Self-Injury: When Pain Feels Good

By: Edward T. Welch

Anyone Feeling Alone?

No doubt you feel alone and isolated.  You are reluctant to talk to people who want to help.  When you do, they overreact.  People just don't talk about purposeful self-injury anyway.  No one uses it as a sermon illustration or mentions it in a normal conversation.  But though the behavior thrives on silence, those who self-injure number in the millions.  Those who want to help number many more than that.

Fiona Apple, Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson, and actresses Angelina Jolie and Christina Ricci are a few celebrities who have acknowledged past problems with cutting.  But this human experience has been around for a long time.  The bible describes ancient idol worshippers who "slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed" (1 Kings 18:28).  They believed this would appease their god.  The practice even appeared in Christianity during the Middle Ages, when self-flagellation and other harmful practices were common forms of penance.  They continue today in more private forms of self-denial.

There is little comfort in knowing you are not alone, but if other people have experienced it, maybe there is hope that you could be understood.  If other people have helped maybe you can help.

When Pain Feels Good Cont...