Self-harm

Self-harm (SH) or deliberate self-harm (DSH) includes self-injury (SI) and self-poisoning and is defined as the intentional, direct injuring of body tissue without suicidal intent.

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• Break the bones and the body will heal.
  Break the spirit and the body will die.
  • Anonymous proverb, in Dictionary of Proverbs (2005) by G. Kleiser, p. 31

• For the first time in months, I felt together. Sharp. In hurting myself, I had at last found a way to release the pressure.But it was more than that. I was now different. I felt different. I’d discovered a way to control my feelings. Just because self-mutilation wasn’t deemed an acceptable coping mechanism didn’t mean I was going to stop doing it.
  • Victoria Leatham, Bloodletting: A Memoir of Secrets, Self-Harm, and Survival

• The day I’d first cut myself, a switch in my head had been flicked. Instead of feeling horror, I felt nothing, and although I no longer wanted to hurt myself, my episodes of self-harm still felt normal for me in a way. I’d sometimes forget it still shocked other people.
  • ditto

• Better to inflict pain on myself than to let other people do it.
  • Tracy Thompson, The Beast: A Reckoning with Depression