What are some ways to tell your friends your a self harmer( when they think people do it for attention) ?

you can inform your close friends about your problems, you can mention that you cannot deal with it on your own, and when you try, it gets worse, you begin to hurt yourself and stuff. you can say you want to quit doing so, maybe?

This really depends on how close of a friend this is. If you tell your friend that you selfharm because of your own view of yourself or because it's a way of dealing with anxiety, they are going to take that seriously. You might've heard sometime that your friend has said that they don't like selfharmers because they only do it for attention, but it's a big difference when a friend tells you that they're selfharming themself, than if you've heard some news or rumours of people selfharming. This really makes it easy for a lot of people to claim that selfharmers are attentiongrabbers. Also, when you tell something like this to one single friend it isn't taken as attentionseeking by most people, as it would unfourtunately have been done if someone had shared it over social media or in class infront of the other students.

First of all, you don't have to tell your friends. If you have a desire to do so start by mentioning some of the stereotypes attributed to self harm and explain how your case may be different. Everyone who self-harms has their own reasons why they do it. Explaining your mental health may help them understand your self harm better. Some people self-harm to show emotions. They like to see it for themselves. Others like to feel something for once. Others do it as self punishment. Some do it to alleviate pain. Sometimes it alleviates anxiety. Others may very well want attention and there's nothing wrong with that. A cry for help and attention can be a reason why someone self harms. All in all, we need to figure out why we self-harm first in order to explain it to others adequately.