Why does my girlfriend cut herself?

People resort to self-harm for a lot of different reasons. If you want to understand what she's going through, you should talk to her.

People can self harm for various reasons. Often people self harm to feel a release. Pain is a feeling, so it can be used to distract from other feelings that they wish to avoid.

Your girlfriend must be having a tough time during this stage of her life. Self harming releases endorphins, chemicals that are also released when you are happy. Thus, she believes that harming herself makes her happy, so she does it more. Self harm is also a coping method that may help her feel like she is "getting what she deserves".

Usually people cut themselves to feel better and for relief. The pain releases chemicals in the brain that make her feel happy, but then later she will probably feel guilty for cutting.

She is obviously having a very tough time at the moment. I feel like you just need to maybe read up on any mental illnesses that she may have, aka Depression, anxiety.. any others that could come into this. Self-help guide may say a little more of how your girlfriend is feeling and why she does this. Encourage her to stop :) and think of other solutions.

This is hard to answer. Many people cut for different reasons. Self harm usually means someone wants to feel that they are here. That they exist or it can be a coping mechanism. Having been on the other side of this and been that girlfriend where a guy has asked the same question, all I can say is don't beat yourself up. You can be an amazing support to her, but make sure you look after yourself too and talk about how this makes you feel. It can be hard to understand why someone cuts. If you can communicate and talk about this it will help you both. Don't apply pressure to yourself to change what she is going through. Be the excellent support that you know you can be, love helps and heals more than most people realise.

There are a lot of reasons why someone self harms. It could be a coping mechanism, or a self inflicted punishment. It all depends on the person.

There’s always at least one reason why someone cuts themselves. Whether it’s self hate or low self esteem. Or even just blaming yourself for something that has happened. Once you start it feels awful and you can’t exactly quit, even if you know it’s wrong. It’s hard to open up and get help. But, in the end, we all need to realize it’s okay to cry out for help. Once we do so we might not feel so better as soon as we’d like but we know we’re at a start. And starting doesn’t mean quitting. But anyways. Maybe try to ask her yourself to see what’s wrong.

Everyone has different reasons for self harm, but the common factor is inner chaos or dysfunction. The important thing is that you remain supportive of her, while emphasizing that you want her to be happy and healthy. If you don't quite understand it, a discussion about it might be helpful to both of you.

She may cut because of school stress, or feelings of worthlessness. Show her that you are there for her often!