if anyone one here has recovered from selfharm help please???

Question

im kat and im 18 i have been a self harmer for 3 yrs and resently i've felt better i havent done it in three months good i know but its soooo hard what have you done to help yourself???? other than councilling!!!!! how did it feel for you when you first stopped im so scared i want to but i also want to get better!!!???????????/

Answer 1

It gets better, trust me. I went to therapy and got medicated. The one thing that helped me, was my therapist said to hold ice cubes in my hand everytime i wanted to cut. It helped and eventually I just didn't do becuase I didn't want to hold ice again. Be patient, and be strong. You'll get through this, I did.

Answer 2

Hi Kat,
I hope you still doing okay and not hurting yourself you must be a smart person to know that you need to stop this behavior soon or it can get out of hand. First off I want you to know that you not alone in this, it is a battle for anyone who starts. The one thing that has helped is to think every time you do this, is what you are going to tell your Children someday when they ask where the marks on you came form. And they will. You have to stand strong and if you are absolutely against counseling then find someone who will hold you accountable for your actions you are worth so much more than you think and maybe someday you will help others with this problem. Good Luck to you.

Answer 3

Yea, I know what u mean. It's almost like smoking in how it's an urge that u know will definitely provide some relief.

I found painting to be a successful replacement. Initially, I thought all my work would look like I was attacking the canvas, but it turned out to appear pretty sweet.

Get some friends together and play some sports or go out to some clubs and have some fun. All you gotta do is find something that evokes some deep passion in you so you ignore the desire to the point when it just fades away. Honestly, even though I'm talking to you about this right now and there's a conscious reminder of the circumstances, the feelings I used to feel aren't resurrecting at all.

GL and don't be afraid to move on.

Answer 4

I'm a self-harmer as well.
But I can't really give you any advice, because the last time I did it was two days ago, and I'm just pretty much trying to stay alive right now. I'm going to get COUNSELING (Ah!), so maybe someone can help me with the reasons why I do it.

You're quite a bit further along than I am, but there have been things I've done to keep me from doing it when I actually had the strength not to.
The most effective to date being to write about whatever's bothering me; and most of the time I find there was something bothering me, even if I wasn't aware of it. It comes out in the writing; my catharsis.
Maybe someday all I will need to manage my emotions will be things like writing, and exercise. But for the moment I still feel I 'need' to hurt myself.
So, I wish I could give you a recovery story, but alas I'm (hopefully) one in the making.

Answer 5

I know it's not the best answer, but I just couldn't think of any more places to cut where they'd never be seen. I'm an adult with a job and I just can't have scars like that. I don't want my doctor to see them either because I don't want the hassle. And it just got old.

Answer 6

First off, congratulations for going three months without self-harming! Yes, people can recover from self-harm. I have self-harmed for 15 years and I would almost consider myself recovered except I have slipped twice in the past 2 years. I went to counseling for a long time (to mainly work on other issues) but I did address my self-harm as well. I was terrified to stop self-harming. When the urge would come, I would freak out if I wasn't able to do it. My husband (then boyfriend) said it was like watching me go through withdrawals. I realized then that I was really addicted. He really helped me get through it, but I realize that not everyone has the kind of support that I do. But the biggest thing that helped me was I started to explore the feelings behind the need to self-harm. I discovered that I self-harmed because I was angry (I wasn't allowed to show any kind of anger growing up), so the solution for me was to get angry: scream, hit pillows, walk, to do something physical to burn out that energy. I also discovered that I self-harmed out of boredom and that my eating disorder was connected to it (I would binge and self-harm then throw up). I had to work on my eating disorder as well to work on the self-harm that came out of that place. I also self-harmed when it came to issues focusing on my parents. This was tied into the anger piece but at the same time was different. I had to work on all these different issues to help me start healing inside so I could stop hurting myself outside. I suffer from Bipolar 2 and self-harm can be a symptom of that, so I had to learn how to take care of myself in terms of my Bipolar 2. I understand being scared to stop, but after a while I discovered that hurting myself didn't solve anything. I still felt angry, bored, anxiety, whatever had caused me to do it in the first place. Yes, it would help for a while, but I discovered that the feelings would rush back almost triple-fold and I would freak out again. I also realized that in order for me to have a healthy relationship with my husband (and this goes for other relationships in my life too) I had to stop. I had to learn ways to confront what was making me feel the way I was, whether it was being angry at my husband over something or being triggered by something that happened in my past. I want to be healthy and I think that's the main drive. I just want you to know how proud I am of you that you made it three months and that I know that people can recover from this. The myspace page that I linked is hosted by a woman who recovered from self-harm. She has a lot of good support and info on this.

Answer 7

develope new friendships, and dont be afraid to talk about it. The internet is great for this, you can discuss alot of problems anonymously.