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

reasons of self harming can be different for everyone. it totally depends on the circumstances and situation the person is in. feelings like anger and sadness can influence the want to harm yourself. it could be to gain control of something, it could be channeling your frustration, anger, sadness (negative emotions) into harming yourself, harming yourself because you feel everything is your fault. it could also be a coping mechanism for some people. it could be to relieve everything you feel, so that you don't feel overwhelmed anymore. people with low self esteem may also harm themselves as they feel they are not good enough.

We tend to lash out on others or ourselves when are upset to try to soothe ourselves in these types of situations (regardless of what it may look like). On a psychological sense, the heart rate, arterial tension and testosterone production increases, cortisol (the stress hormone) decreases, and the left hemisphere of the brain becomes more stimulated which causes us to become more physical when we are upset. Instead of harming yourself, try to find another way to control your feelings by paying all attention to one specific thing (like holding ice tightly in your hands) so you bring your emotions back to a more moderate level. Hope this helps!

Sometimes when we are angry we feel a build up of feelings we are unsure how to express. And sometimes we feel like we need to release those feelings. For some people, wanting to hurt yourself is looking for a release of the bad feelings. And by hurting yourself you can feel like you are “letting them out”. It’s normally and okay to feel these feelings. For others, they can feel like it’s their fault for always responding in angry way or causing the anger in the first place. Some people can feel like they want to hurt themselves as a punishment or to “make something stop”. It’s okay to sit with these feelings and acknowledge them. They are common.

Anger is an emotion which is abstract and hard to ground to reality. It can be painful to feel anger, or anger comes from pain and fear. Something physical like hurting yourself can attach something you can grasp, something to make your reality less abstract. It can make you release all your anger or emotional pain into physical pain which is easier to identify. Anger can cloud are vision and decision making skills, and can make us act recklessly and do something without thinking about the consequences. Hurting yourself isn't the answer to anger or emotional pain, but it does make sense where it stems from

When you are angry and you feel the need to hurt yourself, it can be for many many reasons. It all depends on where it's coming from. If it's coming from a place where you are angry at yourself and you feel it's the only way to punish yourself, then that can be why. If you're doing it because it helps you lessen your emotional pain so it feels more physical and then you can get rid of that energy as well. It could also be because you are frustrated and its a way of taking out that frustration at the world. It can also be because of combined emotions and reasons as well and they will have their own reasons for it.

Sadly, you might feel that self-harm is a helpful way to deal with this situation, to help relieve the intense, overwhelming emotions. You might also feel that turning the emotional pain into something visible would help the pain go away and give you some control. But then the calm feelings are gone and the pain would come back and the emotions return. Then you might want to hurt yourself again. There are many other ways in order to release the tension you are feeling. Going for a walk, surround yourself with people that love you, treat yourself a breakfast, focus on yourself are some great options in order to release the tension.