I don’t really understand why people do it. Not like “they’re doing it because they are depressed and feel bad”, I had depression myself but never had a call to injure myself. I hate pain, and doing something painful to myself while I’m already feeling bad doesn’t really sound appealing. So I don’t quite get what self-harm gives people so they keep doing it.
Like, is it a way to “ground” yourself and stop dissociating, or is it “just to feel anything at all”, or as a “punishment”, or something else?
I’m not sure you’re going to find universal causes or justifications. It’s been a few decades since I’ve fallen into those habits. For me, it was that my health really sucked and it was a way to exercise some minor control. I was in a fuckton of pain because I was sick and fuck me, right? But this pain right there? I chose that pain. That kind of stupidity. There’s better ways to go about that than what I was doing.