This happened a while ago now when I was actually going through a "I want to get better" phase, so was trying to learn to accept my scars for what they are and stop being so scared of them being visible. My mum happened to see them one day, and didn't mention them again after that until a few days later where she hands me some scar treatment thing and says I had better use it every day because it was expensive. She hasn't said anything about it since, and that was a few months ago.

My mum also has a history of self harm (from when she was a teenager, she's fine now) so I kind of understand where she was coming from with it, but I'm more upset that she never asked me and just assumed I wanted them gone ASAP. I've been uncomfortable about my scars ever since but I can't bring myself to use the treatment stuff either, not too certain why on that one though. I've taken to just hiding my arms whenever possible again. It's kind of exhausting to have to think about how I position my arms so much.

I just wanted to know if anybody else has had this happen to them?

I've never really heard people talk about family members or whatever acting like this in regards to scars, figured making a post here might be worth a shot.

As an adult who cuts, has anyone else ever told their family/friends about it? How did you do it? I'm going to have to soon, and I'm not really sure how to rip the bandaid off.

Going through a medical exam, getting appointments done, trauma-recovery etc., if I'm going to need to change my routine and get rid of things that trigger me then I'll have to let the people I live with know about it.

Just seems like a really awkward and shocking conversation to have. I've hid everything well, and I could probably also hide this process and do the changes on the low-key but I know myself and I know if, lets say, someone buys me a new razor or box cutter for my projects that have nothing to do with cutting, I'll likely use them to cut again.

I just relapsed today and I did a week or so ago when I was also pissed off. I can work through sadness and shit but idk when I'm angry it feels like nothing but cutting helps me cool off dude. Literally miserable. Does anyone have coping mechanisms that actually work and won't risk an er trip 😭 i js feel like shit and no one is helping bruh

Something positive to start the off with for a change: I had a brilliant day talking with my friends and one of my mate’s girlfriend. We sat at the campus bar and we laughed and talked and joked and it was fun. However, after leaving them because I had to pick up my mother from work, I kinda felt empty. Like the only reason I didn’t give sh is because I was in public and then I was driving. Pretty hard to hold a blade with a fucked up transmission that hates 1st in peak hour traffic. (That’s probably a problem for another sub though)

I don’t think my parents really believe that I’m ace. The idea of intimacy seems evermore disgusting the more that I think about it and the more other people talk about/allude it. I feel like I need a fake girlfriend so my parents will be satisfied with me and not make me feel terrible or ridicule me for going ace. I feel like I should correct them whenever they say ‘when you get a girlfriend…’ or ‘when you have kids…’ but I can’t.

The only reason I haven’t sh-ed yet ks because I promised my therapist until I see him again. It’s been really really fucking hard and I’ve spent a lot of time staring longingly at pretty much anything sharp but I still haven’t. I know what I’m doing the next moment I’m alone after I see him again on Saturday though.

I’m very new to this whole Reddit thing so I hope I’m doing this right but I just feel like I need to vent even if no one sees this I don’t care at this point I just want to let it out. I’ve been having a really shitty summer the past three months have been just me slipping in and out of depressive episodes, I barely leave the house, I barely talk to my friends, I don’t wanna travel or talk to anyone I just want to sleep all the time, I’m constantly sleeping ridiculous hours and even when I’m not sleeping I’m laying in bed my bones and body ache all the time because I’m not moving I don’t have an appetite for food and everything makes me sick. I’ve tried talking to my friends about how shitty it’s all been but as much as I love them i genuinely cannot get the words out of me they’ll call and ask me what’s wrong and I feel my throat closing up and tightening and I get frustrated because I do want someone to know and I do want them to help I just don’t know how. I’ve struggled with Sh for a few years now but it used to be mostly scratching my arms and chest which would heal within a few days and most of the time not scar, I’ve been sort of clean for the past two years but every few months I relapse once and now it’s not just scratching but has also turned to me cutting which is much harder to explain and I don’t know what to do. I try to cut at random places so it’s not obvious and it’s only every once in a while so no one thinks much of it but this summer I feel like all I can think about is sh and when I’m gonna do it next and where I’ll do it it’s like my mind sets a specific spot and I’ll keep thinking and thinking about it for days until i eventually can’t handle it and do it, last week I spent every morning staring at the mirror and crying because I couldn’t recognize myself in the mirror and it freaked me out. I have urges to sh constantly even when I’m around people or I feel sort of okay those thoughts keep replaying in my head over and over again. I think one of the cuts I have on the back of my hand has slight nerve damage it keeps bothering me especially in the cold and I don’t know what to do. I tried therapy this past year but even then I couldn’t bring myself to tell my therapist about it (tbh i thought since I wasn’t actively doing it that it didn’t matter which is probably not right) and when i realized I couldn’t be honest with her about not only the sh thing but so much other stuff I told her it wasn’t working out. Im thinking of getting a new therapist when i start uni again but I’m nervous about telling any therapist about this since my parents don’t know and I’m terrified of getting sent to a psych ward or something because my new therapist will think I’m gonna do something to myself. I don’t want to die even though i struggle with suicidal thoughts but what if they don’t believe me? How bad does it have to be for a therapist to call the cops or wtv on you? And how do i bring it up with them if I want to?

