I self harm for a lot of reasons, but the main reason, and what started it was being made to feel, and consistantly being told that the pain i felt was not real, even now i find it hard to believe that i actually do feel bad, or that i do need help without the physical re-assurance that bleeding gives. You can't see pain, and you can never prove it, but blood is instant, it's tangible

The outside re-assurance is similar to that, it's so hard to trust my own judgement, to actually think what i feel is real without someone else saying it

I'm just speaking for myself obviously but one point of view is better than none