If someone self harms for attention

[Mycherry]

And in their words they do can this still develop into a mental illness

There is nobody to see. My GP says they take the word of the psychiatrist.

I think you are being quite disingenuous here as you have had extensive MH support over many years but you refuse to accept the professional diagnosis.
It isn’t really fair to give the impression that the help wasn’t there for you as that could make other vulnerable people feel unnecessarily despondent.

The support was fantastic until they changed my diagnosis. Then things got really bad for me.

Apologies, you’re right - self harm is always a sign of mental ill health. Is that better? Because it’s certainly not a sign of being mentally happy and healthy.

See a different doctor then. Or go to A&E. Even if you have varied diagnosis no doctor should be refusing to treat someone who has wounds whether self inflicted or not or someone who is presenting with hallucinations.

She had 6 visits to A&E last year as she said on a different thread last week :

PurpleLovecats · 10/01/2026 12:00

Me - probably 40+ mental health appointments with CMHT
10 telephone GP appointments re mental health
2 x ECG
2 x blood tests
2 x GP appointments re blood tests/ECG
1 x asthma check
1 x BP check
4 x A and E trips for MH
2 x ambulances for MH.
DH- 1 GP appointment that led to:
2 x scans
1 x biopsy
1 further unrelated scan (routine)
Have self discharged from NHS so hoping for a quieter year!

I understand that but your post didn’t give that impression. Hopefully the venlafaxine you have just started will help and you will be able to arrange the private psychiatrist appointment soon.

One day someone who starts a thread about self harm on here might return to it. I think this is the third one now where I've shared something I keep very private in real life, in the hope it might help someone else, and the OP has ghosted. It makes me feel very uneasy.