about me!

Hi there! I'm 'Clover', and I'm a self-injurer. I study English and History in the south of England, and hope to go on to either teach or work in the media. I set up this self-injury mail list to try and help others who have had some of the same experiences as I have, so that we can all help each other deal with them. When I first started to 'cut', I knew nothing about 'self-injury', and felt totally alone in my situation. It was only after a time I discovered that I was not on my own - there were others out there like me, and it made such a difference to be able to talk to those who had similar problems to myself.

Personally, I have been self injuring for about 2 years now. I'm not really sure when or how it all started, but it has a way of consuming your life at times, and, of course, causes a great deal of problems in how other people view you. I have had problems in relationships because of my self-injury, and it has certainly been an eye-opener as to the kind of relationships that hold fast, and those which tend to crumble under the pressure of such a situation as 'SI'. I am lucky to have a friend who will stick by me no matter what. Others, I realize, aren't so fortunate.

I feel that the topic of self-injury is too often regarded as a) a form of attempted suicide, and b) something only done by 'crazy' or 'weird' people. In my time, I have known people who have 'cut' because they think it's 'cool', while blind to the pain that can often cause other people to hurt themselves. Others seem to think that self-injury occurs only as a reaction to a certain form of trauma (for example rape, abuse etc...), whereas in many situations there doesn't seem to be much of a clear-cut (if you'll excuse the pun!) explanation.

I aimed to set up a messaging list for people to share their experiences and just talk together - a way for people to realize that they are not alone...

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