Self harm is not attention seeking

*****TRIGGER WARNING******
THIS BLOG POST DOES CONTAIN SELF HELP DISCUSSION AND IMAGES.



Something I heard recently has stuck in my head. Kept me awake. Made me cry. Made me angry and really i need to vent about it and it's coming in this post.

I was chatting recently with a very good friend about her brother in laws family, one obviously suffers from mental illness of some sort (I do not know the details but is often hospitalized from self harming) she said her boyfriend said to her "is that miss slitty?" That was the first thing that annoyed me the  as the conversation went on the boyfriend asks "so did she go across the street or up the road?" A question meaning which direction did she cut. The response was across the road. The boyfriend then said "so it's just attention seeking" she said pretty much.

Omg self harm is not about attention seeking (very, very, very rarely) 

This isn't attention seeking. Plus it has a drawing of my next tattoo ;) self harm isn't about people looking at you. I've never usually admitted.to my self harming let alone publicly displayed it, I always cover it so people can see, so do many others I know, if it were for attention wouldn't we be showing it off, flashing it around, wanting the sympathy?

It makes me so angry when people dismiss mental illness.  It is not a joke, it is serious.

Do I enjoy these scars? No. Am I proud of them? No. Do I cover them every chance I can? Yes. 

It is not about the attention not at all. I'm so angry I am going around in circles. 

Just please before you judge somebody for anything have step back. There could be a lot more to this persons story than you know.