why does cutting make me feel better but then bad afterwards?

I believe cutting can be a more concrete way of dealing with an emotional pain, that is untangible. It's palpable and has a very clear and rational explation for why u are hurting at that moment. It might give u a momentarily sense of understanding and being in control of what's making u suffer. It also starts a wave of adrenaline, because your body is physically "under attack" and sends off all its power to make u able to endure the pain and to start healing from it right away. As u see... cutting is the concretization of your pain. But it doesnt solve it... and as soon as the rush fades, u are back to where u started, and it's heartbreaking to come back to unwanted reality.

Physical injury (such as cutting) releases endorphins - the brain's natural pain-killers. This immediately stops painful thoughts and helps you relax. However, the effect is short - pretty quickly the endorphins are absorbed, and you're stuck with the painful thoughts again, only now with painful cuts too. The temporary relief makes it feel worse when it's over. Breaking this cycle is very difficult - putting off temporary relief for long term comfort is a learned skill, and it takes lots of practice. The good news is that practice can be taken in small steps! Even delaying a little before you cut counts, and you'll find you can wait longer and longer, until the need to cut passes. It's also important to know that recovery from self-harm is not a linear process. There are many 'relapses', and you'll still feel bad occasionally. Remember that the way forwards is in small steps, and you'll find you're doing better faster than you thought :)

Cutting provides a euphoria initially because it takes the focus away from the emotional pain and onto this new physical pain that the body is experiencing. But once the physical pain is gone, you no longer have anything to focus on and that emotional pain comes back to you. You also start to think logically again and you realize that there may very well be many consequences to your actions. You also start to think of your friends and family, and this worries you even more. Therefore, cutting is only a temporary relief to emotional pain that you may be experiencing and hurts you more in the long run.

I don't know if you have ever heard of the snowball effect but it is pretty much where you are struggling with an urge to self-harm, doesn't matter how, or what triggered you. when you give in you feel that relief for a few minutes or however long it is, then you feel blame and or shame, then you feel worse about not only your situation, but now that you have a stinging cut, so then its becomes a cycle, a snowball if you will, of shame, regret and it goes till something to stop you. like a knock on your door or a text or something, or till your tired of the pain. I hope you know that you are strong and you can fight any and every urge but don't be upset if you self harm again, sometimes in recovery you fall, but you will walk again. stay strong!

Its a release. Its a way to get rid of a strong emotion that you are feeling. This emotion can be anger or just tension. It feels better at the time because it is a short and quick solution. Once it happens though its easy to feel guilt and ashamed about it. It could be helpful to find safer ways to release all this tension. It could be worth trying the elastic band technique or writing everything down and then throwing it in the bin. Its about trying to keep yourself safe yet still finding a way to deal with these emotions.

People usually cut to make themselves feel better, to cover up emotional pain with physical pain. This works because when you cut you get a temporary relief and feeling of happiness. This is because when you cut your body releases something called endorphins and endorphins causes you to feel euphoria or very happy. That is why feel happy when you cut. From my experience, the reason why you usually feel bad after you cut it could be after a few minutes, a few hours or maybe a few days is because you probably regret what you did before and wishes you haven't done it.

From experience, my insight is that self harm is something that helps me feel in control. Our lives cannot always be controlled by ourselves. So we turn to something we can control, self harm is an example. When distressed, upset, etc. we frequently turn to something that is not always positive. But in that moment we have to control something in our lives we feel relief. We feel powerful, relaxed, something is realised that allows us to grab onto the presence. It makes us feel alive, as if everything going on around us is not the world ending. It is like a reality check. So cutting makes you feel alive, hence better. Though afterwards you might sit with it and feel bad. My thoughts on this is that deep down inside of you there is something that hurts from this reality. Within yourself you are not fully in agreeance with harming yourself. It doesn't sit well within you because you ultimately don't enjoy hurting yourself.

When someone who needs it, cuts themselves it releases all the good hormones which help to make us feel better because we "achieved" something plus the adrenalin that is set free when we cut. But once the euphoria has run out after maybe 2 hours (that was the time-span for me) the realization hits. We start to think about how effed up that behaviour is and the possible consequenzes hit. Now it's long sleeved shirts and no swimming for a little longer just because we couldn't control an impulse. There are a lot of so called skills we can use to imitate the feeling of cutting. You should look it up and try to find something that gives you what you need. And of course, get help. Skills are worth nothing if you don't want to change anything. Take care, you can beat this!

Cutting and all self-harm habits are only temporary cures to what you are actually going through. When your brain tells your cutting will help, or whatever it tends to say you fall into believing it will help with everything. That relief only lasts for a short amount of time, generally, people do it again or as you say feel regret. This cycle is ravenous until you are able to build up immunity against it. You will feel bad until you are able to not cut, and cope with those feelings in other ways. Once you deal with those feelings then you will be able to stop and feel better. Hope this helps!

You feel better because you are angry with yourself so you feel that you can express that anger. It is very important to use that anger in a more constructive way by taking up self defense classes or a new sport or even punching a pillow. The pain stimulus causes the nerve and nearby mast cells to release chemical pain mediators such as prostaglandin, bradykinin, serotonin, substance P and histamine, which: Activate more receptors on the nerve fibre, increasing the likelihood that the threshold for an action potential will be reached – this is called primary sensitisation; Provoke changes in the walls of local blood vessels, increasing blood supply and allowing white cells to move into the extracellular fluid – this is the inflammatory response, an essential part of healing. This is when we feel pain in general not just if we would cut ourselves, that is why wearing a rubber band on your wrist and flicking it against your skin, just pulling it and letting it hit your wrist would make you feel better just like cutting does but it might not make you feel bad afterwards like cutting. Cutting makes you feel bad afterwards because you might feel guilty or feel low self-esteem or even have anxiety that people might see the cuts and they might judge you, you might also fear dying from the cut if it bleeds too much.