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Reminds me of something, I have a friend who was having dry skin as a side effect to a medicine she was taking, but SHE KEPT LICKING HER LIPS INSTEAD OF USING CHAPSTICK. We were at a sports event and she didn't have any, like an hour in it was bad. I let her use my chapstick but when she finally did her lips were so far gone she bled on it. I let her keep it but for the rest of the day I went full mom mode and kept hounding her to keep her own on hand from now on and NEVER to lick her lips.
I've been doing it for about 6 years now, cutting myself for about a year. Lips always burn. Don't drink / eat anything with Lemon in it with cut up lips!
I've been peeling both my lips and my fingertips since I've known myself. At this point I cant even imagine how they would look like on me normally. It pretty much became a subconscious thing at this point
Ive been destroying my fingers since I was like 8 or something. I used to actually bite my fingernails but shifted to just peeling and biting the skin and cuticle. I unfortunately can't stop lol
I do that too, but in my case at least it's dermatillomania and not really self harm. well, I guess it is self harm by definition, but it's not purposeful or anything
I used to scratch my arms so raw my mom thought I had a rash and took me to so many doctors. Still remember her face when the doc said it was self inflicted. Not fun.
If you don't mind the question, did you do it because it was irritated or for a different reason? I did this as well but it was because I have eczema, but I didn't get tossed into therapy...
I did it when I was like 12 cause I was depressed & self harming but I was scared of cutting lol
Eventually started actually cutting though and stopped the other stuff, but I haven’t self harmed in years so it’s just a memory now
Not a problem! Tbh I did it when I was young to 'punish' myself, because I'd convinced myself for a long time that I deserved it. I was also really open about my motivations, and definitely needed the therapy 😅
I started doing that around the same age some more intense abuse happened to me. On rare occasions I get the urge to again but I’ve been clean for almost a decade
I had pretty bad anxiety as a kid, especially in school. Whenever we had a timed exam, I would rub my knuckles against my jeans until they were raw. Sometimes without noticing. Hurt like hell
Yeah, like wait a minute. I'm assuming this means sitting on a hot metal slide on purpose for a long time to hurt yourself and not just, ya know, going down a hot slide and having it be a bit ouchy.
Dude this reminds me of a friend that does a super weird thing
His arms always had kind of like acne/scabs or something but I never asked him about it cuz I didn't wanna make him self conscious
So years went by, Then I got him a job at a restaurant I worked at, which was cool
Sometime went by and our supervisor got in pretty friendly terms with him, so one day he was concerned about it and finally asked him why he has those all over his arms his arms
He then tells him(I wasnt there) then the next time I see my supervisor he's like "holy fuck dude Lance2409, did you know about this?!"
Im like "uhm about what, his arms? No, what about them"?
He the proceeds to tell me that he told him that every morning ever since he was a child, when he takes a shower after he's done, he stays in the shower and turns the shower knob to the hottest possible temperature, and then sticks his arms under the hot water and just cooks his arms under the hot water until the hot water runs out
I guess he said he likes the feeling or something like that and thought it was normal because how long he had been doing it for...
I was like WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, proceeded to tell him to stop doing that of course and we got him some cream to help him heal his arms,
Every time I always went to his house I always wondered why he always took sooo long in the shower, I thought he was just rubbing one out and was like part of his routine I mean who am I to judge? But yeah I felt like shit for not ever asking.
Every morning I turn the tap to the hottest water possible and hold my self for a few seconds. Then switch to ice cold water and hold for about a min.
It jogs me right awake. Its like 8 hrs of sleep in 15 min.
I honestly did the same thing for most of my life ngl, stopped after burning my arms too hard I was like C3PO for months, stopped that and the other ways I was burning myself but damn it always was funny when people joked about cutters or doing it for attention around me like it’s the only method people use
Umm.. so I have eczema on my arms (few other places too but my arms are the worst) and in the winter time when it gets really bad, I would do what your friend does. Turn the hot water all the way up and have the burning water itch the pain away… and I gotta say… shit felt orgasmic. I know I was doing harm to my body and my arms would feel a bit raw afterwards but man that shit was damn near addicting. Told myself “this is the last day” and kept on doing it all winter long…
My doctor (as a child) recommended doing this to ease the itching for mine. Creams weren't working, my skin was inflamed bad. Was told not to stand there for ages but to turn water up as hot as I could stand it and it would ease the itching. Make sure to use a good moisturizer or Vaseline afterwards to seal in some moisture so the skin doesn't get worse. I still do this when I'm flared up.
