Self Hitting/Hurting

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I have since young, dealt with feelings of frustration, anger, fear, hurt, by self injuring, mainly punching my face and head.
Any situation that causes me pain that I cannot express in words or by getting outwardly angry tends to result in this, and I am wondering if anyone here has experienced the same issue, and has any alternative solutions to deal with the intensity of the emotion ? (quite frankly I wish my emotions would just up and walk away one night, fullstop)
I am getting a bit weary of walking around with black eyes when social interractions become confusing and frustrating.

Last edited by Graelwyn on 26 May 2011, 7:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

Cut and banged head against wall.

Hmm.. things I've done that may or may not work for you:

1) throwing things instead. Yes not a great thing to destroy property, but better than destroying yourself.

2) Taken as-needed anti-anxiety medicine that works quickly to soothe and calm (clonazepam)

3) I haven't tried this but it's a better alternative to 1): throwing a basketball against a wall or some other satisfyingly impact-driven repetitive activity involving OBJECTS (not yourself)

4) running/doing handstands (I can only do them against the wall, but it provides me the escape from normal "head at top, feet on floor" reality that I need when I am so overwhelmed I wantto escape my own body

5) Imagine doing cartoonish and impossibel things to yourself, like melting into the floor or cutting your body in half down the middle like slicing bread or imagine cutting and letting all the blood flow out of your body or even imagine banging or punching your head, but in your imagination make it so these acts feel good. In real life of course they would either be impossible, kill or maim you, or just really hurt, but if you can replace actually doing them with imaging them as soothing pleasant things, that can remove the urge to actually do the things. Please note I'm not a professional of any kind and this advice is simply what's worked for me and may be too weird or even unhealthy for others to try.

6) Cry and cry no matterwher you are or who's around if you need to.

7) Sing at the top of your lungs and prance around if it makes you feel better!

1-5 sounds like good ideas. I like to go freaky on my handweights when the anger boils over, getting out of breath and with physical pain is a nice distraction, and this achieves it in a none-destructive way

6 might draw attention from strangers who you make uncomfortable
7 just plain made me laugh

Thanks for the input, guys, I shall test those out next time.
It is hard when you feel you are the only freak who does this in response to situations.

Oh but you're not, don't worry!

Graelwyn, I do not engage in self-injury (unless you include gnawing on my finger tips), but I have heard of others using the following trick. Wear and elastic/ rubber band around one of your wrists. When you feel the need to self-injure, pull back and release ("snap") the elastic band. This will, of course, hurt, but it is far less damaging and disfiguring than cutting or hitting yourself.

Take care.

Thankyou Logan, I shall try that the next time I am feeling angry/hurt

I have dealt with self injury in the form of hitting my head against the wall repeatedly, trying to punch myself (didn't really work, which I guess is a good thing actually) and cutting. I don't do it too often, but I think one thing that was a good substitute was exercising.

It's not that the exercise itself made me not want to punish myself, but I would force myself to bike or run really intensely and tire myself out. Doing this too often can lead to health problems of its own though, so dunno how helpful this is.

I've bit my cheeks and tongues.

Try leaving the situation and either biking, walking, or running away.

I've dug my nails into my skin for not being able to express myself the way I want to. I also bit and pick at my fingernails, getting bad hangnails and ripping them off to bleed... other times I scrap my sharp tooth against my knuckles until they bleed.

It's hard being able to express myself and the worst part is that I often don't even know what TRIGGERS my emotional overloads or how to stop them, so you and I are in the same boat. I could get totally worked up over nothing and start making myself bleed and at times it only increases my anxiety because I regret doing it.

My friends online, when I tell them, always ask me why I do it and to tell them what is wrong next time but its so hard because they don't know enough about autism to know and when I tell them it comes off as me being highly emotional and emo.

I've also hit/slapped/punched myself out of frustration. On some occasions where that doesn't work, I've also taken a leather belt & beat myself across my back, shoulders, arms, hips & legs with it. It leaves vicious marks, & I always feel ashamed that I got that angry & frustrated. I guess it comes from the years of punishment I endured as a kid from my parents. They were never kind to me, & even if they didn't beat on me sometimes, they always had harsh hurtful words. I've also taken sharp objects & dragged them along my arms until they bled.

Yup, I got issues. It's truly embarrassing. I t also doesn't help that I have yet to find a therapist who knows how to deal with this other than to give me a certain look. ~> You do what???? I don't usually admit to doing the above things. People just don't understand.