Am I pretending if I say it's not Self-Injury?

[vita_fragilis]

I self-injure. I cut. Not very often. Not any more. Hardly ever. I used to do it all the time but now only maybe every 2 or 3 months. I've taken a few overdoses too in the past. Last major one was a year ago. No suicidal thoughts since then. Been doing really well and trying so hard to quit all the self-injury stuff. I made a decision to put it behind me and thought I was doing so well.

Anyway, on Wednesday, I took <staff edit> promethazine (for anxiety) in a misguided attempt to control hallucinations that I get as a result of childhood sexual abuse. That was a (fairly minor) overdose that caused some problems that landed me in hospital today.

I tell myself it's not really self-injury because I never intended to do myself any harm. I didn't do it to hurt myself. I did it to cope. I did it to get rid of symptoms, not to cause damage. But is it still self-injury? I suppose it is. I think maybe I'm in denial? What do you think?

 

[RuthD]

Taking an overdose is not a good way to cope as you probably know and it is self destructive. I have done it many times but not any more because I felt that God kept me alive for a reason after I nearly died. I am praying for you.

 

[Luna1991]

I've basically stopped labelling certain acts as 'self-injury' & tend to just use the term 'self-destructive'. I've found this more helpful. That way I can more clearly see when I'm heading towards an episode, or have had one. If I can recognise 'self-destructive' thoughts, such as urges to cut, bruise, burn, binge eat, starve myself, pull my hair out, drink, take drugs, and so forth, I can see it as a warning sign that something is going on psychologically/emotionally that I need to attend to. Self-injury is just one type of self-destructiveness - and often if we are prone to self-injury, we will act self-destructively in other ways as well, such as the ways I just mentioned. They're all ultimately damaging behaviours that we do to try and calm, control, release, etc. and therefore all worth paying attention to. Hope that makes sense!

 

[Celticroots]

It doesn't matter how you do it, how often you do it. Any action that is done on purpose to deal with emotional pain is self-injury.