Self harm during an eating disorder

When I went to my blogger home page this morning, I noticed a post written by one of the bloggers I follow about Self Harm. When I saw this post, I found myself thinking 'I am really glad I have never done that'. But really, when I thought about this more carefully, I realised that I actually have.

When an anorexic person, or someone suffering from an eating disorder starves themself or makes themself purge, both of which I have done in the past, technically you are actually self harming. It is a common misconception that self harming refers to only cutting yourself but this is not the case. Cutting yourself is only one of many forms of self harm.


A definition of self harm, provided from this website, is; 'When somebody intentionally damages or injures their body. It is a way of coping with or expressing overwhelming emotional distress.' As you can see, nowhere in the definition of self harm does it specifically say how the self harm must be performed, therefore all anorexics really do self harm, whether they cut themselves or not.

I have honestly never even considered cutting myself, no matter how awful I have felt and I suppose this is because I had other methods of dealing with my overwhelming emotions, both by making myself vomit after eating an unhealthy food as well as by restricting my intake to a point of starvation.

So no matter what kind of self harm we may use to deal with our overwhelming emotions, they all have one thing in common, they are dangerous and destructive to our bodies so we therefore should not practice these types of behaviours. There are much healthier ways to deal with any problems or emotions we may be experiencing which can be just as effective, but do not harm us.

One of the things that I find really helps me when my emotions feel out of control is talking to someone I can trust or having a good cry. It may sound silly, but for me crying is a way that I am able to let eveything out. I always feel much better after having a good cry and the best thing about this is, that it cant harm you in any way. Bloggging is the other thing that helps me whenever I feel panicked or overwhelmed, just as writing in a diary would for people who dont have their own blog. I find that writing out your thoughts helps you gather your thought and better understand what you are feeling and why you are feeling it.

I am getting better at controlling my emotions now in ways that are not destructive to my health. I have not made myself vomit for almost three years and never intend to do so again. I have also learnt to nourish my body with the energy that it needs and deserves, regardless of how I am feeling.