The urge to cut is always there for me too. A therapist once explained it to me like this -

cutting is an addiction just like alcohol and drugs are for people who use them to push away their problems. Just like with the treatment for alcohol and drugs - Alcoholics have to learn to call their AA sponser and therapist when the urge to drink gets stronger. Drug adicts have to learn to call Narcotics Anon. and their therapist. I had to learn to reach out to my emergency contact person(s) and my therapist so that I can recieve help for my addiction - cutting.

Just like with alcohol and drug addiction when the urge to cut gets stronger that is a warning that something isn't right. I had to learn -

1. to recognize the urge BEFORE acting on it.
2. reach out by calling my emergency contact person(s) and my therapist. I could reach out to my therapist by either calling her or her office or by going directly to her office and the receptionists will let her know I am there. once she knows the urge is getting stronger we can work on what the problem is that is making me think more about cutting.
3. I also had to learn and actively use the new coping tools my therapist was teaching me for those problems that are making me think about the cutting.

Those new coping tools put in place for me were:

1. CALL MY THERAPIST
2. CALL CONTACT PERSON(S)
3. Containment box - to make a containment box take .
a shoe box with a cover and covering inside and out of both box and cover with construction paper. Inside I divided the box into two sections a large area and a small area. The small area big enough to hold a pen or pencil and small pads of paper. that paper can be the size of 3x5 cards or post its. When the urge hits I go to that box take out a pad of paper and write. sometimes I write a paragragh on one post it other times I write lots of post its with one or two words on it. for example on five post its one day I wrote knife, razor, fire burn, pencil point, glass, cutcutcutcutcutcutcutcut...After writing I put the top on, sometimes tie the box shut and then walk away out of the house to go for a bike ride or a walk.

4. taking a red washable marker and making red slashes where I want to cut.

5. Squishing playdough

6. walking, biking. and.....

hang in there .. it does get better.