Its true for me, I was abused as a child, and I used to cut. I used to be extremely depressed, and suicidal. Luckily I was afraid, and I was smart, I knew how it would affect others. I did try to kill myself once, but luckily didnt even reach the veins. Today I am still numb, but in a different manner. Thanks to my trusty SSRI, lexapro, and a lot of self medicating, I rarely feel depression, loneliness, or sadness in general. I used to hate being alone, but now I prefer it. In the past, using made me feel a strong urge to be around people, and to be accepted. Today, I prefer to use alone. I don't really have any friends, except for people I talk to online, and of course the friends that supply me with my drugs. The only people that I am in daily contact with is my family. Love seems useless, and nothing but an obstacle in the way of true happiness. What is true happiness to me? I dont know, but the happiness i get from using is good enough. In my opinion, I think addiction is a better route than self harm, although in the long run, they are the same. The big difference to me is that suicide is something a person or noone else around them can take back. It is a permanent solution. Addiction can be cured. Either way, if i could, I wouldnt do neither, but I am in too deep now. The only thing stopping me from putting a syringe full of heroin in my arm is that I do not have access to heroin, or much of anything. I dont know anyone who uses or supplies that kind of stuff. I guess for me, I've been there and done that, so I ask myself, why feel sorrow and cut myself when I can get high and feel great? It seems kind of pointless now. Why did I ever cut, what was I trying to achieve! I know that most of it was for attention, not that I really wanted to die. Now that I use, I no longer need that attention. It has gotten to the point where its hard for me to understand why people harm themselves by cutting or whatever, instead of just having sex or using drugs, or doing something that they know will make them feel good. In the long run, I think a good way to look at it is that suicide is a very bad permanent solution to feeling miserable, and drugs are a very bad temporary solution to feeling miserable. Getting high isnt going to be fun forever.