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

No, if you have ever cut yourself then you have self harmed and therefore are a self harmer. I cut for years on and off and I never would say that I was a self harmer but I guess I was. You can’t be ‘less of a self harmer’ Because of the duration, if you felt the urge to cut and pursued that urge you have the same experience as someone who has been doing it for years. If you felt during those months that you needed to cut to release your pain then it is valid and no one can tell you it isn’t. It is not a competition as to who cuts the deepest or who’s been doing it the longest. It is always serious not matter how ‘bad’ or how ‘long’ it’s been going on for

no! I am sorry that you had to see or go through something unfortunate that made you cut yourself, but cutting is cutting and if you did it repeatedly for months then that too is self-harm, time does not matter consistency does, if you are still self-harming please seek help you don't deserve those cuts or cutting, nobody does, you can contact me or any of the wonderful listeners here , but if you did stop Well Done! I am proud of you, but please seek help if you didn't. self-harm can turn into a dangerous addiction, and taking even small initiatives to stop it is great because after all small steps are better than nothing.It will all be fine don't worry. And to sum up the thing, no you are not any less of a self-harmer than others so if you're thinking that, then don't please, you are worth your life and you are no less than them to think that you're safe. Hope this answer helped :). Have a good day and a good life.

No it does not. Because from time to time, you're willing to hurt yourself and you do not know the intensity of where that is coming from, so no, it does not make you any less of a self-harmer. Just know that it's temporary pain and it doesn't make the problem just go away. There are better ways to deal with problems than to self-harm. Do not get to a point where self-harming becomes a thing, even occasionally because that means you still are facing that problem and its still going to be there, because self-harm doesn't send it anywhere.

Self-harming is not limited to just cutting, there are certain behaviors that people do during their bad times that could also indicate self harm. Behaviors like not caring if someone kidnaps you if you walk alone at night, or not eating right because you're too sad. It could also be depriving your body of certain necessities. However, cutting for a few months and stopping does not mean you are no longer a self-harmer. It could return again. Try to find an alternative, or come talk to someone here or someone you love. Meditation can help to replace self-harm for some people. Self care is extremely important, prioritize yourself, it is not always selfish sometimes it is necessary.

No, it still makes me a self-harmer. Regardless of how much someone self-harms, it is still self harm. The item used doesn’t change that either. If its used to self-harm, its harmful. Cutting less and less can lead to stopping self-harm though. And using a weapon to cut, no matter how small or sharp, still makes you someone who should seek help ❤️ you are not less important. Everyone matters. With motivation, courage, and support, you will overcome these troubling times. Don’t be afraid to reach out to anyone, especially on 7 cups. We will listen to what you have to say.

Self-harm comes in various forms and methods. Every individual who has self-harmed would experience it differently. Many individuals will go through waves, and self-harming may reflect what is happening in their life. For example, an individual may go through a period of frequent self-harm because of issues at home but may cease or stop because maybe these things became better. But this however, does not mean they are any less of a self-harmer. Stigma unfortunately sets an image of determining whether someone is a severe self-harmer, etc. However, not one person who self-harms is any more severe than another as all individuals are classified the same as each individual will self-harm differently.

No. It makes you extremely strong to have been able to learn to control that urge. Once you adopt self harm as a coping strategy, you will forever have a relationship with self harm. For you that relationship is it is something you used to do, but that does not make your experience any less valid, or the urges you may feel any less important.

The length of the period during which you harmed yourself does not define whether your experience with self-harm is valid or not. Your experience is valid. I would however encourage you to see yourself as a person first and not see self-harming as part of your identity. You don't have to think of yourself as a self-harmer. You can think of yourself as a person who had a problem with self-harm for a time and if it's over you can be grateful for that without thinking your experience was not valid. It counts. But it doesn't have to define you. And if it happens again, then it will be valid again, even if it happens just once. Then you will be a person who had another short time of struggling with self-harm. How long it continued or how bad the wounds were do not make it any less valid. You don't have to measure up to some kind of standard.

Absolutely not. There are no requirements or guidelines for our struggles, and comparing ourselves to others won't help us progress. Who is to say what makes one person's struggle more "real" than another's? The labels that we use to define ourselves and what we have gone through are personal and independent of anyone else's labels. Whether you hurt yourself once or a hundred times, your experiences and pain is still valid. What you have gone through can't be quantified; you were hurting, you were in a dark place, and the number of times that manifested physically does not affect how much pain you felt.

Yes and no. Its something I have struggled with for years and have messed up my body. I think that if you have the self control to stop that you are less of a self harmer because you have the control to stop, if that makes sense. But also no, because its also something you have dealt with, but there are a lot of factors. I think a true self harmer craves self harm whenever something bad happens because we are addicted. We want it even when everything is okay. We don't know how to stop on our own.