YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Does anyone do this when they're anxious or in a panic attack? For some reason, I didn't recognize it as headbanging behavior, but I've been compulsively punching myself in the head, and doing so far more in the past few weeks.

I've only done something like that once. I was trying to make myself cry and I started banging my head on the edge of the desk. (And it didn't even work...it just hurt.)

I banged my head a couple of times when I was younger. I was not dealing with things well and probably a little out of control. I also hit myself in the face a couple of times just out of anger with myself. I don't have any advice just wanted you to know you're not alone.

I remember doing this once when I was younger, maybe around 10-12 years old. I woke up in the middle of the night thanks to my drunk raging dad. He used to yell all kinds of stupid shit while being drunk, blaming me (never my younger brother as far as I can remember) for completely inconsequential things, which made me feel utterly useless. Can't really remember what he was yelling about this particular night, but I've probably never felt so hopeless in my entire life as I did that time.

I used to hit myself in the head when I would get frustrated and anxious when I was younger, usually if homework was stressing me out. Never to the point where it caused any real damage but it was something I did when I felt like tearing up whatever I was struggling with.

Yesterday I actually ended up biting my arm during a really bad fit of anxiety and now I have a bruise on my arm...it was a very random impulse. From what I'm seeing it seems like a lot of you also resort to self harm in high stress situations?

I have been a cutter, not recently, but I resorted to that more during bouts of disassociation rather than extreme stress. Maybe the type of harm like hitting/punching/biting is more a way of "snapping out of it?" I dunno, it's a weird and horrible feeling after you do it but sometimes I feel like I need the physical pain to stop my brain.