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Incidence of self harm among asexuals?


Beardless

Self-harm  

2 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you self-harm?

    • I self harm because of factors related to my asexuality.
      9
    • I used to self harm because of factors related to my asexuality
      10
    • I self harm because of factors not related to my asexuality
      49
    • I used to self harm because of factors not related to my asexuality
      80
    • I have never self harmed
      131
    • Other
      13

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It's been indicated that those who homo- or bi-sexual are more at risk to self harm than those who are hetero-sexual, and I wondered if this applied to asexuals too. I realise that there's going to be a biased response on AVEN - it seems we've (mostly) accepted and are happy with our orientation - but it interests me to see people's responses.

So in this poll I'm using the term "self harm" to refer to any deliberate destructive behaviour used as a coping mechanism; i.e. cutting, burning, eating disorders, alcoholism, trichotillomania, etc. And "asexuality" here refers to orientation, not whether you've had sex or not. (e.g. say you've been sexually abused and you don't think it's had an impact on your asexuality, then it would count as a factor not relating to asexuality). There's a distinction between whether you currently self harm or have stopped too.

I don't know if that's explained it well enough, but if you pick "other" please explain your answer in a post.

Scáth brought this up originally, but couldn't get the poll to work. I firmly believe that having the opportunity for people to vote anonymously will increase the accuracy of this poll.

The wikipedia article on self-harm quotes a study in America that 32% of young people have self-harmed at some point in the past. I cannot find any more detailed statistics, certainly not without knowing the age, location and gender distribution of the people voting. But it's a figure to bear in mind.

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I chose 'Other'.

I'm recovering from self harm. I can't say it's gone, but I can control it more than ever.

I used to injure myself because of many factors. Orientation wasn't one of them. But other things related to it were.

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I used to self harm, but I believe it was autism related.

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Kurai-Tenshi_Niks

I used to self harm years ago..but it was because i suffered from severe depression.

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CrazyCatLover

I choose "other." I used to self-harm, but I called it "mortification of the flesh" and was urged to do so by my confessor. This isn't something I really like to talk about very much.

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Not as far as I know. I do keep biting my hands though, absent-mindedly. I should probably see someone about that, actually, I have scars all over them.

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ouch. I once tried self harm just to see what all the fuss was about (there was a big fuss about it when I was a teen anyway). It hurt like a mother******, so I never did it again. Man, it would not matter how depressed I got, burning and cutting would not hurt any less! I don't know if people who do it just have like no pain sensitivity or if I have extreme pain sensitivity. But OWE. How?

Anyway, obviously this was a social activity, not related to sexuality.

I just wanted to point out that this poll won't help answer whether asexuals are more at risk than heterosexuals for self harm. You'd have to get a bunch of heterosexuals and asexuals to answer a poll.

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Thank you for reminding me of that, cait. I'd put some statistics in the original topic, but forgot to bring them over to the poll version. It's now in the first post.

I've self-harmed occasionally for as long as I can remember - partial strangling, and hitting myself on the head. I used it as a form of punishment. I doubt I'm never going to do it again.

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Never self harmed, never wanted to, no matter how hard things were for me. I don't think hitting myself a few times out of annoyance counts :/ but I mean I'm not the type of person to do any proper self harm because I never needed it as a form of release.

I don't believe you need to be pushed to a certain point in order to want to to that to yourself, you need to be born that type of self-destructing person.

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ouch. I once tried self harm just to see what all the fuss was about (there was a big fuss about it when I was a teen anyway). It hurt like a mother******, so I never did it again. Man, it would not matter how depressed I got, burning and cutting would not hurt any less! I don't know if people who do it just have like no pain sensitivity or if I have extreme pain sensitivity. But OWE. How?

Anyway, obviously this was a social activity, not related to sexuality.

Self harm is not only about cutting and burning.

And it's not like we don't have pain sensitivity. Actually, some of the people feel pain when they hurt themselves, and yet they keep doing it. Other persons just don't feel it. I don't know why, but it's not a lack of sensitivity.

Try not to get into these 'social activities' again, you could get caught by them and never be able to escape.

(sorry if I sound agressive, not my intention, I'm kind of tired ^^).

EDIT: No, you don't born with the self destructive behaviour. Your environment modifies your personality too... so if you were born totally healthy, and lived all your life, I don't know, surrounded by a family that hates you, you'd probably grow self destructive.

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So in this poll I'm using the term "self harm" to refer to any deliberate destructive behaviour used as a coping mechanism; i.e. cutting, burning, eating disorders, alcoholism, trichotillomania, etc.

Well, by that definition, then yes, but not due to my asexuality.

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Thankfully I have never gone emo on myself, but I have seriously considered it before for social reasons.

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No, I've never self-harmed, and I'm heterasexual...

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I've self harmed (cutting, left scars which would be quite embarrassing if people ever saw them) - I'd say for reasons related to asexuality (but really before I considered myself asexual as such, just at a time when I really wasn't comfortable with who I was).

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ouch. I once tried self harm just to see what all the fuss was about (there was a big fuss about it when I was a teen anyway). It hurt like a mother******, so I never did it again. Man, it would not matter how depressed I got, burning and cutting would not hurt any less! I don't know if people who do it just have like no pain sensitivity or if I have extreme pain sensitivity. But OWE. How?

