff of this sort: "It's hard enough to change myself, even harder to change someone else, especially if they don't want to change."

P.S. I'm well aware what SG is "supposed" to be about.

dem_z

United Kingdom

June 2004

NOV 24, 2006 12:33 PM

wyldechylde said:

dem_z said:
Way to be judgemental about 1/6 of the population.

[. . .] but come on, 63% of the population having one?

My math sucks, but even I know that's wrong.

Just to make what I was saying really clear:

DSH is very common.
DSH is useful for a few people, who don't find other stuff useful.
DSH should not be promoted as possibly useful for everyone just because it's useful for a few people, because CBT / DBT / etc is suprisingly effective for many (but not all) people, and 'other stuff' is better that DSH, and 'other stuff' carries less risk than DSH.

Morgan

SUICIDEGIRL

Illinois, USA

NOV 24, 2006 12:52 PM

Honestly I dunno what side I come in on in this debate. I can understand the perspective of those who feel that cutting is a working coping mechanism for them.

However I doubt that is true in most cases. I know in my case I felt at the time that it was a healthy way to deal with stress, but in reality it was a way for me to AVOID dealing with larger issues. Cutting was a way to refocus my stress, and yes, it made me feel less stressed right afterwards. But it created larger issues (problems with my relationships, as people around me were validly concerned) and it meant I didn't have to actually DEAL with the things that were causing stress in my life. I think that in most cases it ISN'T healthy, and the same goes for anything that allows people to put their problems back into their mental closet for another day (drinking, drugs, hell, even doing something to escape from the world like watching TV or playing video games obsessively).

Stress and emotional distress are not things you're meant to "make go away". You're meant to analyze them and why they are in your life so you can make those things better.

wyldechylde

San Jose, CA

November 2004

NOV 24, 2006 08:18 PM

dem_z said:
DSH is very common.
DSH is useful for a few people, who don't find other stuff useful.
DSH should not be promoted as possibly useful for everyone just because it's useful for a few people, because CBT / DBT / etc is suprisingly effective for many (but not all) people, and 'other stuff' is better that DSH, and 'other stuff' carries less risk than DSH.

I'm not concerned about how common this is or whos promoting it or why I really don't care. But what is a concern is someone who's a cutter suddenly being labeled as someone who has a serious problem when that more than likely isn't the case. And as you've already mentioned it does work for some and if it does then theres no reason to classify it as a mental illness of any kind otherwise we've got to add stress to that list in which case the whole world is fucked. And not the good kind of fucked we all know and love. Just because someone does something to themself that you don't like doesn't mean you should be calling it "unhealthy" or "dangerous".

Boleyn

Charlotte, NC

December 2004

NOV 24, 2006 08:36 PM

apesamongus said:

broken_princess said:
I see no harm in it.

Which is part of the problem.

If anyone's interested in seeing my full quote, it was "...as long as it isn't taken to the severe extreme, I see no harm in it."

I feel that it is a healthier way of occasionally dealing with stress than drinking yourself to death, or popping pills in excess or many other destructive behaviors. That is my opinion on the matter, but I am in no way telling people that they should go out and cut themselves, and (getting back to the origional topic) neither is SG.

Morgan

SUICIDEGIRL

Illinois, USA

NOV 24, 2006 08:43 PM

Let's be honest though, this is an issue that has had scientific research put into it. Many studies have found that people who start to engage in self-injury feel temporary (this is the keyword here: temporary) relief from stress/dread/whatever is bothering them, and then feel compelled to do it again each time those feelings reoccur. But the issue is: are they actually dealing with the true sources of those bad feelings? Or are they just accepting the temporary relief and not actually SOLVING their problems.

Taken from selfinjury.org:

"It reduces physiological and psychological tension rapidly.
Studies have suggested that when people who self-injure get emotionally overwhelmed, an act of self-harm brings their levels of psychological and physiological tension and arousal back to a bearable baseline level almost immediately. In other words, they feel a strong uncomfortable emotion, don't know how to handle it (indeed, often do not have a name for it), and know that hurting themselves will reduce the emotional discomfort extremely quickly."

But again, it works only temporarily. It CAN become an emotional band-aid, which isn't truly helpful.

Understand that I would never say that people who self-injure are crazy. I used to do it myself, and I wasn't crazy. But I wonder if, in most cases, it's a coping mechanism that isn't truly helpful. One that is temporary but not problem-solving in the long-run, which would make it (at the least) unhealthy.

Nena

SUICIDEGIRL

Spain

NOV 25, 2006 07:41 AM

Vanessa said:
Yes well I've tried every kind therapy imagineable between when I was 20 and 22 and it hasn't helped in any way, shape or form.
And I find it incredibly ridiculous of you to say "it shouldn't be promoted as an acceptable form of stress relief".
It works FOR ME and for other vast amounts of people I know who have been doing it as long or longer than I have, And I'm not going to be bashful and bite my tongue about it because someone doesn't agree with it and sees it as wrong. That's their problem.
.

Love you, lady.