Question for others who self-injure

[*Secret*Pixie*]

Hi everybody.I am past frequent vistor to this site but latley i havent been able so i have now decied to come back.Well as me frist question to ask everyone since i have left i am wondering if you as a past self injurer will always consider yourself a self injurer.I mean me persoinally i belive in my eyes i will always be a self injurer even though i havent done it in almost a year.I belive it is something i have come through with a better view on life with and i belive it has made me a stronger person overall....But i know i will always have thoes demons in the back of my head telling me that i am not doing the right thing.and i can live with that.or at least i have been.Well thank you and i would love to hear you opion on this.

[Halo]

Hi SecretPixie and welcome back

First of all I would like to say a huge congratulations is in order to you for not self injuring for almost a year. That is a huge accomplishment which you must be really proud of. I am glad to see that you feel that it has made you a stronger person overall and that you have come through it with a better view on life. I am sure that you are truly an inspiration to a lot of people.

As for the question of whether someone will always consider themselves a self injurer or not, I am not sure if I can answer that with certainty as I have never been free from self injuring and until that would happen I don't know for sure what I would consider myself. Although I hope that when the day comes that I no longer self injure that I consider myself a survivor.

Take care

[Cat Dancer]

I stopped for a long time, a little more than nine years and went back to it and have been struggling for the last few years so I see what you're saying. It might always be a struggle for me. Someone else might be able to stop and never look back.

When I was not doing it those nine years I was struggling with anorexia/bulimia which I still do so that kind of took the place of the self injury.

I think it's important to just try to take one day at a time and if you slip up, go easy on yourself and get up and keep going. Easy to say, hard to do I know.

[braveheart]

I just started again after just about a year. Not 'severe'/'serious', it never has been so, and is more controlled now than it was a year ago, but enough to feel I can cope with overwhelming feelings. But I also have anorexic tendencies, which has always been ongoing, and I understand that that is a form of self harm, and unhealthy control, also.
To answer your question, I wouldn't always see myself as a self injurer, even though I am a supporter on a forum for young self injurers. Rather, I see myself as someone who has been traumatised, and suffers depression and difficulties regulating her feelings because of that.

[Cavi]

Mine goes in cycles...I started when I was 8 years old...stopped for 6 years...Started again and than stopped for 10 years...so on, so on...
It had been 3 years since I had SI'd when I started this last time...Mine starts out minor, than goes major...I have figured out that it gets to the worst point when I feel abandoned...BTW I'll soon be 45......RIMH

[Banned]

I haven't SId in over a year now (14 months) but it's always in the back of my mind as an option, so I would probably say that I will always consider myself an SIer, but it may end up being cyclical. I have no idea what the future will hold.

[wi11ow]

Me too- it's always there regardless of how long since the last time. Like suicide, thinking SI especially when people leave my life or I feel like I'm being rejected in some way, lingers in my thoughts and I'm always just one step away from a blade or flame.