We need to talk.
Pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable.
I've started cutting myself.
At this point 99% of readers sigh and think 'oh god, has she regressed to self-absorbed teenage?* The other 1% smile and think 'she's one of us'
It began innocuously enough eighteen months or so ago, when I decided that after years of neglect, I would grow my nails. I am a nail biter, but if I take the time and trouble, I can grow elegant nails. My middle nails grow very quickly and are very strong. I have not worn nail varnish for over a month and they both broke at the end of last week. Even so, they both still protrude beyond my finger tips.
Three times this year I have managed to stab myself in a very delicate place whilst in the Ladies at work. For weeks, I have been waking myself up by stabbing my right palm with my right middle finger. I now know the secret of stigmatatisation.
One day last week when doing my daily cleansing routine I managed to scratch a spot I did not even know was there, the result being blood pouring down my face, like a razor nick.
Last night, I woke myself twice by scratching my face and today I have three rather obvious scratches down my cheek, as if I have been in a cat fight.
When my brother was a newborn baby, still in hospital, he was issued with little mittens to stop him scratching his face. But he grew out of it within days. It's not something I've ever been prone to before.
* my response, I never progressed from...
