When I'm angry, why do I always feel the need to hurt myself?

Perhaps because you feel the need to purge yourself of the emotion, so hurting yourself is a way of getting rid of that emotion and controlling it. Or perhaps because you are angry at yourself and feel you deserve to be punished.

you feel the need to have an outlet for your anger; you need to cope with what you're feeling. the need to hurt yourself stems from the desire to make your angry feelings go away and to be able to focus on something else. however, never ever hurt yourself - use a safe coping strategy that will not hurt anyone.

Sometimes we can view self harm as an outlet to let out our frustration and, in some cases, punish ourselves for the anger/what caused the anger.

Anger is an emotion that demands to be felt sadly. It takes quite awhile to understand this concept and realize that regardless to how much you put off releasing your anger- it'll build up. Take your time, take some deep breaths and find a safe outlet for your emotions c:

Hurting yourself is viewed as a way to take everything out on yourself instead of others. It can be a way to try and hurt the demons that are inside of you. It is never the way to relieve anger and seeking professional help is always a smart idea if it comes to that point.

Usually when we are angry we just want it to stop. Sometimes we can't relieve our anger by expressing it to the person we are angry at, or change the situation we are angry about, so we just have to endure it, and that can be very hard to sit with. We may direct our anger towards ourselves and feel the need to "punish" ourselves, or we may seek the relief that comes from the endorphin rush that often happens after self harm. Self harm can become a habit since it can give relief, so it can become a self-reinforcing cycle that is hard to break. Identifying coping methods to deal with anger and using replacement behaviors instead of self harming can help break the cycle. You can find more information about self harming in the self help topics section of 7 cups.

It could be for a sense of relief. Or to perhaps punish yourself for whatever has made you angry enough to hurt yourself. It could also be so that you take your anger out on yourself and not others. It might be a good idea to go see a counsellor to get a perspective on the issue, providing you feel comfortable with the idea of course.

It looks like you blame and try to punish yourself. Everything is not your fault and hurting yourself will not make anything better.

Anger is expressed outward. You are angry at someone or something causing you pain or frustration. When your personality is repressed, anger becomes directed inward, both as a punishment and as a stop-gap release measure. The punishment is supposed to, like a flame, remind you that you are doing something you aren't supposed to. However, because you are expressing some form of anger, even incorrectly, you still get a moment of release from it. However, because of that lack of full release, it creates more tension and anger, which spirals wildly inside the person. Its why hurting yourself doesn't do anything but provide momentary release. When you incorrectly apply anger, it creates more of it, like drilling a hole in a boat to release water. More holes, more water gets in. You have a right to your feelings. Validating your feelings is part of what the anger is there for. Without feelings, we'd leave our hands in open flames, pick up knives by their edge, do other dangerous things. That much anger needs physical and outward expression. Wanting to punch something is quite healthy. Boxing gloves and a bag are actually very therapuetic tools for expressing anger. It gets you active, it allows you to express anger in a healthy way and, properly done, no one is hurt in the process. Before you can deal with the cause of your anger, you have to deal with the feeling, and that feeling needs a physical expression for it. Screaming while you box would be even better, double the amount of expression. After you have exhausted yourself from boxing and screaming, then you can begin to understand where that feeling is coming from.

Sometimes when we get angry, we either blame ourselves for the situation or view becoming angry as a loss of self-control that needs to be punished. Regardless, feeling as if you need to hurt yourself is never a good feeling and those thoughts need to be addressed.