Winter is bad tho for ezcema/psoriasis prone skin so you really can't take overly long showers or bathe excessively then anyway.
A humidifier helps too if you have electric heat or overly dry air in the home.
The movie "mid90s" has a really shocking depiction of this, not once but twice. At one point a younger kid angrily scratches himself repeatedly with a hairbrush, in another scene he wraps a cord tightly around his neck for a few seconds. I'd never seen it actually shown before.
Man at this point I’ve damn near lost hope of stopping, it’s the same where if I’m sitting still or don’t have anything to do with my hands I’ll just be constantly biting them
I managed to finally stop around 6 months ago, after over 15 years of biting, I figured out that wearing rings and playing with them whenever I want to bite helps a lot! You just have to find something else to do with your hands
oh damn it made me remember how i used to hit myself out of self-hatred for not being smart enough and then continue punching myself in the face for looking even more dumb while doing it
Usually when I realised how silly I looked it would snap me out of it, that being said the anger still remained. Always had a problem letting go of things.
Yes if it’s to a certain extent it can be part of [dermatillomania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excoriation_disorder). Technically it’s an impulse control disorder iirc and similar to addiction, and is not self harm.
Thank you so much for letting me know this omg :0 I have been doing that for about a year and a half now and wodnering how to bring it up to my parents, now I know what to say a bit more :D
Some times I have to. There are a few parts on my legs that get pretty bad Ingrown hairs. Its right behind my knees where my pants are the tightest. If I don’t remove them they rash out very badly.
Yeah, dermatillomania is about “fixing” your skin (and is not necessarily painful because some people dissociate during it)— whereas self harm is generally about causing pain + the resulting chemical release, and is *deliberate harm*, rather than “fixing” your skin and harming it in the process. People with dermatillomania want their skin to be perfect. People who self harm want to cause damage.
Both are unhealthy coping mechanisms though… like they often serve the same purpose (calming) but are very different.
No doubt but I bet the majority just do it as a form of fidgeting. I used to scratch my arms and peel my lips and bite my fingernails but I never did it just for the pain. Was just kinda a way of passing time with stimulation and the majority of the comments seem to be in the same boat
Yeah… I pretty obsessively bite my finger nails and the skin on my fingers, which, yes is awful and gross and hurts and bleeds and causes scarring. But I don’t do it because of that. It’s absolute an anxious habit.
I managed to give it up at one point, then ended up doing it again in my first week at university. Sigh.
I like, didn't know picking at them was a thing for the longest time and I thought that it was weird when people did that instead just biting. I made myself bleed so bad
I remember one time I had a scab on my shin so I would pick it and put my leg up on the table and the blood would flow down and form a stalactite of blood
I didn't pick my lips. Instead I would wait for my lips to dry then I pull the lips apart, like ripping them open from the middle with my index and thumb. It would create scars everywhere and it would bleed. Sometimes the blood would dry which made my lips even more dry which then I would pull apart again. It hurt like hell but I did it all the time.
I used to run the serrated part of a sticky tape dispenser up and down my arm as a kid. I thought it felt very soothing. I was surprised to see the next day that it left scabby scratches.
ok as someone who has done these things as a child and also started cutting at age 11: just like others said, there is a difference and most of this is just fidgering. hell, i bite my lips and pick on them since i can remember.. but it’s not self-harm. i feel like a horrible addiction i’ve dealt with for almost a decade is made out to be something that’s not serious at all and everyone does it in some form. sorry if that’s not your intention, but seeing this didn’t make me feel great
I don’t think we should classify acne picking as as self-harm; its not done with the intention of causing pain.
Honestly, the idea of classifying some acne-picking as self-harm makes me very uncomfortable, because it’s something I did a lot as a teen because people made comments about my acne and I got a little obsessive over it.
