Bleed Like Me

A little tidbit to the insensitive people who seem to think cutting is a middle school fad that exists for them to laugh and point at: I am 30 years old and I've been a cutter since I was 18. I was OUT of high school when I started, and the last time I did it was three years ago. Since then, every day is a struggle not to give in to temptation. I want to cut myself still. I want to do it every day. The worst part about it is people like YOU. You are a lot like my family, who judged the shit out of me for my addiction. Every time they saw a new mark on me they would corner me and treat me like a fucking lab rat. They gossiped about it to all their friends right in front of me and talked about how stupid I was, that I was an attention whore, that I was fucked up in the head and they NEVER ONCE made the slightest attempt to understand how I felt. They NEVER asked me why I felt the need to do it. And they are the only reason I haven't sliced up my skin for the last three years; because I cannot deal with the humiliation and judgement they bestow on me when they find out, and they always find out!

But it's Hell, because this just makes me want to get release with a nice sharp pair of scissors! I am abstaining solely because my family members are judgemental assholes and not because I wanted to quit, because TRUST ME I NEVER WANTED TO QUIT. Cutting gave me the best feeling ever! So it's a choice between being judged and gossiped about and humiliated in public on a regular basis, or living with constant hunger pangs, because that's what it feels like to a cutter who can't get their fix; it feels like violent hunger pangs.

So if you think it's funny that I feel this way, FUCK YOU. Shirley Manson is right. You will NEVER comprehend it because you just want something to feel superior to.

This is probably my favorite song by Garbage. I think it to be beautiful, soulful, kind and understanding. By the way, please excuse the spelling- im terrably dyslexic :) Drummerchic, moose49 and errky39 as a masters student with a major is psychology I feel that I must try and make you see, that frowning and being annoyed at issues like self-harm, is both un-kind and ignorant. Self-harming is a serious mental dissorder, one that unfortunally affects many people. It is a disorder that is more common in women and affects more than 4% of the worlds population. It is appparent in all ages, from little children to senior citezens. I do understand why this issue has happen to annoy you so. I think anynone who went to school remembers that highly annoying clasmate who during one art lesson took a pair of scizors and cut herself, and when you painically demanded what on eath she thought she was doing, she replied with an air of imagined safastication 'oh, that. It's nothing. Dont worry about it..I just...like to see how much I bleed. Carry own with your drawing, dont worry about me'. Well something along those lines.

However, although most school children do practice self-harm as a plea for attention, I would suggest that if someone feels the need to that to themselves just to be noticed, than it is pretty obvious that they are having a pretty shit time in their lives, and instead of puffing and sticking up our noses, it is much more productive not to mention helpful to try and reach out to them and try and cheer them up so that they stop this hihgly unhealty practice.

Also, ifor most young adults and older people, self-harm is to them, what appologising is to you. They feel a lot of guilt but have no way of atoning for whatever bad deeds they have done. Self-harm is more often an act of self-punishemnt. Usually administrated by emphatetic and low-self-esteem charcters. Cutting, mutulation and in very extreme cases as amputation, it is a means of extreme release and an act of forgivness towards themselves.

It is also more commonly found in people who have little control of various aspects of theis lives. Be it that their partner, parent or employer pays little to no attention to their wishes and desires. However, instead of trying to fix this or remove themselves from under those peoples influence, self-harmers tend to believe that it they are to blame for being weak and punish themselves instead. I hope that this has been at least somewhat helpful and insightful. :)

It is more then just saying that people hurt themselves in different ways and wanting someone to be able to understand why they do and trying to get help but saying that you think your alone your not and that not everyone's cases are the same you want someone to "bleed like me" not to be judged. Because you can not judge someone without knowing the reason why "try to comprehend that which you'll never comprehend" we all have "scars" things we hide from the masses.

I honestly believe that this song isn't about self harm per se, but uses the phrases 'bleed like me' and 'you should see my scars' metaphorically. To me it is obvious that this song is more about understanding other people's pain and problems, and asking them to step into your shoes. "hey baby, can you bleed like me" is basically the question 'are you feeling pain like i am?' along with the suggestion that others should see that others are scarred by their own troubles too. I can understand why this song looks like a teenage angst anthem, but there is something very mature about it, espacially the way it is portrayed. I don't think this song is a cliche at all. Neither do i think it's 'middle school-ish.' This song is simply about expressing pain. Questioning how other people feel and for what reasons. Everyone is hurt by different situations and no one bleeds quite like yourself.

This song is not about literally cutting one's self. there are emotional scars. I don't see where people are getting the cutting from, though I understand that it's a serious problem.

I agree with rhcpf12 and other people that argeeed with rhcpf12. It's partially about people like drummerchick, "try to comprehend that which you'll never comprehend" the people that don't take the time to really understand where other people's emotional pain is coming from. To feel the emotional pain their suffering, to empathize with them "hey baby can you bleed like me."

This song basically says don't criticize someone when you can't even comprehend the pain they endure, because if you walked a day in their shoes, you would understand. It's a beautiful song.

dummerboy got it right. shirley herself is a former cutter and you will see that in most of her songs that its about her depression and her state of mind at those moments. i think this song's meaning is clearly seen. many people say that cutting or self harm is the weak way out, well i beg to differ. you wont understand it till you experince it. its like you want to sit here and make jokes about cutting and self harm well look at the scars i have. it is a real problem and i wish people could see that

this song is more deeply layered than it initially appears. to everyone who's saying the lyrics aren't vivid or accurate enough, i think you should take a moment to think about just that. people who haven't experienced cutting, eating disorders, substance abuse, etc have no idea what these problems are really like. they know how each one is defined, but whenever one of these subjects comes up, they tend to brush it aside and pass it off as just another coping mechanism for the weak. it appears as nothing of any personal importance at first glance - but if they took the time to really think about what each issue was and what it truly meant, they might have an entirely different attitude the next time it came up. the same can be said of these lyrics - a lot of people here have said the lyrics are unimaginative or dull, and some have even gone so far as to call them bad. but when you look at the message behind the lyrics, you're met with this deep, personal meaning that shirley obviously wanted people to see.

and while i'm on that topic. . . this song isn't just some teenage angst anthem. the entire point of this song is to encourage compassion even in situations you might not understand.

Lots of people misunderstand what self harm is. Some posters have the truth of it, that it varies from person to person. children sometimes do it for attention when even negative attention is welcomed. Men and Women (adults) tend to do it for very different reasons, even with otherwise fairly healthy psyches. Then there are a whole range of mental illnesses that either lend to self harmful behavior, or are in themselves self harmful.

For me, I suffered what I know now to have been a nervous breakdown after graduating high school just after the turn of the century. many things happened all at once, which left me with a fragile sense of self-identity. Aside from the physical scars that (10 years later) have only just begun to fade, I also destroyed my relationships with many of my closest friends of the day, and with my immediate family. You may think "what were you trying to achieve by doing that?" but that's just it, I was fighting to survive and make sense of the world with no reference point. I did the best I could figure out, which was incredibly destructive to me, but still was a way to survive and relate. I am fortunate to have had a very loving friend who stayed with me through the crazy, and who helped me when nobody else was trying or knew how to try. With her help, and eventually my own ability to help myself through therapy and Rx drugs and counseling, those days are largely behind me.

Before you let yourself judge somebody you see or know that has some of the obvious signs of self harm, try and be compassionate. you don't have to talk to them or make them your best friend, just try not to sneer. maybe, if you feel you can, wish them a nice day. It seems small, but little things like that can save somebody's life.

WOW! the many ways of self injury put so beautifully