Does cutting for only a few months and stopping make me any less of a self-harmer?

No. You are a self harmer, you have harmed yourself on purpose. Once or a thousand times. yet, you do not need to identify yourself as that. it's in your past.

Something that stands out in this question for me is that it's about being *a self-harmer* (as opposed to being about the action of self-harming). What does it mean to you to 'be a self-harmer'? How do you feel about the idea of 'being a self-harmer'? Is it something you want to be seen as or want not to be seen as? It may or may not be something you value - If it is, I'd try to think about other ways you could create an identity for yourself and express yourself. I used to self harm, and I have scars all over my left arm. I'm not ashamed or proud of these scars, but them being there does have a potential impact for the rest of my life. I cover them sometimes because I don't want to wear this part of my past on my sleeve when meeting new people; I am happy to open up about these things, but I don't want it to be the first thing people see of me as I don't want to talk about it all the time and I don't want people to misunderstand them. The reality is that this can be a real pain sometimes. For example, on a hot day when I want to wear short sleeves. Fortunately, since I have stopped they are becoming less visible over time and have got to a stage where most people do not notice them unless they look carefully. I hope this has been helpful in some way, and I wish you luck with the rest of your journey!

That's amazing that you stopped! You used to self-harm and now you do not. We are not the identity of our pasts, we are the identity of who we are now and of who we want to be.

Self harm is self harm but the fact that you were able to stop shows that you have grown and taken steps in the right direction.

There‘s no such thing as “more” of a self-harmer or “less” of a self harmer. Self harming is a delicate issue that needs to be handled carefully. And, i hope that you did stop self-harming. If Yes, then congratulations and if No, Keep fighting. We are all there for you.

I personally don't really like to call someone a "self-harmer". This is like you would blame him for this but most people do it out of deep despertation and because they don't know how to else help themselves. Though in my opinion you are only a self-harmer - if you really want to call it like that- as long as you actually do harm yourself. I did cut myself for serveral years but now for another few years I didn't do it anymore and I overcame it. And I don't feel like I will be a self-harmer for the rest of my life just because of the scars. I am rather proud that I managed to overcome this and that it is a thing of the past now.

You are a self-harmer, but with enough strength to stop doing it. I congratulate any one of you for stopping.

Not at all. It's very easy as someone who cuts to compare yourself to others: "oh I've just scratched myself a few times, that person has got deepwe or bigger scars than me". It can make you feel like a fraud. But its important to remember, self-harm is self-harm. And everyone is completely different. There are no comparisons. Even if you have only hurt yourself once or only thought about it, the negative thoughts are still there and getting advice and support is just as important.

I don't really think there is an agenda or specific time interval that accompanies being a self-harmer. There's not really way to be "more" of a self-harmer. If you self-harm, you self-harm, that's that, you know? And stopping is good, it's a good thing to stop, but it doesn't discount anything or invalidate what you were going through before you stopped. I think that thinking there is a certain way you have to be to be a self-harmer is dangerous because it can make people want to be more of one, or a "better" one, when it reality it's not something you want to do more of, it's something that you want to stop, which can take time, and when people feel like they weren't a good enough self-harmer, it makes stopping harder.

Physically and biologically speaking - yes, but there may be other ways of self-harming such as undervaluing your self-worth, working to others advice or opinions which deep down inside you don't feel is right (you may be acting against your own morals or values which may hurt emotionally)