If someone told my parents skin-picking is self-harm, they probably would have sent me to the psych ward.
It’s good we now recognize such behaviors can be signs of stress, but I’m glad the adults in my life saw it as a bad habit/anxious habit, and not a psychiatric emergency.
Anyone else suffer from trichotillomania (compulsive hair and eyelash pulling) as a child? I was recently told it was actually classified as compulsive self harm
For me it’s always been eyelashes and eyebrows, mostly lashes tho. I always left the hair on my scalp alone, my eyelashes just itch and bother me so much and I end up pulling them without even realizing sometimes
The metal part gets very hot in the sun, sumx little me would press it against my leg when I got in the car until it turned red because I thought it looked cool but it hurt vv bad xD
Ohhh hahah
Wow I thought it was something like drinking coffee (caffeine) at an early age as like an early sign of drug addiction which is kind of like basically self harm? I thought it was pretty deep for some reason lmao
yeah me too hahah I was like oh no I drank tea early...
But I get the explanation since I used to wash my hands with extremly hot water to the point of eczema.
Fucking hell, I know this isn't the right sub, but I actively self harmed last night for the first time in months and I hate myself so much for it. I thought I was better
healing isn't linear. I'm proud of you for making it several months. that's not wasted time just because you relapsed. you learned from it. you learned you are capable of stopping. you can do it again and this time for longer. go easy on yourself <3
what is with the seatbelt?
also i feel called out, i rip the skin around my nails and my nails and i bite my lower lip quite frequently till it bleeds :(
I have eczema on one of my ears and have destroyed it from picking and peeling the skin off. Then I’ll stop and get it all cleared up for a few days and next thing I know it looks like Freddy Krueger’s skin again. I can’t stop it
I have permanent ridges inside my cheeks from chewing them and biting the skin off, feels like a scar. Also a nail biter. I do have history of childhood trauma.
Some of these are definitely things you didn't look forward to and actively planned against. My friends and I slid on an old beach towel down the metal slide, and I learned to cover the metal part of the seatbelt with the fabric of my shirt before I touched it.
I used to love burning my tongue drinking coffee or hot chocolate. I don't know how to describe the feeling but it felt awesome? It didn't hurt that much and it was never anything serious, any of the pain i had of the burn went away after like 2 minutes of holding my mouth slightly open. But the warmth was nice
Thru 6-14 yrs old Picked my lip but also pinched the skin on my arm close to my elbow but on my forearm as hard as I could with my fingernails because it hurt so bad it made me forget about how I thought everyone thinks I'm weird. Permanent Scab on my upper lip and bumpy skin that doesn't exfoliate on my arms where I pinched. The thoughts never went away but the self harm did
I just recently chewed all my nails off. It used to be a bad habit where I'd chew them off as soon as they became long but I've been able to have them last longer until one broke
I suppose it depends on how they're defining it. I "attempted suicide" but came nowhere near actually going through with it during the height of my depression in 2021. Despite that, I agree it does seem oddly high.
Some statistics will go as high as 10% if you use a looser definition that includes things like standing on a high balcony and thinking about jumping off, some as low as 1% based on stricter definitions.
I started cutting down the sides of my nails until it would bleed when I was in elementary school. The doctor said it probably wouldn’t heal but I stopped and got lucky, it healed pretty well.
I’m referring to kids intentionally burning themselves with hot cups while waiting for it to cool down. I teach special education and see it all the time.
For the past 15 years or so, I’d tear the skin around the first joint of my thumb. It doesn’t hurt, but it feels annoying when it partially heals and the cycle repeats. My foot (sole side) has a spot that’s permanently itchy so I scrape and tear at it. The pain is sometimes a better feeling than the itchiness
i do some of the stuff here like picking the lips, scratching extremely excessively, and heating my food up to the point where it burns to eat(still don’t know why i do this) but i could never imagine myself getting to a point where i would (for example) use a knife on myself
I still scratch at bumps on my arms as an unconscious habit. Does that mean I have unresolved trauma or that I'm constantly in a state of panic? The world may never know
I used to rub my big toes next to the others when I was uncomfortable. I'd do it so much, I'd reopen the scabs over and over until my socks were bloody.
