We are clay in the hands of Jesus

Self Harm

What can I do right now to fight an urge?

How do you feel right now……… Angry Squeeze ice. Do something that will give you a sharp sensation, like biting a lemon. Excercise. Take a walk. Crumple pieces of paper. Rip them up. Take a cold shower. (But make sure the presence of razors won’t make the urge worse.) For some people, it works to imagine getting even with the person who is making them so angry. For others, though, this only makes the urge worse. Listen to angry music. Sing along with the tape or CD. Dance. Scream. Loudly. Snap a rubber band against your wrist. Cry. This releases emotions as well s making you feel drained and tired, and if you sleep, things will usually seem better when you wake up. Clean or do other housework. Beat up something that isn’t alive, like a pillow. Play a musical instrument, or bang pots and pans. Cut up cardboard or an old piece of clothing or fabric. Flatten aluminum cans for recycling. Pick up a stick and hit a tree. The logic behind these things is that when you are angry, you have a lot of energy. Most of these are ways to release that energy without self-injuring. Sad, Depressed Take a bath. Put bubbles in it. Read a book that you like. Read a children’s book - they always have happy endings. Get yourself a present. Watch a funny movie. Watch cartoons. Go out somewhere. Bring a friend. Write, draw, play a musical instrument … express yourself creatively. Hug a stuffed animal. Hug a loved one. Hug yourself. Do something that you loved to do when you were a kid. Think about a time when you were happy. Try to mentally transport yourself back to that time/place. Read jokes or funny stories. You can find lots of those online. Go out to eat. Talk with a friend. You don’t have to talk about SI … talk about something cheerful. Think about things that make you happy. Make a list. Do something nice for someone else. That usually cheers people up. Call 1-800-TACOBELL. (This suggestion came from someone else a long time ago…) Curl up under a comforter. Listen to cheerful or calming music. Buy a happy meal. Play with a pet or a younger child. The idea behind most of these is to cheer yourself up somehow… Empty, Unreal, Unable To Feel Do something that creates a sharp sensation. Bite a lemon. Squeeze ice. Focus on one thing. Try to describe it like you would to a blind person. Put a finger or a hand into a frozen food, like ice cream. Put your hands under cold water. Take a cold shower. Focus on your breath, on how your chest and stomach move when you breathe in and out. If you weren’t real you wouldn’t be breathing. Eat something mindfully. Pat attention to how it tastes and the sensations that it creates in your mouth. Try to describe it to someone who has no sense of taste. List as many different uses as your can for a random object. Give yourself a number to reach - like twenty, forty, or fifty. Try to surpass that number. Don’t stop after two or three uses. Interact with other people. Guilty, Feeling Like A Bad Person List as many good things about yourself as you can. Give yourself a number to reach - like twenty, forty, or fifty. Try to surpass that number. Don’t stop after just a few good things. Read something good that someone has written about you, like a letter, a recommendation, or an evaluation. Talk with someone who cares about you. Do something nice for someone. Remember times when you did something good. What are you feeling guilty about? Can you change it somehow? Try talking with the person you feel guilty towards. Maybe they don’t feel as bad as you think they do. If you want to hurt yourself to punish yourself, punish yourself by not allowing yourself to self-injure instead. Addicted Draw or write on yourself with a red pen or marker. Paint yourself with red paint. Squeeze ice. Snap a rubber band against your wrist. Cry. Exercise. Buy a cheap tattoo, the kind that comes off after a few days, and put it on. Look at your old scars. This may trigger you more, so be careful. It may also make the urge go away because you are seeing and experiencing scars, even though they are old. The point here is to create feelings and sensations similar to those you experience while hurting yourself. Some of these things create visual images like those you may want to see, like scars or blood. Others release endorphins, which is what happens when you hurt yourself and what gives you the feeling of euphoria. Distractions Read the section about feeling sad or depressed. Most of those things also distract you. Look through an old photo album. Read old letters or e-mails. Clean your inbox. Play a game like Solitaire. Do random searches online. Read about something you know only a little bit about and that you find interesting. Open the dictionary in random places and learn new words. Make a list. Make many lists. List as many foods as you can think of. List all the online screen names that you have ever had, or all the ones that you know of people you talk with. List all the articles of clothing that you own. List … you get the idea. Think in a language that you don’t know very well. Try to solve a puzzle. Go to a playground. Swing on the swings. Go down the slide. Spin around in circles. Color in a coloring book. Make snow angels. Do homework or work on a project for school. Make a website. Write your autobiography or short stories about yourself. Cook. Waiting Play the 15-minute game. Tell yourself, “I will not hurt myself for fifteen minutes.” Then see if you can go for another fifteen minutes, and another, and another. Sometimes breaking time down into little chunks makes it easier to manage. Pick a favorite singer or band and tell yourself that you will not hurt yourself while listening to them. Pick a day of the week and don’t hurt yourself on that day. Eventually, add a second day. And then a third. And so on. Buy a calendar and give yourself a sticker for every day that you don’t hurt yourself. Pick a place to be your safe place, a place where you won’t cut … like the kitchen, your room, etc. Go there when you have an urge.