My friend is cutting her wrists what do i do?

Answer 1

don't tell the police!!! not straight away anyway, is she about to kill herself?? if she is in a bad way try and get her family together and persuad her to go into hostpital voluntarily if the police come it'll be VERY stressful for her. of course if your in no doubt that she is going to die then you have to do it...



i'm assuming you mean she has started cutting herself regularly and not nessercarily in a life threatening way, other wise you probably wouldn't be waiting for people to type in answers.. really she could do with a talking to someone. self harm is fairly common. most people who harm themselves do this as an absolute last resort, because everythings got to confusing and they can't find find a way to understand or express the way they feel. they don't know how to cope. help comes in the form of learning new ways of coping, DBT (dialectical behaviour therapy) is proving to be useful for alot of people. this is a very structure course of therapy that involves individual work and group work, its about learning to recognise whats going on for youself and then learning techinques for coping. the only probelm is that if your in england theres usaually a horible waiting list unless you go private. you could recommend she chats to her GP, most GP's have access to primary care mental health workers now who will advise.


in the mean time if your able to talk to her about this and feel comfortable doing so, it might be worth trying to help her understand why she does it, asking questions like;

'what was happening around the time you started cutting?'
'what were you thinking just before the last time you cut?'
'what were you doing just before you cut?'

maybe ask her if she'd thought about keeping a record of these things, a diary or something.

hopefully by doing this kind of stuff she'll be able to see a pattern, that certain things trigger the intense emotions. she can hopefully then try to divert her self from harm by either,

1) avoiding triggers in future (not great as she might end up avoiding everything and creating more problems) or,

2) simply getting her self to somewhere where she feels safer, could be a friends house, hostpital, anywhere.

3) learning relaxation techniques to combat the rising bad feelings. a simple one would be to put a hand on her chest and make sure she is breathing from her belly, her chest should stay still, when your loosing it your adrenaline gets going and you tend to breath in shallow breaths from you chest, if force yourself to breath from you diaphram/belly then you almost can't help calming down. also longer out breaths than in....


sorry I'm rambling on, she really is best talking to someone (not nessercarily a Dr, there are loads of forums on the net where she can talk to other people in her situation who have learnt to cope) I can't even begin to condense enough adivse into this answer, try and look on;

http://www.selfharm.org.uk

hope this is of some use,

cheers, o

Answer 2

Get her to a doctor to find out what is goin on. If she hasn't cut herself very bad she could in the future. Cutting on wrists is definately a sign that something is wrong and your friend needs more help that you can give.

Answer 3

Make sure she knows you are there for her. If she is a minor, tell an adult or a counselor about it, so she can get the appropriate help.You may feel like you are betraying your friend, but it is really helping her because self mutilation usually indicates a mental health issue that needs professional help.

Answer 4

Please tell her parents. They need to know that she needs help. Sometimes to be a real friend, you have to do what's right, even though the other person may think that you betrayed her trust. When someone is doing something harmful to themselves, that is not a secret you are obliged to keep. You should give her a chance to tell her parents on her own, but let her know that if she does not tell them, you will, because you love her and do not want her to continue to do something that is harmful. You can offer to be with her when she talks to her parents.

Answer 5

ask her why she is doing that and inform her parents and the police and help her though this.she needs help

i had a friend who did the same thing but to her legs and arms. it was hard to even know what was going on but i didn't care i told-ed her doctor and he reported it but all in all she's better now she has been cut free for 2 years now. she still talks about it but that's healthy .
good luck ! not every case is a easy as mine was but its something that has to be done.

Answer 6

How old are you and your friend? If you are still living at home, talk to your parents. Let them know you are worried about your friend, you don't want her to hate you, but you think she needs help. (she really does!) If you can't talk to your parents (or you don't live at home) talk to a member of your church, ask them to "intervene" with you. If that STILL doesn't work, try talking to a doctor, get him/her involved, trick your friend into going to the doctor with you because you are scared about an appointment, then you guys can confront her together. It'll be hard, and she may be upset at you, but you are trying to help her, and potentially save her life. What's more important?

Answer 7

Ask her if she wants to stop. And if she says yes then you can help her. But if she says know make sure its not suicidal and besides that there isnt much you can do until she decides taht she wants help.

Answer 8

Get off the computer and call 911.

Answer 9

Tell an adult and let your friend know you will always be there ready to talk to her.

Answer 10

Tell her family. They are really the only ones that can do anything about it.