Why is self-harm considered bad?

Self harm is considered "bad" for many reasons -- mostly because people don't understand it. Self harm is a maladaptive coping technique. That means we use self harm to cope with difficult situations but coping like this has negative side effects (scars, isolation, guilt, not a long-term solution, etc). Some people think self-harm is bad because they are scared for you, or they think there isn't any reason behind it because they can't fathom ever wanting to hurt themselves. The only real way self-harm is 'bad' though is because it's not helping you in the long run. You're not a bad person for harming, but there are better ways to cope. Hopefully, over time, you can learn how to care for yourself in safer, more loving ways.

I think self harm is considered bad do to the fact that you are intentionally harming yourself. Nobody asks why you would do it or how it makes you feel but they simply look at you purposefully harming yourself and they don't understand that. People are always scared of the things they don't understand.

Would you recommend it to someone you care about? Would you tell a child, a sister, a parent, or a close friend that you don't see anything wrong with it, so it should probably work for them? Would you apply this same logic to anything that technically did not harm someone else, like an ed or addiction? Is this instead more about it being ok to hurt you, but that doesn't apply to others? It can be easy to justify when it's familiar and comfortable, much like an addiction is familiar or comfortable. But that doesn't mean it's okay to be an alcoholic, and it's similarly not okay to self-injure. It can be very dangerous. It may seem to work temporarily, but it's not a long-term solution. You deserve better, even if you don't see it that way right now.

I guess it hurts a lot to notice someone you love is hurting themselves. You feel useless ya know. You dont know how to help, but you wanna see them happy.

Self harm, while it can relieve difficult emotions, is ultimately not a healthy coping mechanism for dealing with your feelings. It prevents you from constructively recognising and finding solutions to the problems you're facing by giving you a temporary hit which allows you to ignore the upsetting emotions. Self harm can also be dangerous to you, you could cause yourself serious injury or even risk death. It's also upsetting to those around you, people who love you and are seeing you hurt yourself.

Self-harm is defined as 'intentionally damaging the body tissue for reasons which are not socially sanctioned'; therefore tattooing, hair cuts, and trimming fingernails are not considered forms of self harm, even though the person is damaging body tissue. Self-harm is considered 'bad' when it is used in place of a healthy coping behavior or style. For example, when someone is upset or feeling sad they may talk with a family member, friend, or counsellor about how they are feeling and over time they usually begin to feel better about what happened. For someone who self-harms, they usually don't talk to someone about how they are feeling because they have injured themselves first. Over time this cycle repeats and the person never learns how to deal with upsetting or unpleasant emotions.

Self-harm is considered bad because of the stereotyps people have about people who self-harm. Usually, when people hear about someone self-harming, their stereotype is a person, who hates everyone and everything and doesn't want anything but to die. That's not always the case though.

you're harming yourself as a way to bring about a physical reason for your mental/emotional pain. instead of dealing with the issue at hand, you're taking it out on yourself in an unhealthy fashion, and that ends up doing more damage in the long run.

Self-harm is considered bad because there are many other ways that we can cope besides hurting ourselves. Many people see SH as taboo and for attention seeking when really SH is trying to cope with what hurts. SH can be trying to "numb" something that is bothering you, punish yourself for something, or to allow you to feel something when you feel nothing. It can also let people feel like they're in control. HOWEVER, there are so many other ways to cope - ways that don't involve hurting yourself! People tend to think of SH badly because it can appear as attention seeking or just leaving marks on your body. People can also tend to believe that those who SH don't "think things through." Whatever your reasons for self-harm, 7cups is here for you and you can check out these links and websites for further information and help to stop self-harm! http://sirius-project.org/2011/08/16/distractions-and-alternatives-to-self-harm/ http://www.adolescentselfinjuryfoundation.com/page11 http://butterfly-project.tumblr.com/ https://www.7cups.com/self-harm/

It’s self destructive. If you wouldn’t do it do somebody else, it’s generally not something you should be doing to yourself.