First off, I've never cut myself, and this thread is sort of getting out of hand.
I have experienced, first hand, a friend who went through the terrible act of self-mutilation. It is a bad thing, which she has stopped, but it was very scary for me to watch her do this to herself, and I talked to her. She seemed very comfortable with talking to me about it. I had no idea what she was going through. Someone she really liked was really mean to her, people made fun of her, and her friends were turning on her back. For a while, I thought she was doing this for attention and to get her friends back, but after talking to her, I realized that people do not do this for attention. She told me that she experiences so much pain. No, not physical, emotional. She told me it was pain I could not imagine. She had been going through a lot, too much for the time she had had to put up with it. What would happen, is she would experience so much pain, and it hurt her so much emotionally, that she would have to cut herself to distract herself from the pain. "It hurt a lot" she said, and after the pain wore away, she would feel the emotional pain, and would have to cut herself harder. She became addicted, like one would to drugs, porn, alcohol, tobacco, or gambling (like Cece said). It was hard for me to watch her do this, and it pains me to read people say something as insensitive and immature for her age to say "Go get a hobby". Depresssion is an awful thing, but for those who have it, all we can do it is help them. Depression is a psychological problem, and is something that people have no control. And no, they can't just ignore what people say, it's beyond that. Some people may be able to, but not everyone is the same, and we have to respect that and respect anyone who cuts themselves too, because it is beyond their help.
I am leaving with that.
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