latly i’ve been readign some things on SI but what caught my eye was when a few sites said it can be an addiction. this site states it is not an addiction but i’ve seen on site this site recomends that they believe it is. i am just wondering. i mean it seems logical both ways. if we learn to except the reason we are injuring than we can stop havign urges. but on the other hand some times injuring is more than relieving stress. i’ve had time where i just couldn’t stand not seeing the injuries. i also know other people who have said this as well. i mean u can be addicted for more then chemicals, gambling, sex, ect. why not this? and since people can gamble without being addicted while others are addicted why can’t this be the same? if injuring is so hard to stop, and i don’t need to hear that from someone else i know, than can it be an addiction or not. i honestly don’t know and soem of my friends ( who injure) are fighting with my friends who dont injure about this. they say it cant be an addict and if they are coiming up with excuses for why they won’t stop injuring than they can’t help them. i really would like to hear other opinions. i believe there is hope but i need to know my facts. thank you for those who coment with their opinions it means a lot.
I agree that it can be seen both as addicting and not addicting. It is hard to stop and when you injure, it releases endorphins that make you feel good. Then every time after that you try to feel the same thing if not more of it which is very much like chasing the high in drug addiction. I think the reason they say it is not an addiction on this website is because that can be detrimental to getting better. It’s a cop out; another excuse. “Oh I can’t stop injuring because I am addicted and I have no control.” We can control it. When we give into urges it’s not because there was no way to stop ourselves, we just didn’t want it enough. Also, there are no physical withdrawl symptoms i’m aware of (ex: extreme nausea, shaking, intense pain, etc…). So basically I think I can see how people might say it’s an addictive behavior, but it’
s not healthy to think of it like that if you really want to stop. It’s more of a lack of healthy coping skills than an addiciton.
I firmly believe it is an addiction, but not everyone who does it becomes addicted. It is just like drinking or smoking, even though you are addicted you CAN stop, but it is very difficult. Ask someone who has stopped drinking or smoking if it was easy. Is it a chemical addiction? No. In the same respect, not everyone who drinks is an alcoholic. Not everyone who smokes is addicted to them. Not everyone who injures is addicted to it. I feel it is actually very helpful realizing that it is an addiction. In my case it has helped me to deal with it a lot. You treat addictions differently than impulses. In fact, that is how I usually explain it to non-injurers. It is an addiction, just like someone who drinks or smokes. They are all detrimental to a person’s health, and they are all incredibly hard to stop doing. I have a friend who smokes like a freight train and has told me multiple times, “If you really don’t want to injure anymore, just don’t, its that easy.” I finally told her one day, “I tell you what, you quit smoking right now, never pick up another cigarette, and I will never hurt myself again, we’ll quit together.” That’s when I got the “but mine’s an addiction, I can’t just stop like that.” After that she finally began to realize how difficult it really was. So, in short, my answer is “Yes, it is addicting, but like alcohol and other things, it is not addicting for everyone.”
I view self-injury as a coping mechanism and we can become ADDICTED to the coping mechanism. Yes, there are some biological things going on with the chemicals… but there can also be a behavioral addiction to the actions. Most people self-injure as a way to cope with something, good or bad, not just for the sake of self-injuring.