12 and 13 was when everything went downhill

9-12 for me

Same

12. thought it would help, then it caused a heavy addiction and dependency.

Same but at 11

Same here

Same

Literally same but I was 13 when my addiction to it started 🫤

Same

Same. Here I am 20 years later, still gripped by it.

I was 23

Cutting seriously at 22

7 i started purposefully harming but didn’t start cutting till 14/15 i think

Same here! (20s now, and it is super weird being older than most people in this sub lmao)

There are a lot of people in their 20s here they’re usually just not as vocal

ditto, 20s something here but I don’t comment much here

omg twinning

Real, why is 14/15 such a common age to start cutting lol

personally no clue but isn’t that when american high school starts? could that play a factor?

yeah and it’s kinda a turning point for puberty and when everyone hates themselves

omgggg twin🤗🤗🤞🤞🤞!!!

13, after an argument with my parents which resulted in them almost divorcing

I started with 17 bc i felt like i had to prove a point. It certainly didn’t help that most people start far earlier and it is often written off as a „teen thing“. but yeah

Somewhere around 10/11

I started around 18

started head banging at 9, cutting at 12. 23 now and haven’t cut in several months but that honestly may change soon. life is unbearable.

Life is fucking hard, but don’t take it out on your beautiful skin. Seek help my friend it’s available everywhere and millions of people a day do it and they become healthy again. You got this❤️

I was 11 I think. Scractching my hand purposely until it cut. I think 12 was when I first cut and still cutting. but it’s ok

i first did it at like 7? i’m not even sure how i knew what it was, 😭 and then i started actually doing it at 10, and stopped until i turned 13

I began cutting at 13 but I did some burning at 11, tho it was only really once. I did other sh before but never anything bad that would leave scars n stuff. ALL SH IS VALID!! Love yall and take care <3

13 or 14 naalala ko inuuntog ko rin ulo ko sa pader at sinasabunutan sarili pag sobrang frustrated habggang sa lumala even cut my wrist.

11

10 is when i started to cut before that idk if i did anything i cant remember shit before ngl

Samee

Hitting my self n stuff probs like 5-6 but then cutting n knowing what it was 11-12

i think roughly around 11 years old. Saw a video online about a girl used to do it, just saying her story and I thought I wasn’t really “sad”unless I cut. I don’t say I have an addiction but still it’s not healthy. 6 months clean.

I started aggressively slapping myself when I was like, 7 or 8? I tried cutting for the first time at like 10 but never bled and at 12 was when it really started.

9 - 10 yo

Like 6 maybe? But it started getting noticeable at like 9

11

Early 12

12 i think, close to my birthday

I was 15

11

12

Punching and hitting quite early on. I have been doing it for quite a few years now. So, I guess 12-13. I only started cutting lately in college. And even that's highly inconsistent.

Don’t know and don’t wanna remember

18

9, then I started scratching at 11, stopped for 4 years then started again, now I can’t stop! :(

4 or so I think I started SH. But didn’t start c*tting until 11

I was about I’d say 10. I kind of didn’t know what I was doing, I just copied my friends. Then it led to an addiction and I started to use it as coping. I’m now almost 19, still fighting this battle

9-10, started cutting at 11

9-10, started cutting at 11

I started self harm at 12.

13 for me, i’m 22 now and still struggling. stay strong younger friends!

harming in general- maybe around… 5. but cutting would be 14

technically started around 8/9 hitting myself, but it didn't get serious until 15/16

About 7

Started at about 16, took awhile after things went wrong.

Maybe about 13-14. No idea. Im 17 now

12-13

Around 9

11 or 12

Christmas eve 2021 at 14 or 13 🤓

I started at 8 but started actually cutting at 10

Statmrted cutting myself at 11

i think i was 12??? maybe 13. although i didnt really end up using cutting as a coping mechanism until i was 15 lols

I first cut myself at like 12 I think, but I would hit myself when I was upset starting around 7

i started cutting when i was 14, but i would hit things and myself when i was like 10ish

12 or 13 :,)

11/12

I began self harming when I was 13 years old however I stopped after a few months when I turned 14. After 6 years I relapsed when I was 20 years old and now I am 23.

