Expanding the Definition of Self-Harm: A Pop-Up Book

Yarrun XIX · 2013-09-19 00:17:58

The thought occurred to me earlier that society has a very narrow view of self-harm. That is, it's pretty much limited to cutting, which is generally seen as something that teens do when they're acting out.

We should expand that definition to all repeated, compulsive behaviors that result in injury. Over-exercising. Tobacco smoking. Reading books that you hate. Dating people who will probably hurt you and not be sorry. Washing your hands so often that they bleed. Masturbating so often that it causes chafing.

Make it something similar to OCD, or list it as a possible symptom. Emphasize the importance of breaking harmful habits. Send armies against it. Take all the money being used to prevent gay people from marrying and put it to helping people break bad habits. Start a petition. Start twenty. Cancel eighteen of them and send the signers over to the other two. Make an identity for these poor souls, have Tumblr feast on the entrails of anyone who does them wrong. Create a pill to help with the issue, and then another pill when the first one gets shut down by the FDA. Have people smuggle in the first pill from second-world countries. Have them riot in the streets to make them legal. Have them riot for any reason, any reason at all. Let that become self-harm. Write a letter to your representative while the city goes down in flames. Die. Die screaming.

Crystal · 2013-09-19 00:21:15

…

Imipolex G · 2013-09-19 00:21:25

dude you need to

find some pictures of cute kittens or something

Salix Babylonika · 2013-09-19 00:53:48

k

Viani · 2013-09-19 01:23:29

The thought occurred to me earlier that society has a very narrow view of self-harm.

Society has a very narrow view of absolutely everything, that's why it's a society and not a regomitate or consortium.

Yarrun XIX · 2013-09-19 07:52:11

Okay, looking back at this after a night of sleep, I realize that I may have went a bit overboard.

I am...sorry for any distress that I've caused. I'm fine. Really. In fact, I'm kind of finding this funny.

I just wanted to get the idea out there, you know? That things we repetitively do are sometimes harmful but not generally considered self-harm and maybe we should do something about it.

And I have no idea where that last part came from.

Yarrun XIX · 2013-09-19 07:56:54

Oh, and

Viani · 2013-09-19 14:35:46

Heapers? creeped out by things away from the norm? Fucking Hypocrites I say! throw them into the brazen bull!

Violent exercise in an attempt to be viewed a certain way is self harm, just not the major one that psychiatrists are accustomed to dealing with (dieticians have to deal with this method quite a lot)

Sredni Vashtar · 2013-09-19 17:12:41

Excessive exercise is often a manifestation of eating disorders like anorexia, which is in and of itself a kind of compulsive self-harm. It is just that people who are not familiar with the signs and trained to pick them out tend to overlook it. This is part of the reason why anorexia is generally under-diagnosed in men: The behaviours are generally different, and so harder to observe.

Yarrun XIX · 2013-09-19 18:19:29

I'm pretty sure I've read about the excessive exercise bit before (though in the context of addiction rather than eating disorders).

It's why it's the first on the list. Increasing in order of ridiculousness.

glennmagusharvey · 2013-09-19 18:43:29

Would excessive exercise be excessercise?

Yarrun XIX · 2014-10-15 12:59:12

http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-creepy-ways-corporations-are-turning-you-into-addict/

Hah! Jokes on you, David Wong! I beat you to it! Always one step ahead!

Yarrun XIX · 2014-10-15 13:06:20

Besides that, this being the first David Wong article in a number of months, I can better see the problems his stuff has.

It's all "everything is terrible and that's simply the way it is, so don't bother changing it". Rubbish. If there's no point in it, then why bother wasting our time explaining your theory? Just to drum up views and fellate your fang ego? Screw that.

Odradek · 2014-10-15 13:07:26

nm

Odradek · 2014-10-15 13:08:27

David Wong is a deeply unhappy person, and I hope he works out his views eventually.

Just wish he didn't air out his aporias before the public

Yarrun XIX · 2014-10-15 13:15:44

Frankly, I'm all for studying more benign obsessions/addictions and the effect they have on us compared to more destructive ones. And it is true that consumer psychology is a shady, probably evil thing that exists.

I'd wait for the results of those studies to come out first before calling it the end of all things. And as apathetic as I am about corporate manipulation of pleasure, we're far from completely screwed by them. Real accomplishments are still a thing that exists.

Aliroz · 2014-10-15 17:05:20

I think that an important thing to remember is to do a variety of things. Variety can be essential for balance, and for not letting any one thing (or a handful of things) get out of control.

eriophora zia · 2014-10-16 03:20:28

I think that non-physical forms of self-harm are usually referred to as self-destructive behavior. That's more or less a thing, but it's talked about less since it's usually not as visible, unfortunately. When it is visible, people often mistake it for someone being a bad person, too, if the behaviour also hurts those around them.

Expanding the Definition of Self-Harm: A Pop-Up Book

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