Mental Health Carer Forum

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@Paperdaisy wrote:

Please note: The purpose of this discussion is to talk about ways of coping with distress. I encourage you to review the community guidelines  and please be mindful when talking about self-harm. Thank you 💝

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I hope this is not too far off-topic. Apologies if it is. 😬

But has anyone ever had a once-off incident where they suddenly just lose control and just start self-harming, with no previous or future history of self-harm?

When we talk about self harm, I get the impression that it's generally meant as a sort of habitual behavior, like smoking. You don't tend to think of self harmers as people who suddenly do it once and then never again.

I'm not a habitual self harmer - not even in the occasional sense of "I might do it once every two or three years". But I had this incident once where I started doing it, with no previous history, and I've never done it again.

Also, I get the impression that, when most people talk about self harm, there's the implication of some level of deliberateness in the deed. Like they are in control of their bodies while they do it. But that wasn't my experiance at all. In my case, it was like my body was just running away without me, and I couldn't stop it, so I just had to sit there and take it.

But I guess the weird thing about it was that I wasn't particularly interested in stopping it, either. So it's not like I was fighting myself, or anything. I think I'd just given up at that point.

Is that typical for self harm incidents?