Anyway, obviously this was a social activity, not related to sexuality.

Self harm is not only about cutting and burning.

And it's not like we don't have pain sensitivity. Actually, some of the people feel pain when they hurt themselves, and yet they keep doing it. Other persons just don't feel it. I don't know why, but it's not a lack of sensitivity.

Try not to get into these 'social activities' again, you could get caught by them and never be able to escape.

(sorry if I sound agressive, not my intention, I'm kind of tired ^^).

EDIT: No, you don't born with the self destructive behaviour. Your environment modifies your personality too... so if you were born totally healthy, and lived all your life, I don't know, surrounded by a family that hates you, you'd probably grow self destructive.

No worries. You don't sound aggressive at all.

I've always had the problem of not being able to conform to social activities (even when I try it doesn't last long), so I'm pretty safe from getting caught up in *anything* for a long period of time let alone self harm.

It's not that I assume people don't feel pain when they injure themselves, what I wonder about is how much pain you are feelings. Because I physically feel incapable of injuring myself, it hurts enough that I automatically draw away each time, and would never be physically able to withstand the pain enough to do it. The only reason I ever did attempt to cut and burn myself was because I was high. I think I'd be even less capable when sober.

I have quite a few friends who've been very seriously into self harm--their scars would absolutely shock most people. It never really shocked me, I just never felt the same way about my body I suppose.

I don't think you're just born with self destructive behavior either. I think you can be born with certain triggers in your brain chemistry, but definitely your life is going to have a much greater impact. Maybe if I experience aggression towards myself from family when I was growing up I would have been self destructive, because violence would have already been a factor in my life.

Then again, sometimes people live very happy childhoods, and they still become self destructive and suicidal. I don't know why this is. It's really sad to see though.

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Im not sure..I sometimes punch the wall as a form of release..or dig my nails into me.

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I've never self harmed physically. I used to self harm mentally if that makes any sense (with music and whatnot). Nowadays I look back and think that was a pretty sad and ignorant thing to do. It didn't cause any kind of permanent scars but I feel awfully stupid because I used to do it

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Does listening to Byran Adams count as mental self-harm?

I do that quite a lot, and I really really really really hate his music. It's infuriating beyond words.

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ouch. I once tried self harm just to see what all the fuss was about (there was a big fuss about it when I was a teen anyway). It hurt like a mother******, so I never did it again. Man, it would not matter how depressed I got, burning and cutting would not hurt any less! I don't know if people who do it just have like no pain sensitivity or if I have extreme pain sensitivity. But OWE. How?

Anyway, obviously this was a social activity, not related to sexuality.

I just wanted to point out that this poll won't help answer whether asexuals are more at risk than heterosexuals for self harm. You'd have to get a bunch of heterosexuals and asexuals to answer a poll.

it's not a matter of having no pain sensitivity it's a matter of being in so much emotional pain, pain which you have no control over, that physical pain (which you inflict, which you control) is almost a relief. I think in this way self harm has a lot in common with certain eating disorders.

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it's not a matter of having no pain sensitivity it's a matter of being in so much emotional pain, pain which you have no control over, that physical pain (which you inflict, which you control) is almost a relief. I think in this way self harm has a lot in common with certain eating disorders.

Eating disorders and control go hand in hand, and for that reason, I can see why they might be related... But I have never seen self-inflicted pain as something spurned from something deeper than that, whereas eating disorders are often rooted in deeper psychological problems.

Or, well. That was the impression I was under.

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Does listening to Byran Adams count as mental self-harm?

I do that quite a lot, and I really really really really hate his music. It's infuriating beyond words.

I've never heard of him..And is his music that bad? lol

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Does listening to Byran Adams count as mental self-harm?

I do that quite a lot, and I really really really really hate his music. It's infuriating beyond words.

I've never heard of him..And is his music that bad? lol

It's like cyanide for the soul.

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Never. No matter how hard life gets, no matter what happens....ultimately, I just can't justify it.

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Does listening to Byran Adams count as mental self-harm?

I do that quite a lot, and I really really really really hate his music. It's infuriating beyond words.

I've never heard of him..And is his music that bad? lol

It's like cyanide for the soul.

XD

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Does listening to Byran Adams count as mental self-harm?

I do that quite a lot, and I really really really really hate his music. It's infuriating beyond words.

Good grief. I thought it was just me that did that... Worst thing is I don't like his voice either.

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Im not sure..I sometimes punch the wall as a form of release..or dig my nails into me.

That sounds like what I've done. I wouldn't say I've ever harmed myself, but I have hurt myself. Digging hails into my skin (never drawn blood, but the dents lasted a long time), is at the top of the list, then there was also hair pulling, and hitting my hands against things (that would usually snap me back to reality for 30 seconds, long enough for me to be annoyed with myself for doing it)

I've never felt like intentionally and methodically hurting myself though.

The way later came to see it for myself was that pain is a very understandable feeling and if I'm hurting myself I can control it, I can stop. When I am/was feeling depressed everything I was feeling was too much and all mixed up, and definately out of my control to just stop.

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