• Replies 15 replies
  • Subscribers 12 subscribers
  • Views 384 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Trigger warning for behaviours related to mental health

H2whoa

To be more explicit than the title, trigger warning for self harm and suicidal ideation. 

I am posting this hoping that it is allowed as I would sincerely appreciate your perspectives. 

I am recently diagnosed autistic man with a long history of severe mental health issues. This includes a lifetime of self harming behaviour and suicidal ideation. With my recent diagnosis, my doctor suggested that the self harm behaviour in particular might be connected to my autism. It is very habitual and feels very routine. It is constant, not just linked to periods of intense depression. In fact, I feel very agitated if my routine is disrupted.

My doctor actually suggested that I reach out here to see if anyone has experienced something similar and what, if anything, has been helpful to escape the routine. It made a certain amount of sense to me that the highly routine nature of it might be related to my autism, as it was partly this that made the mental team refer me for an autism assessment in the first place. 

Parents

  • Yes I relate to alot of what you have said. It became a routine, something that I just did. I wasn't in mental distress as is often described when people self harm. It really had no purpose other than it was a part of my day. It certainly didn't start like that, and that was when i was undiagnosed at the time in my late teens, I was under a lot of stress not knowing why I couldn't cope in the world. I thought there was something fundamentally wrong with me. Then it became a routine. I too get very stressed if I can't do my routines. I don't self harm anymore. I think because I learnt more about myself and my sensory needs, I can meet these needs without doing damage to my skin. I hate having the scars. Are you able to do a sensory assessment? It could give you some ideas of why you do it. Re suicidal ideation. I get this frequently. I hate being autistic and not being able to do the things I want to do. I need to be able to control my life and environment in order to function. Suicide is almost a comfort to think about. If things get really tough and its things I can't control, then suicidal ideation becomes a comfort.

  • in reply to BlueHawk

    Don't want to get overly personal or gross out anyone... but from elementary school through highschool I picked my skin... and then it went from bad to worse in my 20's. I would peel my skin to the extreme... and not even be conscious that I was doing it (yeah... I bet I was the life of the party back then). I would always peel my face to the point it was raw and bleeding.  I had to keep my nails cut way short because otherwise I'd have a pile of skin stacked up while I was watching TV. I've never met anyone else who did that.

Reply
  • in reply to BlueHawk

    Don't want to get overly personal or gross out anyone... but from elementary school through highschool I picked my skin... and then it went from bad to worse in my 20's. I would peel my skin to the extreme... and not even be conscious that I was doing it (yeah... I bet I was the life of the party back then). I would always peel my face to the point it was raw and bleeding.  I had to keep my nails cut way short because otherwise I'd have a pile of skin stacked up while I was watching TV. I've never met anyone else who did that.

Children
No Data