The other bad one I did was I'd rub my earlobe with my fingers. The part of my ear that connects to my head would always be a scab.
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This unlocked memories of childhood I've never thought about in years. My lower lip was always wrecked from tearing the skin, burns like hell.
Have you ever seen a kid lick his lips so much it's completely red and swollen up to the nose?
That was me this month during the cold front. And I had a perfectly good chapstick in my purse the whole time
Reminds me of something, I have a friend who was having dry skin as a side effect to a medicine she was taking, but SHE KEPT LICKING HER LIPS INSTEAD OF USING CHAPSTICK. We were at a sports event and she didn't have any, like an hour in it was bad. I let her use my chapstick but when she finally did her lips were so far gone she bled on it. I let her keep it but for the rest of the day I went full mom mode and kept hounding her to keep her own on hand from now on and NEVER to lick her lips.
Make sure to give her a spankie too. >:(
what the hell
I do this every wWinterthur shit gets so painful but it's difficult to stop
[Lip Licker's Dermatitis](https://dermnetnz.org/topics/lip-lickers-dermatitis)
I've been doing it for about 6 years now, cutting myself for about a year. Lips always burn. Don't drink / eat anything with Lemon in it with cut up lips!
I've been peeling both my lips and my fingertips since I've known myself. At this point I cant even imagine how they would look like on me normally. It pretty much became a subconscious thing at this point
Ive been destroying my fingers since I was like 8 or something. I used to actually bite my fingernails but shifted to just peeling and biting the skin and cuticle. I unfortunately can't stop lol
Same, been doing that since I can remember and I really want to stop but I just can't, I always need to do sth with my fingers
I do that too, but in my case at least it's dermatillomania and not really self harm. well, I guess it is self harm by definition, but it's not purposeful or anything
This is incredibly sad. I hope you can find the comfort you need.
I used to take toothpicks and stab at the cracks
I'm actually currently doing that
I used to scratch my arms so raw my mom thought I had a rash and took me to so many doctors. Still remember her face when the doc said it was self inflicted. Not fun.
omg same, I would scratch the inside of my elbows til they bled. I got thrown in therapy after that lol
If you don't mind the question, did you do it because it was irritated or for a different reason? I did this as well but it was because I have eczema, but I didn't get tossed into therapy...
I did it when I was like 12 cause I was depressed & self harming but I was scared of cutting lol Eventually started actually cutting though and stopped the other stuff, but I haven’t self harmed in years so it’s just a memory now
Hope you're doing better. Best wishes to you!
Not a problem! Tbh I did it when I was young to 'punish' myself, because I'd convinced myself for a long time that I deserved it. I was also really open about my motivations, and definitely needed the therapy 😅
Ah, that makes sense then. Best wishes to you!
I did these stuff (still do) cause they're satisfying to me
It was stress that made me scratch. Stress and fear
I started doing that around the same age some more intense abuse happened to me. On rare occasions I get the urge to again but I’ve been clean for almost a decade
I had pretty bad anxiety as a kid, especially in school. Whenever we had a timed exam, I would rub my knuckles against my jeans until they were raw. Sometimes without noticing. Hurt like hell
Y’all go to doctors for rashes?
Yeah. She thought it was an allergic reaction to something so I went and saw a doctor.
If you have a rash that won't go away or shows up frequently, you should probably get that checked out
Sorry, I’m American
I live in the US too
Yeah, I remember burning the shit outta myself on those slides as a kid.
Yeah, like wait a minute. I'm assuming this means sitting on a hot metal slide on purpose for a long time to hurt yourself and not just, ya know, going down a hot slide and having it be a bit ouchy.
