First of all, people do it for a number of reasons. Some like to see the blood, just knowing they can inflict pain upon themselves, it's a control thing. Which leads us to cause number too ... the need to be in control. We can't control a lot of things in our lives, and causing pain to your body IS something you can control. For me, it was a form of release. I had to cut myself to make myself feel better. Sounds ironic doesn't it? By doing that, I could go to school every morning and pretend that things were fine. I chose a part on my body that no one would ever have to see if i didn't want them to.

My best friend (at the time) also threatened to tell on me. She saw the cuts on my arm one day in the washroom (at school) and said that if she ever saw any new cuts, she would go to the guidance dept about it. She never did. I almost wish she would've. Then i wouldn't have to ask for the help myself ... B/w me going through some massive personality changes and her just changing w/ age i guess, we grew apart. We still talk and whatever, but we're two very different people now ... we don't have anything in common.

I think you're an excellent friend The best way you can help, is to get him/her help. Do not hide the fact that you intend on telling someone about their problem ... it will cause them to mistrust you. Be honest and tell them your intentions right from the beginning. While your friend may hate your guts at the time, when they're "on the other side" they'll thank you for being there for them. That's the one thing that i always respected about my social worker ... She told me that if she ever found out i was still hurting myself/was a danger to my own health, she would have to tell my mom. BUT, she would tell me what was going to happen and give me a certain amount of time to tell her on my own and make sure mom contact the school (social work through the school) or she would have to do the work herself. It pays to be honest ...

Edited: we don't allow users to post their email addresses here, for safety reasons. Please feel free to contribute to any of the discussions here on SI, cutting, etc.

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if p then q (statement)
if p then not q (negation)
if q then p (converse)
if not p then not q (inverse)
if not q then not p (contrapositive)