New & Wondering...

Former Member

Hey guys....

I only just joined this because i thought it might help me....

So i thought i'd post this and see if anyone has any advice they could give me...

I'm a self harmer and haven't done it for 3 weeks...but i can feel the urge building up again....my best friend has said to ring her when i feel like i'm going to do it...But i know that i'm not going to be able to bring myself to in the moment and i'm going to let her down and feel so bad after that. But the feeling to do it again is so strong....I could never in a million years do it and then lie to her and say that i haven't, so i know if i did it that i'd tell her...

Any ideas?

Thanks

LauraO

Hi icanfly :wave:

Firstly welcome to TheSite boards, you have definitely come to the right place to get advice from other people around self harm, so I hope you find it useful. Hopefully you also saw our section about self harm on TheSite before you arrived here. It's got some really useful articles which you might find good to have a read through.

It's really great that you are talking to your best friend about your self harm. Often speaking to someone about it is the hardest thing to do, and a huge first step, so you should be proud of yourself for doing this and it sounds as though you have got a really good mate there :thumb:

Thinking about trying to stop self harming is an important step in itself, but it's not necessarily going to happen overnight, and I am sure your friend understands this. You might find this Steps to recovery article useful. it sounds as though you have already started thinking about steps 1 and 2 which is great. You might also want to consider talking to someone else as well as your friend, such as a teacher, doctor, parent etc. if or when you feel ready.

I think you are asking us what you can do to try and stop yourself from self harming, and it sounds as though calling your friend is a good distraction but it doesn't always work, is that right? Could you maybe think about some other distractions that may work better? Take a look at this for some ideas. You don't necessarily have to lie to your friend, but talk to her about how you feel and be honest. If you feel able to you could show her some of this information too, so she understands what you are going through and how she can help, and that it is something that may take a while taken step-by-step.

I hope this is useful to start with, and I am sure others will share their distraction and coping tips too.

Take care, and do keep posting, you've definitely come to the right place

LauraO