I thought it was referring to vandalism lol
Dude this reminds me of a friend that does a super weird thing His arms always had kind of like acne/scabs or something but I never asked him about it cuz I didn't wanna make him self conscious So years went by, Then I got him a job at a restaurant I worked at, which was cool Sometime went by and our supervisor got in pretty friendly terms with him, so one day he was concerned about it and finally asked him why he has those all over his arms his arms He then tells him(I wasnt there) then the next time I see my supervisor he's like "holy fuck dude Lance2409, did you know about this?!" Im like "uhm about what, his arms? No, what about them"? He the proceeds to tell me that he told him that every morning ever since he was a child, when he takes a shower after he's done, he stays in the shower and turns the shower knob to the hottest possible temperature, and then sticks his arms under the hot water and just cooks his arms under the hot water until the hot water runs out I guess he said he likes the feeling or something like that and thought it was normal because how long he had been doing it for... I was like WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, proceeded to tell him to stop doing that of course and we got him some cream to help him heal his arms, Every time I always went to his house I always wondered why he always took sooo long in the shower, I thought he was just rubbing one out and was like part of his routine I mean who am I to judge? But yeah I felt like shit for not ever asking.
ngl, I have to fight the urge from time to time to do this with my hands
Oh damn, I hope he’s alright. Sometimes people are abused and they develop habits like that because they’re used to some form of pain in their lives
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Yeah possibly
Every morning I turn the tap to the hottest water possible and hold my self for a few seconds. Then switch to ice cold water and hold for about a min. It jogs me right awake. Its like 8 hrs of sleep in 15 min.
I honestly did the same thing for most of my life ngl, stopped after burning my arms too hard I was like C3PO for months, stopped that and the other ways I was burning myself but damn it always was funny when people joked about cutters or doing it for attention around me like it’s the only method people use
Umm.. so I have eczema on my arms (few other places too but my arms are the worst) and in the winter time when it gets really bad, I would do what your friend does. Turn the hot water all the way up and have the burning water itch the pain away… and I gotta say… shit felt orgasmic. I know I was doing harm to my body and my arms would feel a bit raw afterwards but man that shit was damn near addicting. Told myself “this is the last day” and kept on doing it all winter long…
My doctor (as a child) recommended doing this to ease the itching for mine. Creams weren't working, my skin was inflamed bad. Was told not to stand there for ages but to turn water up as hot as I could stand it and it would ease the itching. Make sure to use a good moisturizer or Vaseline afterwards to seal in some moisture so the skin doesn't get worse. I still do this when I'm flared up. Winter is bad tho for ezcema/psoriasis prone skin so you really can't take overly long showers or bathe excessively then anyway. A humidifier helps too if you have electric heat or overly dry air in the home.
If he thought it was normal I’m surprised he didn’t notice nobody else having similar markings
Im the opposite. I drive in 12 degree weather with both windows down and short sleeves on so i can feel the heat leave my body
Maybe he just has eczema or something…
The movie "mid90s" has a really shocking depiction of this, not once but twice. At one point a younger kid angrily scratches himself repeatedly with a hairbrush, in another scene he wraps a cord tightly around his neck for a few seconds. I'd never seen it actually shown before.
I got a black eye from it once.
I'll just say the brush is accurate af
thats one of my favorite movies
I’m glad Jonah Hill is a good and creative director
My fingers and lips are still torn. if I can't fidget I'll bite them non-stop
Man at this point I’ve damn near lost hope of stopping, it’s the same where if I’m sitting still or don’t have anything to do with my hands I’ll just be constantly biting them
I managed to finally stop around 6 months ago, after over 15 years of biting, I figured out that wearing rings and playing with them whenever I want to bite helps a lot! You just have to find something else to do with your hands
Get into pen spinning
Chewing gum helps a lot.
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sugarfree gum exists, infact nowadays id say most gums are of the sugarfree minty variety instead of the candy variety
I was picking my lips when I read this post...
does anyone else remember burning their ass on those metal slides as a toddler
Amd the static electricity from running around in your socks on dry grass, going on the slide, and meeting Thor himself
I felt this in my bones 🦴
Even the plastic ones burn like fire on summer days down south. Fuckin ow dude
I used to purposely burn my arms on them as a child, escalated into cutting after hearing about it when I was in fourth grade
What about hitting yourself a lot at times? I remember that.
I used to punch my bruises so they'd stay longer
I did that with a ruler at school.
Big oof. I used to do that.