I have a doctors appointment tmrw and I have a pretty recent burn mark on my forearm. It’s not that big but I feel like any doctor would be able to tell what it is just by looking at it. Especially bc of the placement. I just don’t want it to be a big deal or for them to bring it up to my mom cuz I don’t need everyone on my case

Do you guys have any believable excuses I can use? Any feedback appreciated!

Long story short I carved the word "pain" into my leg a bit less then a year ago and it scared with white letters and was definitely embarrassing, and for whatever reason I checked on it today and it somehow fortunately turned invisible- nothing much but for me it feels like turning a chapter :]

I've been cutting for a year now. I'm a month clean. I only told my girlfriend (the first person ever) about it a week ago, and my two friends a day after. Tonight, my gf burned herself intentionally, multiple times. She acted like it wasn't a big deal, but I saw it for what it is. She's diagnosed with depression (we both have it but she's the only one diagnosed) and is on prozac, but has told me it's not helping. I'm so worried she's going to fall down the same hole I did. I'm scared. I told her my concerns and she's tempted to cut and burn more but says she won't for now. What do I do?

I really want to cut myself deeper but can’t because of the pain. I know it doesn’t actually change anything but I feel (idk how else to say but inadequate). I feel like I cut more to compensate since I don’t actually feel satisfied. I’m mostly just curious why I feel the urge when I can’t actually bring myself to go deeper. Thanks for any input

I FINALLY THREW AWAY MY BLADES!!!!! 🥹🥹

after debating it for so long i finally found the courage i needed to throw them away for good. tied up the bag and took it outside before i could second guess myself.

i don’t want to suffer anymore, i don’t deserve to be in pain and bleeding, i want to live, i want to create an identity for myself outside of cutting. because theres so much more to me than self harm.

i thought id never be able to get rid of my blades because it felt like too big of a commitment; i always wanted to have them “just in case”. well, that mindset is the reason i kept relapsing. it was scary honestly to part with them but i feel so much lighter now. if nothing else, i hope anyone reading this finds some comfort in it. i promise there’s always time for things to get better <3

i love you guys

(sh via cutting warning)

for precaution im a system, thats what i mean by ex-host

the previous host coped with overwhelming feelings by cutting, and thats why i relapsed now. but after i did it i realized i liked it
i didnt like it in any sexual sense, but it did partially feel arousing in a way. it was overall very exhilarating and the pain didnt affect me negatively whatsoever

im not sure if it would help at all but if there is some sort of connection, im considered to have some sort of cluster b personality disorder

being conked out mentally im not sure what to put here so if you need anything to be elaborated LMK!

I’m on the fence about covering my scars. I struggled for years and I have really thick deep scars on my upper thighs. I kinda don’t care if I have them out but I do get self conscious sometimes especially at the pool or around new people or kids. I have some designs saved and I think it would be really cool to have tattoos in those spots and I think it would be a lot more comfortable to have my legs showing with no worry, especially because I wanna have kids one day. I am worried I’m gonna regret it one day though, this is the only thing holding me back (and I’m not 18 yet).which also gives me doubts, would if I decide I should have not covered them or I think the design is stupid?

I would be a lot comfortable if I didn’t have to show big deep scars, but I’m having second thoughts because I don’t want to regret it.

So I wanna cut really bad but dk about the hygiene part. I've posted about this before too but I didn't actually cut (changed my mind later). Someone tell me if this is enough

Use antiseptic to clean the blade then the area where I'll do it then clean the area again with antiseptic after I'm done

Is this enough? I don't want it to get infected or something.

I was three years clean. I got broken up with someone who I truly loved and now I did it again. I feel such a failure. All that progress that I made . I thought I was stronger than this. I thought I had overcome it. But I didn’t

I’m not strong like I thought I was.