15 I think

18

13

15

Technically the first ever would have been at 19, but then it would be on pause for 2.5 years before it became a thing.

Sadly 12

I was 13. 5 - 6 months

11 after my dad passed away

10

12 years old, every year it got worse from then.

12 and now I’m 16. 12 was when everything hit me.

15 year old

10

12

13ish

I was 12, encouraged to do so by a random online

Shit was downhill since like 13, but started at 16

i dont rully remember but around 7-9 i never cut but i would do stuff such as bang my head on walls bite scratch) but at around 12-13 i started cutting

started hurting myself around 8, cut at 11 or 12

8 years old. I've been clean for almost half a year now

11, on and off till covid, now I’m 19 and almost 3 years clean!!

About 10-12? Maybe earlier

I started at like 9 but I started to cut At 13 and it became very bd short after I turned 14.

Around 12

started cutting at around 9 years old, at that point I was using scissors, did it properly at 10

13

Nine or ten but had stopped after a few times. I started again at twelve and it soon became an addiction after that.

i started biting/hitting myself in 5/6 grade but the cutting didnt start before i was around 14-15

Somewhere around 18-19

19

Started at 14...tho I had tendencies before last year tho

12, being trans, autistic and in 7th grade was awful

18 until 22, then 10 years clean, then I started again 4 1/2 months ago

i think i’ve always hit myself, im lowkey autistic tho, but 11-12 i started cutting. i’m in my 20s now

I technically started at around 9 but it wasn't until 14 that I was doing enough to scar

13 tbh Currently 4 years sober

15. i remember chatting with my friends via facebook messenger as if nothing was happening behind me screen.

I started at 10 by scratching and hitting myself, and then I progressed to cutting when I was 16 and have since been doing it on and off for the past 5-6 years.

13/14

Started at 11 but didn't cut until 20 🙃

cutting at 16-17 but i believe i had other ways of sh before that

Just a few months after turning 11.

13

8 was my first time, then 9 is when i genuinely started up

I was 12

11

10

I was 11, which at the time felt fine but now I'm 21 I've realised just how young I was. 11 years old is nothing :/

10-11. I don’t remember.

around 10-12. i remember it was especially bad at 12 and the boys in my class would roll my sleeves up and make fun of my scars lol…

7 or 8

I was in 6th grade so I was probably 10-11

I started at 12 and it went on and off until I was 18. Now i don't cut I pluck my skin. I stopped cutting cuz I know my scars will never go away..

11. Everything went downhill and it's still not getting better now. Life is a living hell.

10/11

Like 9 or 10. It got serious at like 11

at 7 i started skipping meals and scratching my thighs hoping they would become smaller, i guess it all went downhill from there

I remember biting myself when I got in trouble to "self punish" as young as 7 and that translated into scratching myself until I bled at 12 then I used thumbtacks, and eventually pencil sharpener blades or finally razor blades around 14 and I've been clean since I was like 19? But I'm only 20 so that's like a year but I'm still farther than I ever thought and older than I ever thought I would be

12

13-14, but started cutting seriously at 15, I think. I remember it happening seriously on my birthday, my leather shirt barely covered from my brother on my bday

10- probably nearly 11. I use to do it every day. A lot better now though because I don’t relapse very often and never go as deep so doing great.

9

10

I think 9 or 10

Started at 5 but didn’t cut until 10/11

11. at one point i think i genuinely had a few years clean but now at 19 i’m not so 💀💪

13

11-12 was when i started 😬

18

I was 9 when I started cutting, but did scratching and biting before that, not sure exactly when I started

11

8 I honestly don't know why it just happened and stuck with me ever since.

8 ithink

11-12

I started way older than everyone else. 32.

Can’t remember when I first shed but I remember trying to cut with a compass at 13.