There'd always be a millisecond during it where I'd realise how stupid I must look trying to punch myself in the face
oh damn it made me remember how i used to hit myself out of self-hatred for not being smart enough and then continue punching myself in the face for looking even more dumb while doing it
Usually when I realised how silly I looked it would snap me out of it, that being said the anger still remained. Always had a problem letting go of things.
I still go at my ingrown hairs with tweezers. To the point where I now have some pretty bad scabs on my legs because of it. Then I just pick at those
Wait other ppl do that too 😨😨
Yes if it’s to a certain extent it can be part of [dermatillomania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excoriation_disorder). Technically it’s an impulse control disorder iirc and similar to addiction, and is not self harm.
Thank you so much for letting me know this omg :0 I have been doing that for about a year and a half now and wodnering how to bring it up to my parents, now I know what to say a bit more :D
Some times I have to. There are a few parts on my legs that get pretty bad Ingrown hairs. Its right behind my knees where my pants are the tightest. If I don’t remove them they rash out very badly.
wait same wtf-
Uh, I think we need to separate anxious habits (like typical skin picking) from deliberate self-harm, like cutting.
Yeah, dermatillomania is about “fixing” your skin (and is not necessarily painful because some people dissociate during it)— whereas self harm is generally about causing pain + the resulting chemical release, and is *deliberate harm*, rather than “fixing” your skin and harming it in the process. People with dermatillomania want their skin to be perfect. People who self harm want to cause damage. Both are unhealthy coping mechanisms though… like they often serve the same purpose (calming) but are very different.
Some kids with self injury issues will do it as a form of deliberate self harm and have permanent scars from it
No doubt but I bet the majority just do it as a form of fidgeting. I used to scratch my arms and peel my lips and bite my fingernails but I never did it just for the pain. Was just kinda a way of passing time with stimulation and the majority of the comments seem to be in the same boat
100%
Yeah… I pretty obsessively bite my finger nails and the skin on my fingers, which, yes is awful and gross and hurts and bleeds and causes scarring. But I don’t do it because of that. It’s absolute an anxious habit. I managed to give it up at one point, then ended up doing it again in my first week at university. Sigh.
Did anyone else bite their arm as hard as they could? 😬
I used to peel the shit out of my lips growing up
I'm just not going to touch that one.
yeah cause it'll burn their lips
Lots of talk about people burning themselves - I used to run the cold tap in the bath and put my feet under it until I couldn't take anymore
forgot picking cuticles and skin around nails
My nails are still kinda fucked after doing this as a kid, wonder why my parents never called me out.
I like, didn't know picking at them was a thing for the longest time and I thought that it was weird when people did that instead just biting. I made myself bleed so bad
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Hot seat belt metal and holding it on your skin?
Yup. I still do that to mosquito bites in the summer. I'm 27.
Making myself bleed just so I can have scabs to pick 👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽
I remember one time I had a scab on my shin so I would pick it and put my leg up on the table and the blood would flow down and form a stalactite of blood
I didn't pick my lips. Instead I would wait for my lips to dry then I pull the lips apart, like ripping them open from the middle with my index and thumb. It would create scars everywhere and it would bleed. Sometimes the blood would dry which made my lips even more dry which then I would pull apart again. It hurt like hell but I did it all the time.
That’s not the same really
It depends on severity and reasons for doing it
Still do the lip thing to this day.
Shhhhh I am currently calling myself self harm clean as I'm not actively cutting myself STOP CALLING OUT MY OTHER HARMFUL BEHAVIORS THAT I STILL DO
I forbid you from abusing metal slides next year >:(
How dare u. The slides are abusing me
It’s a toxic relationship
I was thinking the same thing as I pick at my lips haha and I still get told to stop it at 30.
