I never could, or would and dont ever want to. I really cant understand the people who do, the impulse to do that. I mean really, who would do something like:
QUOTE said:
Oh no, my parents are divorcing and I'm failing history...I want my arm to bleed. That way I know to expect the pain?
Thats probably a bad example, but from the little contact I've had with a person who did, this is pretty much his reason for doing it. Though, in his case, the way he flaunted it to the kids in the backrow and liked to egg the teachers into discussion about it, it made wonder if/ think that this is as much of a fad for some people as it is a genuine problem for others. He didn't seem really troubled to such an extent that cutting himself was necessary or even seemed a tempting way to deal with what he broadcast to be his problems, but hey, I'm not very wise, nor do I know everything.
Everyone is a little different and handles things differently. Personally, I like to get to a place of solitude and write or talk to myself about a situation or a troubling event and try and review and work through it, but when I'm scared or frustrated I tend to get very quiet verbally and just count. I used to bite myself out of boredom when I was young, but I didn't hurt from it and I never drew my own blood. I still do bite my nails in boredom or anxiousness or just for the heck of it though.
Well, theres my 3 cents.
Edit: Oh, and for punching/breaking stuff. I dont break stuff unless I'm just being heavy handed/absentminded. But I did, just once, wreck something. I trashed my whole room when I got very angry with my brother and my parents for taking his side and then, to show I was really mad and meant it, I refused to clean it up. A few days later my sister finally gave in and cleaned up the room (we share the space).
I'll admit that it was oddly satisfying to throw all that stuff off the shelves and sling stuff against the walls but truth be told, I was a little miffed once my anger was spent that I hadn't had the foresight to trash
his room[
.
EDIT:
Also, as for good experiences vs bad try this: I have the ability to recall prominent events in vivid detail, I can recapture both the physical and emotional state of that incident with out too much effort and sometimes I recall bad things without really meaning to. It makes me both angry and worried as it plagues me for a long while after I've thought about it, but I discovered several years ago to pit my good memories against the bad ones as I can summon both to mind at will. You can determine if the good outweighs the bad.
If you indulge that bad memory for several moments first and make your self feel sad, angry and resentful and so on and so forth, then find a memory--positive memory--and revisit it to as much detail as possible, to the point that you even remember what it feels like in your gut to have laughed with that person or to have been glad that this or that person was with you. If that positive memory takes the sting out of the negative one, then you can control that emotion, that memory.
It works for me--I'm a pretty quiet person to those who know me, but a lot goes around me and even if I don't respond or react externally then I have an opinion about it internally. An opinion that I dont/cant discuss aloud and with others for no other reason that I cant bear conversing with others on my own personal matters.