Not much. A fat person punishing himself by not eating cupcakes takes some mental strength over a long period of time (longer, the more painful I assume). A quick cut doesn't seem to take much brain power, unless you consider being depress and sad a serious mental task.

I'm pretty sure it takes willpower to willingly cause yourself physical pain.

Wouldn't it be a lack of willpower? I mean, if you had willpower, you'd just hit yourself.

Rob, you're making blanket statements, sort of.

Lots of people do it to 'see why would care'. That bugs me. But the times when I have caught someone with gashes that they cover up (wearing wristbands, long sleeves, or sometimes they do it in other places, :gbk:)

It makes me sad and I have to deal with lots of people around me doing it. Particularly girls. When I talk to them about it, they say that they can kind of get a release, and instead of feeling emotional pain, they can kind of work out their frustration through physical pain. I got one girl to start doing pushups instead and now her **** are more perky and she is happy, so it has improved my scenery, and her life.

That is how I can tell the difference. If they tell me they feel like noone sees them, or they want to see who will care when they see the scars, those are the attention whores. If they hide the cuts and I confront them and they talk about emotional release and the like, I generally take them more seriously.

True.

That's horrible, Potato. It's hard to see someone you know who was doing fine slowly ride onto a troubling path.

The reasons people change and how to stop them from going bad, for lack of better words, is up to those sociologists.. ..

Mostly to hide them from their parents.

Common girls want attention.

I forgot to check back to this thread! Whoops.


Those are healthy, rational methods of self-"punishment", and the decision to do such a thing would be led by rational thought. Inflicting physical pain on oneself is a more immediate, emotional compulsion, and isn't always done in visible ways. A person might chew his cheeks, or overextend a joint, for example.
I don't doubt that there are those who self-injure solely to seek attention, but they certainly aren't the majority of cases.