Struggling with Self-Harm and Disbelief from Family

Hi Madison, hurting yourself won’t gain your dad’s acceptance, approval, or love, and you put yourself at risk by doing so. Sometimes our parents and loved ones just can’t wrap their heads around what we’re going through mentally or even physically. It’s not because they don’t love you, it’s just hard for many people to understand things they haven’t experienced. I hear and understand your frustration and I think a way for you to feel better and also perhaps gain the acceptance you crave from your father is to sit down and talk to him. Tell him calmly and insightfully what you’re feeling and what you’re doing, answer any questions he might have, remain calm even if he gets upset, let him know you love him and it’s important to you for him to understand what you’re going through. I obviously can’t promise he will understand or that it will play out like a movie, but I believe it will and I think he will respect you for talking to him that way, and maybe be more understanding in the future even if he doesn’t understand fully. I hope this helps x

I understand this so so much, I sometimes still get into that headspace when it comes to my mother and wanting her to see the severity in my suffering. But something someone told me was that when it comes to parents like that, who are in denial of their children’s illnesses and are always thinking about what is “worse”, it’s rare that they’ll ever see different. Hell, I’d be in urgent care getting stitches and my mom would comment on the scars that “weren’t so bad”, which made me once again think about how I could do more. How I COULD be worse. But again..with parents like that it’d just be a endless cycle of destruction that you don’t deserve because your pain is valid and just because they choose to deny what you’re truly going through does not mean it’s not enough, it is. The fact you feel the need to do more already indicates enough how much pain you’re in

No absolutely not. We self harmers will always have people that say I don't believe you etc. That does not mean you should prove them wrong and get worse. Because in the end it's not a "see I told you" monent after, you just get worse until an accident occurs you can't take back. Why do you want/need him to believe you so bad? Are you seeking help or have other motives?

no no do not do that, that is harming you not him and if he doesn’t believe you now he won’t later