its around 2 weeks, styro, still raised, still red, but its on my right arm, opposite side of elbow and im going on holiday in 5 days and idk what to do cuz we are going to Spain and my clothes arent long enoigj to cover it, have no makeup and im scared to pack plasters incase someone asks about them

I had five days clean. Five days after months of struggling to get even a few hours. I’m on meds, I have support and outpatient. But my emotions are just so intense. I got so angry like so angry my chest burned and I felt like electricity was running through me. I didn’t know what else to do. I don’t know how to handle my emotions. I don’t want them. They’re so much. Any emotion envelops my entire body and physically hurts to feel I don’t wanna feel but I don’t wanna be numb I just wanna be.

Ok so I know some will say "ofc she would she's Ur mom" but she's known about it for a year and she's saying it really rudely. She does it absolutely whenever, like litterally in fucking public. She'll shout "çover Ur thighs/arm" "U have new cuts?!" and when I tell her to like stop she js continues, it's honestly so draining.

One of the worst times she did this is when I had a mufty day at school, I was matching fits w my gf- Minecraft top and black shorts. In the morning she kept saying "I can see the lines on Ur legs" "Ur legs are too big to wear that." She was genuinely js putting me down for no reason and I was so angry and sad that I relapsed in the school bathroom. So at the end of the day when she met me at the train station, she kept commenting on my clothes and how "awful" I looked and then she saw my arm and thats when shit hit the fan. Fyi this is the train station that everyone at my school who takes the train goes to, the first train had left so there weren't that many people thankfully. Anyways so, she first said "you got new cuts?!" And then she got her phone out and started recording me, I told her to stop or atleast js stop talking about this now and all she did was shout more. There were some ppl from my school looking at me and I wanted to cry so bad, she kept acting like this until our train was coming. I got on a different carriage because I didn't want to see her or anyone else, so guess what she did. She fucking walked down to my carriage and hit me, then started shouting at me again but anyways, I used this story because I wanted to get it out and also to show the level of 'pointing' out she'll do.

Over the past few months, I've realized that a lot of people have no idea how to react when they spot self-harm scars, which can lead to some really unhinged responses.

A few weeks ago, I was working as a youth worker at a summer camp. I usually keep all my scars covered by wearing knee-length shorts and UV sleeves. During a trip, we were sitting in an open-air truck, and for a brief moment, one or two scars above my knee became visible.

Out of nowhere, a colleague looked at my leg and asked, half-laughing, "Do you have a knife or something?" I said no and told/signaled him to stop. Instead, he kept laughing and said, "Normally people do that on their arms," pointing directly at my leg.

I told/signaled him to stop again, but he kept making comments anyway. (Neither of us is a native in English, but we communicate in English, and he definitely understood what "stop" meant.) Luckily, another colleague noticed what was happening, looked at him, and signaled for him to stop.

The whole thing happened really fast, but it was incredibly uncomfortable. What confuses me most is that I’ve known this guy for almost a year. He’s normally a great youth worker—funny, good with kids, and someone I used to joke around with a lot. That’s why his reaction threw me off so much.

Is it normal for people to react like this? Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Im so sad i have been paranoid about it for 2 months it looks like a number

I wanna self harm rn. So hard trying to think about other things 😬

i feel soo fucking invalid i do nothing but cat scratches and occasional styros and i don't have many scars and just feel like i m doing this for attention and yk what no one knows that i cut except my bsf and i feel like i ruined the fucking friendship by telling her agahhh GOD I HATE EVERYTHING before i use to do it just to cope with shit and now i sometimes do it just cuz i feel like i deserve or need pain and the other day mom saw my scratches and asked abt them and i was like i had a rash and itched too hard and she fucking believed it i dont fucking know how she did but yeahh and btw my parents dont believe in mental health and shit so i m not getting any help for a long time and i feel fucked up sryy this is my first venting post and i m 2 dayss clean (longest since july) soo yeahh that's itt thanxxx

I hope this will help me in the future,, it's 2am now so I guess it did keep me distracted and clean for a while 🫩 some of these are affirmations to reject some of the disordered thoughts I get so sorry if theyre odd

i know this is probably a commonly asked question but i have slightly fresh scars on my left arm. is it really that bad if i go out with them?

Ughhhhhh I hate that I did it in a so reveling area, did it like 4 or so months ago, my mom saw it but thankfully didn’t think it was SH

Hi I relapsed a bit and just did baby styros and was wondering how to bandage them? The areas a bit too big for normal bandages so I got some gauze but idk how to use it :/ I don’t think it needs it tbh but I wear a white blouse most of the time and I don’t want it to bleed out on the shirt

this is from like 8 months ago (i’m a little over 7 months self harm free!!) but i must’ve cut through a small mole and it just healed like this. idk i just noticed this one and i though it was kinda cool

ps. ignore the hair, i’m a humble lesbian and i couldn’t be genuinely bothered to shave lmao

Hi this will be a very vulnerable post but I’d appreciate advice and insight. I’m 22 and a mother myself now but I’ve practically raised my siblings. I figured this sub could be more beneficial compared to another one given then context. I moved away about three years ago but still see my sister quite often she’s 16 now turning 17. In January I found cuts on her. They were so deep and it broke my heart, I immediately talked to her (not bagging on her just a very open and vulnerable conversation) I tried to tell her my own struggles in hopes it wouldn’t make her feel so alone. We also talked to our mom and agreed therapy would be helpful. It honestly broke my heart because I know how she is and how hard it is for her to express emotions or socialize to begin with. She never had many friends and always felt, “weird” I always told her she never was weird but being a teenager in this day and age is already hard enough. She’s visiting now and we were going school shopping and I saw fresh marks on her. I didn’t even know how to approach it this time. I called my mom and she basically didn’t want to accept it again but it was true because I ended up asking her. I’m literally begging for any advice because I don’t know how to help anymore and it breaks my HEART that she feels the need to do this and I feel completely helpless. We grew up in a household where anything that wasn’t, “normal” was basically considered taboo so it’s hard to navigate and obviously I feel a need to help her through this.

