Self Injury

Self injury is a way people cope with intense emotional pain.

The common view is this:
By injuring themselves the person has control over their pain and the self-inflicted pain is less than the emotional pain they feel.

In actuality:
The person who self injures does not feel pain from the injury inflicted.
They feel pleasure from this injury - the physiological component may be that the body produces endorphins which is why the pleasure is felt.

By the age of around ten or eleven I started to develop odd behaviours. Shoe laces were never to be crossed, cutlery was always to have the knife facing inwards and I would frequeltly do things in fours as four was a lucky number. I also started injuring myself. I would stand with the backs of my legs against radiators until I could no longer bear the burning sensation. I inserted sharp objects under a fingernail enjoying the pain caused.
All this behaviour was covering up strong and painful emotions that I was unable to deal with, principally because there was nobody to talk to about my loneliness,sadness and anger.
And it continues to this day...