Self-injury/Cutting and Suicide

I think that it is very important to understand the link between Self-injury/Cutting and suicide. There are those that believe that is someone self-injures then they are obviously suicidal. I once had someone tell me 'cutters are just people that want to die but are too cowardly to go through with it'. 

The Mayo Clinic defines self-injury/cutting as the act of deliberately harming your own body, such as cutting or burning yourself. It's not meant as a suicide attempt. Rather, self-injury is an unhealthy way to cope with emotional pain, intense anger and frustration.

The relationship with self-harm and suicide is complex. But I think that understanding the motivation for both hopefully can bring a little bit of light into the situation.

Self-harm/Cutting is a way for some people to try and cope with the pain of strong emotions, intense pressure, or upsetting relationship issues. Feelings that seem too difficult to bear, or bad situations they think can't control. Cutting is a way for them to gain back some of that control and bring themselves to a more level place emotionally. It is not meant as a permanent fix, just a temporary relief. Suicide is someones attempt to bring a more permanent solution to their problems.

But it is also important to know that although self-injury behavior is not suicidal in intent, it can easily lead to suicidal idealization or even, when a self-harmer goes too far, suicide itself. It is when we lump people into one classification that we cause the most damage. People who struggle with self-injury should never be generalized, each person's case is as unique as they are and should be treated as such.