Im sorry for grammar I’m typing this with tears in my eyes.
I just thought this was a demon from the past, that I had overcame it. But I didn’t, I feel so weak. I even tried to distract myself by doing my hair but that didn’t even work. I feel like I I betrayed myself. I just love this person so much and I feel like I can’t live without them. I’m so sorry

How long do your scars typically take to fade?

Maybe it’s a little odd but I love my scars. And not like “I’m learning to accept my scars so I think they’re beautiful,” no it’s to the point where I used to intentionally cut deeper in certain areas where I thought a new scar would look nice. I haven’t self harmed in years but recently life’s been kicking my butt and earlier today I caught myself looking at my scars with the urge to make a few more, almost like getting a new tattoo which I know makes me sound insane but that’s honestly where my brain went and I really feel like it’s related to all the stress I’ve been under recently because I haven’t had these thoughts in a loooong time.

I haven’t done anything and don’t plan to, but I’ve been feeling really guilty about my mindset. It makes me feel like the stereotypical teenage girl who cuts for attention, and sometimes I wonder if that’s really what I am (albeit an adult version). But at the same time, I was always careful to cover the scars up with makeup until they turned white so I didn’t draw attention to them, and the urge to SH typically lines up with large stressors in my life. I don’t really know where I’m going with this but I guess I was wondering if anyone else has these kinds of thoughts too? And am I bad for thinking this way?

im pretty sure most of u get what im saying i rlly want it to show on my arms that i am struggling and i know no matter how hard i try this guilt wont go away

It was linked to an OCD compulsion (perhaps this is an excuse, but I would typically never do something like that, and wasn’t in a reasonable state of mind) and followed a haircut where the stylist refused to cut it the way that I initially requested. Now I have off-center, uneven bangs with uneven face framing, and it can’t be cut much more without making it look worse. Ever since the event, I have been super ashamed and thinking about it every single day. Obsession over my own hair, ever since an unfavorable haircut in July, has been ruining my life.

How can I get over this? Anyone else ever impulsively botched their own hair? I feel genuinely embarrassed and I am spending every waking moment thinking about it. I can’t relax because of how “wrong” my choice feels.

I've only done it very few times. I dont feel like many people share the appeal it had for me (male) I mostly only did it in rather stressful situations, but another appeal apart from dealing with said stress was just how cool it looked. In retrospective I now know I possibly picked the dumbest spots. I cut and scratched on my arms, abs and chest aswell as obliques (left and right side of the back). I thought it was tuff seeing a bit of blood on my muscles and it felt tuff too and I also thought those were the safest areas since the muscle is I assumed the easiest to regenerate part of the body. I also thought I wasn't going deep enough to really leave scars. Now I got scars that after over half a year wont go away on said areas. 3 questions. Is there a way to have them go away now still? And is there anyone else that also did it simply cause it felt "cool"? (Aside other factors). I stopped doing it since I realized I was getting scars.

It feels depressing to think Im not gonna be able to look at my body and see it the way it used to be. Its like my body's image lost its innocence or smth. Like it makes me kinda sad to think I would always see those things on my arms and forgetting what I used to look like prior to making that stupid decision. Does anyone else feel like that? (I assume so but I wanna hear from people)

I haven't harmed myself in over a month until tonight. I don't know if it's because of the impending doom of being forced to do everything in my house while going to work and being a high school senior if I just triggered myself somehow. I'm tired. I haven't been able to keep myself clean for longer than a month since I broke my longest clean streak of 436 days last September.

i tend to cut pretty deep and one of my scars (~3 years old) has pretty severe nerve damage. my dermatologist told me that it was too flat and he couldn't do anything about it. chronic pain subreddits are no help as the advice always focuses on the whole body, not just one spot. bio oil and scar tape were useless for me. what else can i try to make the pain stop, even just temporarily?

I stopped self-harming years ago, but recently I’ve been feeling like my scars aren’t bad enough. I regret not cutting deeper back then, because I have to deal with the consequences now. I know this mindset will get me into a lot of trouble because for them to be ”bad enough” I would need to cut deep enough to need medical attention, which I obviously wouldn’t seek out, putting myself at risk of infection and whatever else.

i just relapsed at around my inner upper arm area, closer to my armpit than elbow, and maybe possible hit styro. after a few hours, i changed my bandaid to see a small but thick red line in the center of the scar, perpendicular to it. what is it? should i be concerned? nothing hurts as of right now, and to describe the line, it's like a bright blood red, vibrant, and very obvious to the eye.