Sunburn As Self-Harm?

A Girl In A Complex World

Would you consider getting a sun burn as self harm? 

Countless ppl get burnt by the sun every day, many of them on purpose. Ppl spend time in direct sunlight for the sole reason to burn their skin, correct? But they don’t get confronted about causing self harm …

This sparked a very heated conversation between David and me yesterday. He said he feels like what I did was self-harm (I intentionally got burnt).

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Published by A Girl In A Complex World

9 thoughts on “Sunburn As Self-Harm?”

  4. I see WAY beyond those limiting labels that people have put on you. You are a freaking warrior of the highest order!
    “Don’t judge a person until you have walked a mile in that person’s moccasins” or “Don’t reduce a person to a label without having lived the experience of being reduced to a label. ” It is dehumanizing, and you are a living, breathing, unique, treasured human being. I am happy to have found your corner of the internet. ♥️ Thank you for sharing your thoughts through this blog and for being so welcoming to me leaving all my comments. 😁

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  5. For you to say I deserve a medal brought tears to my eyes. I don’t get much credit for being strong or for surviving. Instead I’m just a difficult, complicated person who has a ton of issues. That’s all most ppl see in me. Thank you, for being willing to see beyond all of that.

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  6. No.worries.
    So glad you had your therapist as support to dive deep into intentions. Sorry to hear you are battling urges to harm, and glad you have some support in place. To be honest, given everything that you are dealing with, I still think you deserve a medal at the end of each and every day! 🏅

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  7. Not sure why but I seem to have missed this comment! I thought I had replied. Guess not. My apologies 😕
    But you made a lot of good points and really got me thinking. I brought this topic to my therapist and it sparked a very interesting conversation. It basically all boils down to intentions I guess. At first, I hadn’t given it much thought but the deeper I went, reflecting, I realized that there were indeed some self harm intentions behind it. Yes, I wanted to tan my skin. But that particular incident …. well, it went beyond just wanting a tan. I was indirectly trying to satisfy the intense self harm urges I had been having that entire week by doing something that others deem ‘acceptable’.

    Thank you for the great points you made. It was wonderful food for thought ♡

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  9. hI!
    i’m curious as to the reason why you were intending to get your skin burnt. Did you just want it to go a darker shade, and part of that meant going red first? If that is the case then going a darker shade is important to you, and perhaps you are clear on the reason why. I, for one, am interested to hear more about that.

    For myself, I used to think that having a darker shade of skin meant that I looked healthier. And then I got ‘solar dermatitis’ that meant my skin came up in a very itchy rash on my hands/arms/legs from march to october when exposed to the sun. I had to cover up, and there was no chance to ‘tan’ my skin.

    When i lived in Indonesia for 3 years I experienced the inverse, people with darker skin wanting the tone to be lighter.

    As far as i’m aware, not being a researcher and simply going on what I have picked up here and there, historically, there was a time when it was fashionable to have very pale skin to show off your status in society: the working class would be out in the sun in all weathers and so their skin would be tanned and weathered. The rich would use umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun, for example. Please do correct me if I am wrong.

    I think this is an interesting topic because it shows different attitudes. The way it looks to me is that you are not trying to deliberately burn your skin because that would lead to peeling and blistering. You are wanting a change in skin tone colour. Is that right? And then it becomes interesting to question what that represents to you and if it is something you picked up along the way or if it is something that is your own choice because it really feels important in your own experience.

    David clearly has his own point of view, including a definition of self-harm that is bineg applied in a way that I would find challenging to hear without getting defensive!

    Would love to hear more if you feel drawn to sharing.

    Mosiah

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