Please keep in mind that unfortunately, not everything on this list will work for everyone. Optional You must listen to it all the way through before getting up and harming yourself. Triggering, soothing, it’s all up to you. Make a playlist of songs exactly how you’re feeling at the moment. When you’re triggered you must read the book front to back before you’re allowed to do anything to yourself. Either from tumblr, real life or what have you. Take a notebook and hand write all the nice things people have said to you. The pulling sensation causes pain and could curb your urges Pull the hair on your legs and cut it with your tool. Wrap bandages around your area of SI(draw bloody patches on it if you must). (If you burn, make sure you have something to smother potential fire with nearby!) Write what you’re feeling in a book, then use whatever you normally SI with to destroy the page. It will also leave red marks there for a day or two which could be good or bad, depending on where you do it It’s unlikely to cut you (unless you keep going over it.dont recommend that) but thin pens are sharp and scratchy and cause the closest thing to the sting from cutting I have found.

Get a ballpoint pen, the finest one you can find, and when you want to cut use the pen to make lines. A piece of advice, it is better to focus on something that’s NOT stress or trigger related. This is your personal time to relax and do whatever you want. Try to observe everything that is going on around you in the moment. (You don’t even have to sit in the stupid pretzel position!) If you’re going to cry, then let the tears flow. Take deep breaths and try to control your heart beat. Put on some light music or find a quiet place and try to clear your mind. Or for burns/bruises etc, you can wait until it heals to ‘X’ point before doing it again. This is also a pact you can make with someone who desires you to stop SI. It’s an alternative to driving yourself crazy by trying to stop cold turkey. For every cut you have, you have to wait one day to cut again. Feel free to dance like a hooligan as well. Just get some music, somewhat cheerful preferably, and tune out the world. One of my various mottos: Headphones in, world out. Whatever you’re comfortable with works! A very simple one, blast music. It’s a healthy way to express emotion, which is highly beneficial. Sit and draw, or read a book.

You don’t have to be good at it nobody will be critiquing your work. Exercise is a natural way of releasing endorphins, a similar reaction to harming oneself. Good hobbies to pick up are painting, or writing in a journal. It’s a good idea to get some fresh air where these thought’s don’t seem to trap you. When you want to cut, go outside and distract yourself, or pick up a hobby. Or, instead of cutting you can buy brand new sharpies with semi sharp edges and draw on the undersides of your arms. It’s a physiological thing. Your mind sees red where you want to cut, and sometimes the urge goes away. Draw on yourself with sharpie/draw pretend wounds where you want to cut. When you feel the need to cut snap the rubber band until the urge subsides.

ALTERNATIVES TO SELF-HARM Snap a rubber band around your wrist.įind a thick rubber band and put it around your wrist.

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