Why does cutting relieve so much stress from my life?

Because it makes me feel in control of something. I feel as if all the anger and hurt that I'm feeling inside gets released in every cut and when I see the blood it's like I can see my pain leaving my body.

It distracts you from the emotional pain you are dealing with at the moment and replaces it with controlled physical pain.

We all face pain in any form everyday. They weren't requested. So, when we decided to feel pain, there must be a reason behind it. Perhaps, the pain from the blade splitting the skin can distract you from the pain you have held in your chest throughout the year. Yes, it relieves so much stress. For a moment it does. But it doesn't solve any of the problems. It leaves you a scar. It harms the beauty of your skin. Do you know what feels better than blood coming out of your wrist? A hug, full of love, no words. We all know that everything could go wrong in anytime or anywhere. So, don't go and tell people "why would you do that?" "why would you harm yourself?" "that's not good for you" "you look ridiculous, wake up!" Hug them instead. Make them FEEL the love they deserve. Make them FEEL that they worth it. Make them FEEL that there will always be a support and MEAN IT.

It doesn't relieve stress from your life, it's a tricky feeling of relief that leads to an addiction.

Well, in my case, self-harming became a way of telling me that no one could hurt me as myself. That I was the only who could cause me more pain than the people who are around me and hurt me. It also helps to control myself from doing something reckless. And by reckless I mean, doing something really stupid... There are times when we have a really low self-steem to the point of thinking of being "useless" or a "burden". Some people with those thoughts prefer to express them through their physical body by self-harming. For example, my personality is ugly so I should make my body ugly too. Thoughts like that.

Personally, it was a snap back into reality. It made me see what was going on around me and forced me to deal with things head on.

You know, cutting yourself is mostly punishing yourself, thinking that you deserve pain, or mental pain is so strong that you want to overcome it with physical pain , because you think that is easier. In both ways it can wrongly feel reliving, because in the first case, you get the pain u think u deserve so it helps for you to reduce the guilt, because u got punished, in the second case, focusing on the physical pain can drift your mind from the mental and that harder pain. But it is never the right solution, in the first place, you can get infection, secondly as a human being hurting yourself, your body effects your mind in even worse ways, it may become a habit which is not healthy at all.

It releases a temporary! Substance that reduces stress....but only for a little while and you return to even greater stress

When something bad happens in our lives, often we seek a distraction. Sadly for many people this is found via self harm. It acts as a cathartic release or gives us something else to focus on but often is not a long term solution and I would strongly advice against it.

When you self harm it can cause a release of endorphins - which are the body's happy hormones and help to relieve stress. These hormones are also released during exercise, which is why exercise can be such a good alternative to hurting yourself.

You're using the cutting to take away the emotional pain your feeling. When you cut your self you feel the physical pain. You know its real. It gives a sense of relief to whatever you may be going thru emotionally at the time. Sometimes it could be the site of your own blood that's compelling to watch. You may be numb to your emotions and need to feel physical pain in order to know your alive. A lot of people assume people cut because they don't want to live. That's not true in most cases. They do it to be alive to feel alive the pain sets you free in a way. Even if only for a short time.

Cutting may feel like it relives stress from our lives because we may be angry about something and we get our anger out on ourselves. But, there are much healthier ways to relieve stress what I do sometimes is read. Reading helps get your mind off of the situation for a little and helps you calm down. Music also helps, although it depends on what your listening to. Drawing is something else that helps, it doesn't matter if your artistic or not, you get your stress or anger out helps so much. Its like your physically getting it out of your system.

Good ways to ease stress are exercise, good sleep, and to practice coping skills. Yoga and short walk may help. Also keeping a journal about what makes you feel stressed. Learning your trigger as well.

to me, it was a coping mechanism. an unhelpful one at that. i felt and escape when i did, but realised that it was hurting others around me.

Basically when you cut, your replacing emotional pain with physical pain. So sure it helps, but whenever you cut you are taking a blade and creating wounds. If you ever feel the need to do this please contact someone on this sight. I bet they can help. :)

Well, many feel it is the physical act of switching the pain to your body, so you may "feel something" or "to not feel numb". As an ex-self-harmer, I had this mindset. In reality, it does nothing but harm your psyche more :( You can relieve stress in so many different ways, there are hundreds of ideas! Exercise, coloring, and listening to music being my favorite!