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herbeey
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14 Nov 2010, 10:15 am

I struggled with self-harm until recently. Now it largely exists as something I have control over (a tool) rather than something that controls me. I only mention this as a bit of quite irrelevant but presumably appropriate personal background.

There's plenty of advice online for coping with self-harm, and yet I wonder if the advice to be given to Aspies should ideally be in any way different to that of NTs. I do not intend this to be a leading question, since I have no opinion on this, but I feel it's both an interesting and potentially important question to ask.

The obvious response to this would be that ideally advice would be tailored to each individual since there is no one reason for this concerning behaviour. That aside, could it still be the case that Aspies form a cluster that would benefit from advice tailored to their cluster?

For those of you who aren't so familiar with this topic, it may help to know that a popular idea is that self-harm is fundamentally about control. The more I've reflected on my own experience and the ever-varying reasons I've had for self-harming, the more swayed I am by this perspective.



Moog
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14 Nov 2010, 10:17 am

Why do you think self harm is different for NTs? I don't see that you've addressed that.


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herbeey
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14 Nov 2010, 10:20 am

I said that I have no opinion on whether there is a relevant difference.



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14 Nov 2010, 11:23 am

So what is the purpose of your thread? You want opinions?

I am not aware of there being any difference and can see no particular need to treat people with AS who self harm any differently than a NT person who self harms.


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herbeey
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14 Nov 2010, 12:03 pm

Toying with speculative possibilities does not require the result to be fruitful. The results might be fruitful, which is good enough for me.



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14 Nov 2010, 12:43 pm

Okay.


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Callista
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14 Nov 2010, 12:58 pm

I think that self-injury in autism is more likely to be related to stress and sensory overload than in NTs. Transition anxiety in particular is more of a problem for autistics. But the approach for both groups is the same--find out what purpose the self-injury serves, and find another way to fulfill that purpose.

However, you do have to be careful that what you're dealing with is actually self-injury and not just a stim that happens to cause injury.


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