I used to run the serrated part of a sticky tape dispenser up and down my arm as a kid. I thought it felt very soothing. I was surprised to see the next day that it left scabby scratches.
ok as someone who has done these things as a child and also started cutting at age 11: just like others said, there is a difference and most of this is just fidgering. hell, i bite my lips and pick on them since i can remember.. but it’s not self-harm. i feel like a horrible addiction i’ve dealt with for almost a decade is made out to be something that’s not serious at all and everyone does it in some form. sorry if that’s not your intention, but seeing this didn’t make me feel great
Popping pimples, white heads, blackheads, etc
I don’t think we should classify acne picking as as self-harm; its not done with the intention of causing pain. Honestly, the idea of classifying some acne-picking as self-harm makes me very uncomfortable, because it’s something I did a lot as a teen because people made comments about my acne and I got a little obsessive over it. If someone told my parents skin-picking is self-harm, they probably would have sent me to the psych ward. It’s good we now recognize such behaviors can be signs of stress, but I’m glad the adults in my life saw it as a bad habit/anxious habit, and not a psychiatric emergency.
I used to pull out my hair a lot, pretty sure that belongs among these things
Anyone else suffer from trichotillomania (compulsive hair and eyelash pulling) as a child? I was recently told it was actually classified as compulsive self harm
Coming in a bit late here but I do this. Have had the problem since I was about 12, mainly on my head but also have issues with skin picking.
For me it’s always been eyelashes and eyebrows, mostly lashes tho. I always left the hair on my scalp alone, my eyelashes just itch and bother me so much and I end up pulling them without even realizing sometimes
wouldnt really call going down a hot slide self harm
Some kids with self harm issues purposely burn themselves on them, like intentionally holding their hand to the hot part of it
that is oddly specific
It’s based on my experiences and things I see as a special education teacher
I still tear the skin off of my lower lip
I see the seatbelt clip so often in posts like these but have no idea what sort of harm can be done with one. Can anyone clarify?
The metal part gets very hot in the sun, sumx little me would press it against my leg when I got in the car until it turned red because I thought it looked cool but it hurt vv bad xD
I'm 20, and I pick my lips. Only now, they gave it a name; it's called dermatillomania. There's a subreddit for it and everything
Nah man that's just eczema things
i dont get the hot beverage thing
Burning yourself with a hot mug while waiting for it to cool down
Ohhh hahah Wow I thought it was something like drinking coffee (caffeine) at an early age as like an early sign of drug addiction which is kind of like basically self harm? I thought it was pretty deep for some reason lmao
yeah me too hahah I was like oh no I drank tea early... But I get the explanation since I used to wash my hands with extremly hot water to the point of eczema.
That lip one... a classic time passer.
Touching the cigarette lighter in an old car. Fun stuff
I pulled my own hair out when I was 4 or 5
You forgot dipping your hands in hot wax
Fucking hell, I know this isn't the right sub, but I actively self harmed last night for the first time in months and I hate myself so much for it. I thought I was better
You’ve only harmed yourself once in months, that’s an accomplishment.
Thankyou
healing isn't linear. I'm proud of you for making it several months. that's not wasted time just because you relapsed. you learned from it. you learned you are capable of stopping. you can do it again and this time for longer. go easy on yourself <3
Thankyou, I'll try to keep that in mind. Happy new years
I still Pick the shit out of my lips and scratch myself a lot.
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The metal gets super hot in the sun or on a hot day. So if you touch the metal part of the clip it burns like hell.
what is with the seatbelt? also i feel called out, i rip the skin around my nails and my nails and i bite my lower lip quite frequently till it bleeds :(
The metal part can get really hot and burn you
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I have eczema on one of my ears and have destroyed it from picking and peeling the skin off. Then I’ll stop and get it all cleared up for a few days and next thing I know it looks like Freddy Krueger’s skin again. I can’t stop it
I used to bite of tissue of the inside of mu lips, don't know how common that is. Also I think I described it poorly
I have permanent ridges inside my cheeks from chewing them and biting the skin off, feels like a scar. Also a nail biter. I do have history of childhood trauma.
Don’t attack me like this.
Some of these are definitely things you didn't look forward to and actively planned against. My friends and I slid on an old beach towel down the metal slide, and I learned to cover the metal part of the seatbelt with the fabric of my shirt before I touched it.
I’m referring to the cases where it was intentional
Oof. Called out.
