The following poem may be disturbing to some.
Red Lines-
Red lines
On a once smooth, perfect, canvas.
Hidden by day,
But prominent in the dark.
So straight,
Like the edge of a building;
But not that deep.
Perfectly parallel;
Designed to lie together.
Blinds,
Shielding the other side.
The true colour
Seeping out.
Self-Harm should not be so common in a typical teen's life. Even if I had never done so myself, it still comes up all the time in my day-to-day life.
Let's go with a hypothetical:
Say I never hurt myself but still had depression; theoretically that means that people would be less inclined to talk to me about their encounters with self-harm.
Last week I saw the arms and legs of a mid high-school girl. They were 98% scar tissue.
Kids at school constantly walk around with bandaged arms.
I've had campers with scars where the words they carved on themselves are still legible in their skin.
It has become so painfully (no pun intended) normal for young people to go pain as a source of refuge. I speak not as a hypocrite but as one with the personal experience to know what's up when I say; there is legitimately nothing positive that comes from it. So why do we do it?
My mother has a theory that in her generation, when you wanted to escape pain you would binge drink or smoke weed. These are now fairly normal, in fact expected, rights of passage into the teenage life...so we need a new outlet. This is what we've decide upon.
Red Lines-
Red lines
On a once smooth, perfect, canvas.
Hidden by day,
But prominent in the dark.
So straight,
Like the edge of a building;
But not that deep.
Perfectly parallel;
Designed to lie together.
Blinds,
Shielding the other side.
The true colour
Seeping out.
Self-Harm should not be so common in a typical teen's life. Even if I had never done so myself, it still comes up all the time in my day-to-day life.
Let's go with a hypothetical:
Say I never hurt myself but still had depression; theoretically that means that people would be less inclined to talk to me about their encounters with self-harm.
Last week I saw the arms and legs of a mid high-school girl. They were 98% scar tissue.
Kids at school constantly walk around with bandaged arms.
I've had campers with scars where the words they carved on themselves are still legible in their skin.
It has become so painfully (no pun intended) normal for young people to go pain as a source of refuge. I speak not as a hypocrite but as one with the personal experience to know what's up when I say; there is legitimately nothing positive that comes from it. So why do we do it?
My mother has a theory that in her generation, when you wanted to escape pain you would binge drink or smoke weed. These are now fairly normal, in fact expected, rights of passage into the teenage life...so we need a new outlet. This is what we've decide upon.
The generation above us seems to see us as mere attention seekers or unappreciative spoiled children; that we're trying to punish them. I'm not saying that's entirely false. By no means! I'm often enraged by the obvious romanticizing of cutting and sometimes the reason people self-harm or attempt suicide is to get back at those who they feel are responsible for their pain. That having been said, I have and I have seen those who get extremely irritated that they don't appear to be on the same page as us. The truth of the matter is (in my humble opinion) that it is just a generation gap that all must be aware and considerate of.
Personally, I never hurt myself to punish my parents...I often did it for the attention of my significant other (or for the person I wanted to be mine) or to punish a friend for not being there for me. Super mature, I know. As I've said before, there is no excuse for harming one's self. It is a choice that only you make, not one that others somehow indirectly make for you by not being there for or hurting you. This is a harsh truth but still truth.
I'm sure I've written something to this effect before so let me take a moment to explain why I wanted to go over it again. It is easy to make excuses or force things to "logically" make sense so that you can blame someone else for your own choices. I do this all the time and I've tried over and over to make it work for me, to make it make sense...but it just doesn't.
It's been a regular thing on my mind especially lately since I've seen a lot of self-harm evidence over the last couple weeks. When comforting someone you can't say "well it's actually all your fault" because it isn't, those other people may have really done them harm; nor can you say "get over yourself, there are so many better solutions" because it doesn't ever help. Yes, there are many better solutions to feeling like crap but especially to those who have tried it before and know that (in the short term) it works, there doesn't appear to be anything else.
I have been straight up rejected and/or dumped by 4 people over the last month and a half. That's a really big deal for me. I've been angry and sad and done with people pretty consistently for the duration of this time. Even thought it was justifiable cause for doing something stupid but it all too often occurs to me that this solution (as i so often point out on this blog) is TEMPORARY...but you know what isn't? Tea and flowers...they are forever a viable solution.
Personally, I never hurt myself to punish my parents...I often did it for the attention of my significant other (or for the person I wanted to be mine) or to punish a friend for not being there for me. Super mature, I know. As I've said before, there is no excuse for harming one's self. It is a choice that only you make, not one that others somehow indirectly make for you by not being there for or hurting you. This is a harsh truth but still truth.
I'm sure I've written something to this effect before so let me take a moment to explain why I wanted to go over it again. It is easy to make excuses or force things to "logically" make sense so that you can blame someone else for your own choices. I do this all the time and I've tried over and over to make it work for me, to make it make sense...but it just doesn't.
It's been a regular thing on my mind especially lately since I've seen a lot of self-harm evidence over the last couple weeks. When comforting someone you can't say "well it's actually all your fault" because it isn't, those other people may have really done them harm; nor can you say "get over yourself, there are so many better solutions" because it doesn't ever help. Yes, there are many better solutions to feeling like crap but especially to those who have tried it before and know that (in the short term) it works, there doesn't appear to be anything else.
I have been straight up rejected and/or dumped by 4 people over the last month and a half. That's a really big deal for me. I've been angry and sad and done with people pretty consistently for the duration of this time. Even thought it was justifiable cause for doing something stupid but it all too often occurs to me that this solution (as i so often point out on this blog) is TEMPORARY...but you know what isn't? Tea and flowers...they are forever a viable solution.