Cutting is a serius issue

For many people, self-harm is a way of coping with problems. It may help you express feelings you can’t put into words, distract you from your life, or release emotional pain. Afterwards, you probably feel better—at least for a little while. But then the painful feelings return, and you feel the urge to get relief by hurting yourself again.
Self-harm may feel like an addiction. You want to stop,but you don’t know how. Or you may feel like you can’t give it up because it’s the only thing keeping you from completely breaking down. If that’s how you feel, know this: you deserve to feel better, and you can get there without hurting yourself.
Self-harm is a way of expressing and dealing with deep distress and emotional pain. 
Hurting yourself makes you feel better. In fact, you may feellike you have no choice. Injuring yourself is the only way you know how to deal with feelings like sadness, self-loathing, emptiness, guilt, and rage.
 you try to keep what you’re doing secret. Maybe you feel ashamed or maybe you just think that no one would understand. But hiding who you are and what you feel is a heavy burden. Ultimately, the secrecy and guilt affects your relationships withyour friends and family members and the way you feel about yourself. It can make you feel even more lonely, worthless, and trapped.
It’s important to acknowledge that self-harm helps you—otherwise you wouldn’t do it. Some of the ways cutting and self-harming can help include:
* Expressing feelings you can’t put into words
* Releasing the pain and tension you feel inside
* Helping youfeel in control
* Distracting you from overwhelming emotions or difficult life circumstances
* Relieving guilt and punishing yourself
* Making you feel alive, or simply feelsomething, instead of feeling numb
* “It expresses emotional pain or feelings that I’m unable to put into words. It puts a punctuation mark on what I’m feeling on the inside!”
* “It’s a way to have control overmy bodybecause I can’t control anything else in my life.”
* “I usually feel like I have a black hole in the pit of my stomach, at least if I feel pain it’s better than feeling nothing.”
* “I feel relieved and less anxious after I cut.The emotional pain slowly slips away into the physical pain.”

If you cut to express pain and intense emotions
* Paint, draw, or scribble on a bigpiece of paper with red ink or paint
* Express your feelings in a journal
* Compose a poem or song to say what you feel
* Write down any negative feelings and then rip the paper up
* Listen to music that expresses what you’re feeling
If you cut to calm and soothe yourself
* Take a bath or hot shower
* Pet or cuddle with a dog or cat
* Wrap yourself in a warm blanket
*Massage your neck, hands, and feet
* Listen to calming music

If you cut because you feel disconnected and numb
* Call a friend (you don’t have to talk about self-harm)
* Take a cold shower
* Hold an ice cube in the crook of your arm or leg
* Chew something with a very strong taste, like chili peppers, peppermint, or a grapefruit peel.
* Go online to a self-help website,chat room, or message board
If you cut to release tension or vent anger
* Exercise vigorously—run, dance, jump rope, or hit a punching bag
* Punch a cushion or mattress or scream into your pillow
* Squeeze a stress ball or squish Play-Doh or clay
* Rip something up (sheets of paper, a magazine)
* Make some noise (play an instrument, bang on pots and pans)

Try to make themfeel loved. Cutting is a serious issue, but sometimes you have to let the person hit rock bottom before they will get any help

the effects...
the worst one is the scars. even the smallest cut leaves a thin white line that won't go away. you're stuck with it, and eventually someone asks you. and you can't just do one small cut anyway, you end up going to that for stress over and over because...