What does the person experience when they practice “cutting” that makes it so addictive?

• It helps them express their emotional pain because they can’t seem to find the right words or have an inability to express their feelings through words.
• It is a means to escaping numbness. Many cutters say that they do it in order to feel something, to know that they are still alive because they sometimes feel like walking “zombies,” breathing, but with no feelings.
• They find it helpful to ease tension.
• Provides momentary escape from emptiness, depression, and feelings of unreality.
• It helps them escape into their own world and get their mind off of the reality that is causing extreme irritability or emotional agony.
• Feelings of relief: When intense feelings build, self-injurers are overwhelmed and are unable to cope. By causing pain, they reduce the emotional and physiological arousal they are experiencing to a more bearable level.
• Cutting often provides a feeling of euphoria (feeling very happy).
• If they see themselves as a “bad” person, then they may “cut” to confirm the way they feel inside or confirm the negative statements others have made about them. They often continue to relive abusive patterns. For example, if they were abused as children and were always told that they were “bad,” they may grow up believing it and now act out through cutting to punish themselves whenever they do something “bad.”
• They find release and relief from their suppressed anger and rage. Many self-injurers have enormous amounts of rage held within. Afraid of expressing it outwardly, they injure themselves in order to vent those feelings.
• They are able to obtain or maintain influence over the behavior of others.
• It makes them feel like they have control over their body where nobody else has any say.
• Because of insecurity or low self-esteem, the individual may become dependent on the behavior that made them feel “different” or “unique” from everyone else.
• It helps them cope with feelings of alienation or rejection.

STEPS FOR OVERCOMING

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