h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sorry to just come on and say something negative. Your article is informative, accurate, and useful as far as it goes. It demythologises self-mutilation in ways that are excellent, and clarifies a lot of the 'what'.

What you do not say is 'why'. My experience in 14 years in the field of psychotherapy, specialising in trauma and survival mechanisms, and recovery, has been that s-i is almost 100% correlated with child sexual abuse. S-i in combination with eating disorders is what responsible therapists would consider *proof* of csa, even if the client had no memories. Eating disorders, smoking, substance-abuse, etc are also forms of s-i. There are micro and macro s-i behaviours.

Your points about attention-seeking are well made. I'd like to see this considerably amplified, because there is a great deal of very significant material you did not cover. S-i in and of itself is a very strong indicator of child sexual abuse. It may start in youth or even childhood, but is not by any means restricted to young people.

For more info on all aspects above, see my website, link at my space, particularly the sections 'the facts' and 'therapy poetry', and links and webrings.

Sorry to just be short and negative, when really I think this is a pretty good article, and thank you for writing it. I'm not well and just wanted to get the comments posted before going back to sleep.

Take care and please don't take the negativity personally. It's hard to be upbeat and cheerful when you're ill, and it's harder on a subject so intensely related to oneself...

Kassandra 'body looks like a road map' for LeKZ

Hey Kassandra (and any other Pych Committee members that may be lurking around..)

Thanks for your comments. I've incorporated most of them, including a mention of abuse history. I avoided going too strongly on this for the following reasons:

1) I wanted the main focus of the article to be 'understanding si as a way of coping' - not 'sequelae of child abuse' (of which you and I could also both write extensive tomes...

2) I'm very aware of certain people I met on the bus email list who had no history of abuse - or at least, none they could remember - and had felt very left out by all the abuse-focus with si. I wanted to include very practical means of alternatives to get in touch with underlying feelings - stuff which will hopefully help everyone.

I've clarified that this is only a brief overview (and geeze, was so tempted to say 'an article like this can only scratch the surface'... but then I've got a sick sense of humour - see the Singe and Swallow section on my webpage if you need proof!) and detailed where US resources can be found.

Hope that you're feeling somewhat better today...

Hi Inanna. You know what I did a coupla days ago? I took a knife and cut a notch into my upper thigh with it. I cut repeatedly until I was through the skin and into the connective tissue and it was gaping and bleeding. You know what? I did not feel any pain at all. I felt a sense of elation. I wanted to do something to commemorate LeKZ. Does that make sense at all? Is it an example of S.I. or not?

I think this article is important, and well written.

That said (here it comes), I'd like it even better if it contained a specific mention of the fact that SI is an addictive behavior. Certainly, the listing of support groups lets the average reader know that a lot of people who SI regard it as a problem. I'm not sure that it doesn't bear stating flat out. Self-Injury is an addiction.

I know it is. I've read more about S.I. now and I think I understand at last. I've been doing it for very long. But this last time was not the same as the others. As far as I'm concerned it was the full stop at the end of a chapter of my life. All the other times I did not know what I was doing and why. This time I did. It will remind me not to do it again. It will commemorate LeKZ too, and all other S.I. survivors, and I think that for me will help me to not have to do it again.