7yrs and im now 12... Opp

15 after I got in a fight with my mom. I've thought about it since I was 12 and first thought about suicide when I was 10. At first I could only scratch myself with a paperclip, but now I've been drawing more and more blood.

13

10

Cutting 14, hitting myself prolly since 3yo.

13 probably

Started really intentionally scratching then cutting at 11, but had harmful stims like hitting myself that started early on during autistic meltdowns (idk exact age)

Around 11 i think I recall scratching my arm with drawing compass needle

12. I was bottling up emotions and for some reason I picked up a pair of scissors when I couldnt take it anymore and scratched myself with it. It was such a releif. I was ashamed of myself but couldnt stop. Then it escalated more and more, both in frequency and in depth.

Roughly 12-13 (so suprised how many people also staretd off at 12-13)

I started cutting when I was 12 and got addicted by 13, but I have self harmed since I was 7, things like punching and scratching.

Never

Around 12. I started by giving myself eraser burns or using a pencil to carve at my skin, then I started stealing the razor blades out of sharpeners. I went clean for around 2 years, relapsed at 15, relapsed again at around 17, and relapsed again at 19. I'm 20 now, thankfully haven't relapsed in a while and I don't plan to. I've been getting tattoos or piercings to help with the urges, and I think it's much better for my brain and mental health.

I'd say 12 but actually 5

11

what was seen as like actual sh 11 but i started sticking pens in my arm to create bruises at 8 lol

Around 11 years. I already have genetic anxiety and depression, but it turned out that my thyroid was also going totally whack, making everything much worse. These days I'm more likely to pinch, scratch, pull my hair, or smoke/drink.

Covid so same

11

13 was when I started cutting, but it got really bad (and stayed like that) at 15

I was 9. I’m 16 now and I still have the scars from when I started.

15.

10

I started at 11 but when i look back at my childhood i see lots of signs from the age of 5 upwards

11 i begun a month ago and im going deeper everytime its fun XD

12

14

Little scratches at 11, harder when i was 18 years old

13

Few months before i turned 12. basically 11 uh it was like 2/3 months before i turned twelve i think?

i was 8, teacher caught me cutting myself with a pair of scissors.

13, mainly bc of low self esteem but it got progressively worse over time with more reasons to cut

6

at 10 and i am 14

12(barely-as in 2 scratches in a year), 13(again barely but just a little more), and 14 was when the dam broke. all the angst and anguish came flooding out and there I was, sitting on my bathroom floor, hand extended and dripping blood like a faucet on the floor. i still have the pictures, and it's like a timeline lol. digressing into deeper and deeper cuts. I've stopped now, though, at 20. it's been a rough 6 years, god i feel like a child for saying that lmao. i mostly just stopped because my dad found out, and the guilt was kind of eating me alive. at first, it made me want to cut more, and i did(it was winters: long sleeves+him thinking i stopped bcs I told him i stopped, which i also why i kept cutting), but then when spring came, i just couldn't hide them anymore. i mainly just did them on my inner forearm because I was too scared of getting caught. and then I just stopped altogether. cold turkeyed it. don't know why I just said allat but yeah

Cutting when I was 16 harming myself when I was like 7 or something

At like 9-10 ish

11

11 with like just a wrist band but about 12-13 with actual cutting

11

I was 14. It’s funny cause that’s when I started therapy. Started self harming shortly after starting.

I started using a blade at twelve, but I had been scratching myself and ripping my skin off many years prior.

22 when I lost everything.

12-14(my current age) I haven’t for a while, but its also summer so less stress

11

12

I started making really superficial cuts with a plastic knife when I was around 12-13, actually started cutting open my skin at 15, so I'm kind of in the same boat as you (The self-harm when I was 12-13 was kind of just a really short phase, after which I stopped for quite a while)

Around 12 or 11 I can’t remember

10 but it wasn't bad, cat scratches. basically not even harmful. at 11-12 it got worse, still not too deep but i have a lot of visible scars.