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Self injurious stims

ParentingAutism

My 17y.o has a stim where she picks her scalp or really digs her nails into it which is now causing bleeding. This has been going on for ages, years but the past few months it has gotten worse. It happens when she is tired, bored, understimulated or relaxed. 

What can I do to replace this? She comes up to me saying, my heads bleeding again. 

Parents

  • Hello I didn't want to start a new thread so I found this older one. 

    I am unsure whether what I am experiencing is a stim - because I guess I am still hazy about what that is, but this is the problem I am facing. 

    Something on my body will itch and I will itch and itch it until it scratches all the skin off. Then it will scab up and I will absentmindedly itch that then it bleeds and it won't heal because I'm always scratching over it again and again.

    I'm worried because I have a long history of intentional self harm, but this doesn't feel like that so much - I am itching almost absentmindedly a lot of the time. Or if I'm not itching with my fingers, I'll find I am rubbing my body part against a chair or table leg to get that same relief. It's very repetitive and I often don't notice I'm doing it. 

    I can't think of anything in my environment that would be making me itchy - and this isn't new - It has happened for years but I only just got diagnosed so am now putting 2 and 2 together...

    Any thoughts? 

  • in reply to Autumn_Trees

    I am not sure if this will help to put your mind at ease...

    Whilst I don't have a history of intentionally self-harming, I do have a history of scratching a persistent itch to the extent that I can end up bleeding as a result of removing the top layer of skin.

    If a part of my body is itching, which I am unable to get at with my fingers, I too will rub that area against a surface.

    In my case, it is something that I am always conscious of (unless I'm asleep), and it is always about trying to find some relief from a persistent itch. If a part of my body feels itchy, I am not the kind of person who can ignore it and put up with it because I just want the itching to stop.

    In some instances, I find the cause can be attributed to dry skin.

  • in reply to Sporadic Sparkly

    Yes sometimes I also itch in my sleep which means bleeding on my sheets (ah! a pain!) and that can't be helped. 

    I would like to think that this isn't self harm, I am not doing it intentionally, but it doesn't look good to have all these scabs and scars appearing all over my body in general. 

    Thanks for your input! 

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