In my experience, self injury is not something that is just "in your head"! It is a REAL issue, not one that is just "played". I had people always telling me that I did it for attention, or that I just did it to be "cool". First of all, I never wanted attention from it, I did it for over 10 years before people started catching on, and that is only because I got older, so I couldn't blame it on falling down when playing and in the summer time I couldn't hide it so easily. Secondly, how in the world is it being "cool"? They make it sound like it is this club that you are just hurting yourself to be in. Yes, it is a club, but not one that they think it is. We are in a club because of the pain we put on ourselves. We are sisters and brothers because of our injury. I don't like hurting myself and most of the injurers that I talk to say the same thing, so it isn't some "cool" thing we do to fit into a club. Never let anyone tell you that it isn't a real issue! Because it is! And once you start dealing with the issues that cause it, the injuring does slow down and eventually will stop. Never give up hope! You are not alone and people do recover!
Alternatives....
Here are some of the alternatives that I used instead of injuring. Some might not work for you, sometimes some didn't work for me either, but that doesn't mean that all is lost, you just keep pressing forward and continue to look for ones that WILL work for YOU!!
1) JOURNALING - I use journaling a lot and I do mean a lot. It helps to know that I can put whatever I want about whoever I want down on these pages and no one ever knows about it. I can express myself, my anger, my hurt etc all on these pages. And I have found that as I pour out my thoughts and feelings, a lot of the time, the urges to injure faded away...Not all of the time, but atleast 80% of the time, and for injurers you know that that is a pretty big amount of time.
2) CRAFTS - I did a lot of crafty things to keep my hands busy. I didn't keep sharp tools or scisssors around, but I kept a lot of paints and markers and crayons. I did an artist book, which just takes an old hard back book, and you basically destroy it. You take out (rip out) pages as you go, and on the ones you keep, you paint or write or design something on them. It also served as a great way to let out emotions. It is one of my favorites if not the fav.
3) WALKING - this one worked sometimes but not a whole lot. I usually picked a place that was busy with people, like a park that had a pretty scenery and walked for atleast 30 min. It really didn't help clear my mind or relieve the emotions/pain but it did work to make me tired.
4) ONLINE SUPPORT - this one you really need to be careful with! There are some sites out there that seem like a good thing, but they actually hurt you more. Stay away from sites and chat rooms that go into detail on how to injure etc. Pick ones that are distracting to injuring, like an off the wall chat about tv or something silly. If you need a support chat, becareful again, that they are there to help you NOT injure and not one that just talkes about injuring and tells you how etc
5) CALL A FRIEND - I used this one a lot. I had two support team people that were available 24/7 for me if I just needed to distract myself and nothing else was working. Having a few (not to many) close people that are understanding and willing to help NOT judge are one of the best things for us!!!
6) READ A BOOK - nothing to deep. I did short stories.
7) TAKE A BUBBLE BATH - this one is great if you can do it, I had trouble with it, was to great of a chance of injuring. So becareful with it.
8) MUSIC - Music can be helpful at times as well, I did soothing music, nothing with words to it. Did a lot of classical or piano music.
9) IMPULSE CONTROL LOG - These are GREAT! I got them out of the
10) MOVE THINGS - sometimes just moving things around your surroundings help. Move your furniture, decorations etc. This not only keeps your hands busy, but it also gives you a new look...
11) PET THERAPY - I REALLY LOVED this one. I have a freind who has the most loving and lazy dog. I used to schedual time with her to go and just play and lay and pet her, it released so much tension and sadness. I highly recommend this one!
**If you have an ideas on alternatives, email me and let me know and I will add them to the list!!