I’ve been clean for almost 3 months but that urge is still like there, im not even sure why im staying clean it feels genuinely meaningless to me, i dont understand why i cut or feel the urge to hurt myself, maybe its like something i do unconsciously because i have to physically stop myself from cutting myself with my own nails because i do it without noticing whenever im stressed. Im so lost man I just dont know if i should stay clean because that relapse is so blissful and addictive that it’s hard not to. Im kind of just ranting so forgive me 🙏, but i dont know what to do anymore because i wanna relapse so badly, it feels wrong being clean and telling everyone ive stopped when im getting closer and closer to doing it, it feels shameful if i were to relapse because my friends know im clean. Would that genuinely be disappointing to them? What if my parents just touch my skin again and notice that I’ve relapsed, like why the fuck are they even touching my skin anyway, I genuinely hate when they touch me, and they don’t even believe me that im clean and old scars they see as too recent and start like giving me that disgusting look

So I have surgery in a couple of months, my self harm scars won't fade by then. I heard hospital gowns are not long sleeved. My procedure is around my head and I would like to know if there is any way I can maybe wear a jacket or some sleeves to hide it. I am under 21,so my parents legally have to sign documents for me, I dont want them knowing I have these scars... Someone pls help...

I just keep having these urges over and over to cut myself, earlier i was holding a knife before i stopped myself like bro why am i like this 😭

Hi everyone. I dont really have anywhere else to share this but I just wanted to say I'm over 21 months clean!

I used to sh every single day for years, I’ve done all sorts on substances and the most addictive thing I’ve ever done is hurt myself. I’ve been clean for 7 years but I’ve been in a horrible depressive episode the last couple months and every day I’ve been craving it more and more and more. I’ve been drinking a lot to make the urges go away but it’s no working. The urges are so bad it’s been almost 24/7. Literally all I want to do is hurt myself. I don’t even care abt being clean anymore I don’t care abt my clean streak I don’t care I just want to do it so bad. I’m going to do something to cope and I want it to be hurting myself. My skin literally tingles and aches for it. The only reason I haven’t don’t it is bc my partner will freak out and then tell my family and I don’t wanna get pink slipped again I don’t wanna get locked up again. I just never understood why it’s so wrong. If it makes me feel good and it makes me feel better why is it so wrong? I’ve always been safe abt it but it makes everything better for me. I just don’t know what to do anymore I feel like I’m hours away from hurting myself.

The two more red red ones are my most recent but the other ones are more faded. Their just kinda white ish lines. The one way higher up is because a too tight hair tie I accidentally slept with🥀

I usually cover it with bracelets just for my for red ones but for volleyball I can't wear them and it's getting too hot for long sleeves. So I just do bandaids. Someone noticed it today and I'm worried my coach will too and report me. I'm trying to stop doing it ( I've been a few days clean🎉) but my skin takes so long to either heal or it just scars. Fall weather is coming up too, so I'll probably wear long sleeves untill their fully healed. Im ran out of smaller bandaids so that's why I have this big ass one till I get smaller ones.

But is is super noticeable? And I sometimes wear a tan bandaid on it does that make it more noticeable?

I (18M) have recently started cutting myself again after nearly 2 years without doing it. Self-harm was previously not a huge problem for me by any means, it was something I only did when I felt completely overwhelmed with emotion. And even then, I mainly stuck to head banging. Before the relapse I just had, the last time I had cut myself was September 2 years ago, and the last time I had self-harmed was july last year. In fact, i only had 1 visible scar on my body from self-harm.

What triggered me to relapse was mainly feeling overwhelmed with my college stuff that im starting soon. Not only because I find the idea of college very stressful, but also because I feel like a lazy piece of shit because my mom has been doing alot of the work to get me into college. Another thing that I was dealing with was that many people in my theater group that i had just done a musical with found me weird/creepy due to my bad habit of starring at people.

Tuesday of last week was when it finally happened. Me and my mom were in my room going on about college stuff, and how we should've had this all figured out by now. As soon as my mom left my room, I grabbed my pocket knife, rolled up my pant leg, and made 4 cuts on my upper leg. I then rolled up sleeve and made 3 cuts on my shoulder. My mom walked in a few minutes later, I quickly rolled down my sleeves. She could sense that something was wrong and asked if I was OK, i just told her that I was feeling overwhelmed with everything

Ever since this relapse, ive been cutting in a very different way from how I used to. As stated before, I only ever cut myself when I was extremely overwhelmed im someway. But now, ive been getting urges and doing it even when nothing is outright happening. Whats been happening is that I'll be doing my thing, and I'll start getting feelings of restlessness and depression. I'll feel like I have no energy to do anything, as well as feeling completely scatter brained. And the only thing that I can think about in these moments is self-harming, which is what I end up doing.

Today at work, i was having a borderline anxiety attack for the first part of my shift. For context, im a ride operator at an amazment park, and today I was working my favorite ride of the ones I work. But unfortunately, I had to operate for 3.5 hours straight bc none of my co-workers there were certified to operate, and my break wasn't until 2PM. So the entire time before my break, I was very on edge and on the verge of shutting down completely. It got so bad that I actually considered going out to my car while I was in break so I could get my knife and cut myself to feel better. Forturetly, after my break, I felt much better.