i dont personally think theres a problem with cutting you deal with situations in your own way.

i cut majorly like ive carved the song lyrics of "me VS the world" by madina lake on my arm

and no im not an emo im just me i wear track suits mainly you may think im crazy but i think ill be crazy if i didnt do it i see no other way of controlling it. allthough i cut i never think about cutting to kill myself but i do think about taking millions of parecetmol and just goin to sleep just relive the pain i feel day to day im sure i would be forgeten the day after

if you cut dont worry about what others think just do what you need to do. DONT do it for attention just makes everytiing worse. dont do it coz others do it. you know if it helps if it doesnt hurt when you cut yourself.

Shallow are a lot more safer obviously. You don't want to push your limits considering you can die from cutting. I know with me it depends on how the bad the emotional pain is. Just the other night I had one that I thought wasn't gonna stop bleeding.

i just get fed up with people saying its an emo thing to do!!! emo's just show it off!!!

i know my limits and hardly ever go over them thanks for the concern nolongeranagel

ive had councilling and it hasnt helped it did for a short while then it became anoying that i was talking to a stranger that couldnt give a flying f^&k about me.

just want people to not see the cuts and see the person. its the individuals choice to do it so let them do it if they want to

i used to be a cutter. a sick one too.
id do it during skool when ever id stress
myself..
i would do it every day every min.

i have scars all over.
my arms legs, stomach and back.
anyways to answer your question.

my last cut was the deepest..it needed
stictches..

then came the metal institution.

and well you said youre scared...
if youre scared you wont do it any
deeper.

its mostly when youre in that really
deppressed moment. i stopped after.
i learned new was to release myself.

and i found out i wasnt only hurting
myself but my family, friends and boyfriend.

i cut for 5 years before i stopped.

and sumtimes i still get the urge to go back.

As its been said earlier, cutting does become addictive - so do as much as you can to not do something worse than what you're currently doing. I would cut mostly to get a break for the chronic pain I deal with, feel pain somewhere else for a while.

I don't like talking about this because it was a big problem for me and I would harm myself quite bad (deep gouges, third degree burns), but I can tell you that if you can get by with shallow cuts, then stick with that. It is embarrassing and unpleasant to spend night after night in a hospital ER to get stitched up. They WILL keep you to see a psychiatrist, and you could be hospitalised.

Deep cuts also leave big scars (even if stitches up). The scars become raised, so even a year or two after, they still can be seen through tight clothes. The scars will eventually pale, but they won't flatten and they will never completely disappear. Doctors and other medical staff will always ask questions about them and it is very likely that you will be treated differently, even if they are old scars.

That's my 2 cents worth. I just noticed its been close to two years since you asked this question, so I hope it's no longer pertinent for you and that you've found better coping mechanisms since then. I'm posting this mostly for myself, but also because there may be others considering that same thing.

well i dont do it anymore but i used to and frankly neither is good but if i had to choose i would say more but shallow honestly i know that you wont listen to this, i never did btu its very very addictive (i guess you already know that)but you hurt alot of people and not only are you scarring yourself btu everyone around you and people eventually stop beleiving your lies of i'll stop i promise. life changes forever it will never be the same and it will never be a happy life take it from someone who knows. i stopped but still struggle and it is still held over my head. i want it all the time and the rubberband doesnt satisfy me.sometimes i wish i never started

It is weird giving advice about this.
But I have been SI-ing for about 4 years. Ummm...I used to go really shallow with a stanley knife blade, I have scars which only show up in good light from that. My lower inner arm doesnt actually scar that bad, my ankles do and my upper outer arm do compared. I eventually went deeper and have worse scars from that. Then using blades from a disposable razor that I broke, I get worse scars from that (I guess its because they're smaller and harder to handle so I would need to kinda saw, rather than cut)

But I would say for me it was deep and less often rather than shallow and more often because you ALWAYS have to hide it then, its annoying when its hot and you have to wear long sleeves. But deeper is more dangerous, and the deeper you go the less effective the shallow is so you go deeper and deeper and deeper. Deeper has higher infection chance and scar rate. But if you REALLY need to SI use a clean blade/tool and clean up afterwards. Be careful. Like the person above me said, with a shaving razor it stings like a b*tch but you dont go very deep, theres a lot of blood but they scar pretty good (especially double-bladed)

This is MY opinion, I'm not saying anyone should listen to me or copy me.

If people are reading this who are thinking about SI but havent before, talk to someone, you really don't need this.

I don't know what to tell ya... Shallow sure would be 'safer'... whatever that means. But as far as satisfaction? I rarely cut anymore, but ever time I have in the last year I've needed surgery, stitches, or most recently, an amputation.

i think when u first draw blood, thats the worst, becuz its the beginning of a really bad habit. i used to cut, but then my pe teacher saw so i had a very short talk with my counselor(who ignored me the rest of the school year becuz it was may) and my dad had a talk with me afterwards. i only felt stupid for even doing it in the first place...even though they were just about 20 few shallow cuts...but still. i felt like an a$$ becuz of it. it took time but i got into the habit of writing down my thoughts everytime i got angry. i dont show them to anyone, im just keeping track of how many times my mom p*sses me off. lol.

i dont see whats wrong with cutting either, except for the people who actually CAN cut deeper. i only made meer flesh wounds, but they still looked like suicidal to my dad...he calls them scratches, which i think they should only be if u cut urself.

I never went deep with mine, I've had scratches from my cats that are deeper lol. and it was never anything much, SEB razor, just once or twice in an area I knew no one would see but me. I've actually never really admitted it before. it started when I was about 11, stopped during my last relationship since I wasn't allowed any privacy whatsoever so for those almost 7 years I went to piercing. just a couple weeks ago i did it again. I'm not in denial, this is why I've never admitted it, because so many people, so many of my old classmates, teachers, etc was told that it was such a problem, so many people hear about a cutter and its like "QUICK! GET EM TO THE MENTAL HOSPITAL!!!" again, I'm not in denial, I really don't have a problem with cutting, its just an escape for me. physical pain to help me deal with emotional. I don't have any scars really, only a few cause by childhood accidents like everyone else and a couple from those deep cat scratches I mentioned earlier.