This Is A Rant.

Rant #10: Self Harm and the Way People React to it.

So this is something that makes me really angry sometimes, and I just need to talk about this and get it over with so I can get this off of my chest.

Self-harm. What is it? It's exactly what it says, harming one's self. It's not only cutting, it can be carving, burning, punching, anything that you can do to yourself that'll cause pain and is intention, excluding tattoos and piercings, thing like that.

I have two big problems with self-harm: 1.) why people do it, and 2.) how people react to those whom self-harm.

I'm gonna start with number one: why?

If someone is self-harming, it's usually one of two things, an actual reason or they're doing it for attention. The people whom actually have a reason usually do it to escape emotional pain; sometimes to get out their anger about home life, school life, social life, etc.; sometimes the little tingle you get from the blade calms them or whatever it is that they're doing to themselves that falls under the category of self-harm. (All of these 'usually' statements are used from personal experience and people I know. I'm not saying that these reasons are why people do it, but they are the reason the people I know do it. When I say most people I'm talking about the people I know that do it.) Then, you have the attention whores, the ones that probably just dig their nail into their skin and make a mark, then proceed to show everyone so people feel sorry about their "terrible" life.

Okay, people who often self-harm do it as a silent counseling, as in they don't want to talk about their problems, so why does everyone think that people who self-harm and have an actual problem are attention whores? I'll tell you why. People are ignorant. They don't know any better. They've never been taught any better. This brings me to number two: how people react to those whom self-harm.

People stereotype anyone that self-harms as being an attention whore, when in reality, that's not the case. The ones that have a problem aren't doing it for attention, if they were, then why do they hide them? Why do they cut in discreet places? Or if it's not discreet, why do they often wear long sleeve shirts and jackets? I'll tell you why, they're not doing it for attention.

And another thing, I saw something today that made me nearly want to throw up. Franccesca De Struct posted a picture of her scars and had this pretty inspiring thing to say with the picture, but something she said made me so angry I couldn't finish reading it, She said that "the girls that have those little red cuts and get glorified for it make her sick'. Not her exact words, but that's the jest of it. Okay, let's talk about the girls who have cuts like that that don't get glorified. Who in the fuck are you to say that those little cuts make you sick? That's basically saying, 'oh, your cuts aren't deep enough, you're not truly self-harming'. That's like telling someone they're not a true fan of their favorite band because they only own one record. So what if they're just little cuts that don’t bleed or scar? Just because they're not deep, huge ones like yours means they don't have a problem? No, that makes me sick. No matter how someone's cuts are, they still self-harm and that's still a problem.

I'm basing most of this off of personal experience because I used to self-harm. No, I don't want your sympathy or empathy, I just thought it would be good for people to know that I'm basing this off of myself and not just coming in as a biased third person.

But the bottom line is people need to stop stereotyping people that self-harm as attention whores, people need to stop trying to decide what's "acceptable" for cuts, and self-harm just needs to stop. Period.

-KaleighInWhite<3

P.S. If you're having a hard time with self-harm and you need someone to talk to, you are always welcome to talk to me. You can message me; you can add me on facebook, whatever. I'm here to help, and I will try to be as unbiased as possible and give strictly my advice with each story. I will have different advice depending on the story, because no one is the same, no one should be treated the same as anyone else.