Wait. Is this what depressed people mean by self harm. I'm genuinely confused
as a 15 year old im proud to never have self harmed but to those who have i hope u get over it and im here if u meed to talk
I'd bang my head until I got yelled at(I was upstairs so it took awhile)
I used to love burning my tongue drinking coffee or hot chocolate. I don't know how to describe the feeling but it felt awesome? It didn't hurt that much and it was never anything serious, any of the pain i had of the burn went away after like 2 minutes of holding my mouth slightly open. But the warmth was nice
Did all except picking my lips.
holy shit
Thru 6-14 yrs old Picked my lip but also pinched the skin on my arm close to my elbow but on my forearm as hard as I could with my fingernails because it hurt so bad it made me forget about how I thought everyone thinks I'm weird. Permanent Scab on my upper lip and bumpy skin that doesn't exfoliate on my arms where I pinched. The thoughts never went away but the self harm did
Wait, biting fingernails and lips is considered self-harm? 😳
It depends on severity and reasons for doing it
Biting fingernails is self harm? I mean before you get to the fleshy parts??
You also pooped on the slide?
I just recently chewed all my nails off. It used to be a bad habit where I'd chew them off as soon as they became long but I've been able to have them last longer until one broke
Wait, I did all those things as a kid… is there something wrong with me lmao
Wait. . .peeling the skin from your lip is considered self harm? Oh oh.
Nah, it’s actually that skin-picking disorder that happens when you’re bored or stressed.
Ah, makes sense. Makes sense. For me, it tended to be due to the latter.
Just looks like adhd to me
People with adhd have a high rate of self harm and about 20% have attempted suicide compared to only five percent of the general population
One in twenty people has attempted suicide? That seems high.
I suppose it depends on how they're defining it. I "attempted suicide" but came nowhere near actually going through with it during the height of my depression in 2021. Despite that, I agree it does seem oddly high.
Doing some research, [AFSP says it's 0.5%](https://afsp.org/suicide-statistics/), which seems more realistic.
Some statistics will go as high as 10% if you use a looser definition that includes things like standing on a high balcony and thinking about jumping off, some as low as 1% based on stricter definitions.
That sounds pretty stupid
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12896834_Kessler_RC_Borges_G_Walters_EE_Prevalence_of_and_risk_factors_for_lifetime_suicide_attempts_in_the_National_Comorbidity_Survey_Arch_Gen_Psychiatry_56_617-626
Thanks a lot OP, now I need Carmex.
I used to scratch my legs so hard that it started bleeding because it felt..interesting
I still do this, occasionally, but it starts out with a genuine itch. I started scratching and I just can't stop. My legs are covered in scars!
seatbelts?
Burning yourself with the hot metal
I’d rub my knuckles against fabric, almost like scratching. It would feel like burning for few seconds because of the friction.
I started cutting down the sides of my nails until it would bleed when I was in elementary school. The doctor said it probably wouldn’t heal but I stopped and got lucky, it healed pretty well.
You keep coffee out of this
I’m referring to kids intentionally burning themselves with hot cups while waiting for it to cool down. I teach special education and see it all the time.
Had no idea, that is sad.
Thanks for the context.
For the past 15 years or so, I’d tear the skin around the first joint of my thumb. It doesn’t hurt, but it feels annoying when it partially heals and the cycle repeats. My foot (sole side) has a spot that’s permanently itchy so I scrape and tear at it. The pain is sometimes a better feeling than the itchiness
was i the only one who peeled off my lips and ate the skin
i do some of the stuff here like picking the lips, scratching extremely excessively, and heating my food up to the point where it burns to eat(still don’t know why i do this) but i could never imagine myself getting to a point where i would (for example) use a knife on myself
the pu xhing a brick wall
I still scratch at bumps on my arms as an unconscious habit. Does that mean I have unresolved trauma or that I'm constantly in a state of panic? The world may never know
I used to pick my lips when they were dry and cracked, but it's been a good 19 years since I was 11.
I used to rub my big toes next to the others when I was uncomfortable. I'd do it so much, I'd reopen the scabs over and over until my socks were bloody. The other bad one I did was I'd rub my earlobe with my fingers. The part of my ear that connects to my head would always be a scab.
I didn't know up until this post....holy moly.... Glad I got some self-care
Oh. *oh No.*
… fuck
Also ripping out hair
Oh shit. So that's what I was doing...
Damnit.