Kyle Smith
New member
past self-injury? I'm a 20 year old college student who has dealt with periodic episodes of severe depression since my teenage years. Finally after my latest bout that I needed to seek out professional help for the depression. The problem is that despite this being a recurrent problem, I have never discussed it with others. I used to self-harm in high school and have hundreds of scars on my upper arms from years ago, but I have kept them hidden from nearly everyone. The only people who have ever seen them were a couple of girls I dated in the past who saw the scars, but I was very short about it and never really discussed it. I haven't really had issues with depression since I began college until this semester. I don't know how to explain this to my friends, who think I am a laid-back, relatively happy college student without any serious issues (I usually am). This semester, however, I have been miserable and really need to talk to my friends about it for support, but I have no idea how to do this. I don't want to be that messed up friend who is burden on them, but I want to be more open about it because I need to openly talk about it for my own sake. Any advice on how to talk to my friends about my past depression/self harm without making it super awkward and looking like I'm not crazy?
Just to be clear, I'm a male, and I feel like the stigma about self injury is even worse for the men who do it, making it even more of an awkward situation.
Just to be clear, I'm a male, and I feel like the stigma about self injury is even worse for the men who do it, making it even more of an awkward situation.