When I was 8 my parents divorced. My parents would struggle with who would keep me. I cried all the time. When I was 11 I was molested by my girlfriend's father. I continued to go over there and spend the night, even tho I had bad gut feelings. Again I was molested over and over at another friends house when I was 15. I still stayed over there until I was 17. I had a breakdown when I was 32. Started cutting severely. I cut burned and beat myself black and blue often. As I reflect on this: I would cut to "live" meaning; hurt myself bad enough to survive the day. I felt if I could "punish" myself enough I could live another day. I learned that I felt responsible for all that happen to me. I had to learn to put the responsibility where it belonged. With my parents and the molesters. It took much counseling, and work but I finally quit harming myself. Now as a 57 yr old woman I still struggle with suicidal feelings from time to time. But the urge to hurt myself finally stopped.

when I was younger I used to be a cutter. Its taking everything I got to not do it now. My daughter is also a cutter and I don't want her to see that even though she is very happy right now.

It can be a precursor... As someone who has self-harmed in the past, please try to avoid it. If you're feeling like doing it, get a pen and draw on yourself... it's not permanent and not scarring... and you can doodle away on yourself and get your feelings out in that way. Please don't hurt yourself. I know the urge can be hard, but at the end of the day, it accomplishes nothing.

@A MyDepressionTeam Member I'm guessing you didn't understand what tweezers are, tweezers can have a sharp edge to them, so to suggest it's not a form of self harm, is a little misleading, anything that is harmful, even if not life threatening or severe is still considered self harm, if it is intentionally done in a manner to inflict harm upon yourself, like deliberately teasing a cat in order to make it scratch you nastily, or deliberately dragging a part of your body through a thorny plant, or through a box of nails, anything sharp really, even if it is barely able to draw blood, it's the reasoning and thought process behind the action that constitutes self harm, not the severity, I've been a self harmer since I was 11 years old, and I have used many different items to self harm, that would be hard for most people to believe, including heavyweight paper, I would suggest even with this form of self harm, although not severe, you write a diary, make a note of the urge, and the implement, in this case tweezers, and that you talk to your doctor about this, we're here too if you want to talk about it, one of my suggestions is write yourself a list of distractions that might help if you feel an urge to hurt yourself again, and even if you have no intention of harming yourself badly, to always keep a first aid box with sterile dressings, creams and anything else you might need, as I know from personal experience that this form of self harm can unintentionally lead to more severe self harm, that you may not intend to be so severe, better safe than sorry, and never be ashamed to seek medical treatment if you need it, I hope this helps Rocksta18 :) x

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A MyDepre...

It may not seem like a big deal, but yes, that is self harm, and yes, that is a slippery slope to more severe methods. When I started self harming, I just dragged needles across my skin, barely breaking it, but eventually I ended up cutting deeply and frequently with razor blades. Please do yourself a favor and find alternatives to this before it gets too serious and becomes addicting.