Self Injury Awareness Day

Dr. Deborah Serani has a good post up (see link) on the ins and outs of self harm. I think her table on why people self harm is pretty accurate, being someone who self harms myself. (Or used to. It's been 9 months without any self harm, go me. But it's also been 9 months with an emergency stash of Xanax, so no horrific anxiety attacks that I was awake for.)



The dissociation route is me. And for me instead of being told I want attention (so why did I cut in areas other people wouldn't see unless they saw me naked?) or something else inane like that, the reasons for my self harm are actually on target in this graph. We know it's bad, it doesn't mean it doesn't help us cope with dissociation. I'm in the middle of exploring other ways to ground myself. We'll see how this goes. In the middle of June it will be a year since I last self harmed, and it is myu biggest scar yet, so I've got my fingers crossed that the meds keep doing their job.

If you know a self injurer, leave your judgement at the door. Trust me, we're all ready thinking it, hence the amount of shame surrounding self harm.

Hat tip Terry at I See Invisible People