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If You're Trying to Stop

Quitting may take great courage and effort, but even so, there are great rewards for succeeding and in the end you will feel much better. There are many things you can do to help yourself.

Find a constructive way to express your feelings, such as writing poetry or drawing/painting, or if that sounds too corny, just clean the house. Remind yourself that expressing your feelings in destructive ways can lead to feelings of regret, whereas expressing them in constructive ways can lead to things you can be proud of (for example, a beautiful picture or a clean house).

Ask yourself what triggers you, and try to avoid those types of situations. (If you can't stand red nail polish, don't wear it.)

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), gives you some insightful new ways on how to deal with self-destructive behaviors, and may prove helpful in overcoming self-harm for good.

When you want to hurt yourself, try putting ice (and only ice) on the area where you would normally hurt yourself, and wait until it melts. Another method some people find helpful is to put a rubber band on your wrist and snap it whenever you feel the need. This substitutes other intense feelings, not necessarily painful, which may help in overcoming self-harm.

If there is a person you are frustrated with, try pretending a pillow (or any other inanimate object) is that person, and take your anger out on it, instead of yourself. In the end, you might lose a pillow, but at least you'll have something you can laugh about instead of feel bad about.

Try to talk it out. When you get the urge to hurt yourself, call a friend or go online and write it out in an email. Even if you feel like you can't truly express how you're feeling, at least it might help you get your mind off whatever's bothering you.

It will be very hard if you are only trying to do it because people are telling you to. You have to want to do it for yourself, and you need to have confidence that you can do it. If you have low-confidence issues, you need to find ways to improve it. (One way to do this is, again, to find ways to express your feelings in constructive ways and produce things you can be proud of.)

Distractions are important because they can change your mood, either for the better or for the worse. Here are some ideas on how to distract yourself in a positive way:

Go for a walk

Call a friend

Clean your room

Watch TV

Hang out with friends

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