I have been SI'ing since I was at least 10-13 years old so I know for me the urge is always going to be there. I can either give in to it or I can fight it by usnig other outlets like calling a friend, calling my therapist, Talking in therapy sessions about it, journalling craft projects that take alot of energy and time to do, clean the house, take a bath, listen to music, read a book, take a walk.... my list of what to do when the urge hits goes on.

The actual work on stopping SI comes from the person who is doing it so yea stopping without therapy is possible if the person knows why they do it and sets themselves up a plan on other non SI outlets that they WILL actively do when the urge hits.

I don't discuss my SI with my present therapist. She knows I do it and that I know that she has grounds for involluntary commitment to a mental health unit if she sees fresh evidence of SI/suicidal behavior within the past 24 hours. because I will NOT go into another mental health unit, I will NOT put her into that position of having to hospitalize me by dicussing or displaying my SI "evidence". All she needs to know is that I do have an emergency to do list for when the urge hits and I am actively working on it. She accepts this given my reason for not being hospitalized and has asked that I tell her when the urge is there, not for hospitalization reason but so that we can up the amount of sessions to take care of it or other things until the urge passes. She doesn't need to know if I did anything she just wanted to offer me another outlet if needed and I agreed with her. I am open to any and all alternative outlets.

Don't be too hard on yourself bouncing back and forth on this is part of the healing process. Its kind of like an adiction. When a person stops drinking or drugs they have times when they slip back into it until they have enogh coping tools to resist the urges. Enough will be enough when you have other coping tools and prefer to use those over SI'ing. Take care