You know, I almost forgot, (how could I ever forget???), but I did end up in jail once for self-injury. It was more extreme though, and I wasn't even in therapy. Neighbors saw me and thought my husband had beaten me up, so they called the police. I had done it though, and told the police that. They didn't arrest me, but took me in under protective custody because I was a danger to self. I was suicidal that time. They called in a therapist I didn't know to evaluate me, and I wanted out, so I did admit to suicidal thoughts but didn't give any methods that were plausible (I said I was thinking about overdosing on chocolate - I had already tried that the day before). They let me go after the evaluation, no strings attached. Just told my husband that I was depressed. I decided to get back into therapy after that, over my husband's concerns - he said that he didn't think that insurance would cover it.

I think this is a sore point for me because your experience and my experience are so different. I feel invalidated every time somone says don't tell your therapist about something because they have to take such and such an action, because even when I acted out in the extreme, nobody was concerned enough to make sure that I stayed safe, and every other time it was just no big deal.

You probably feel invalidated too because your experience has been different. I guess my point is that whatever our experience is, it won't be the same for anyone else. I can really only speak for myself (meaning me, not Myself ). But I really do hope that people will let their therapists know what is going on because being open and honest is an important part of therapy and they can only help you if you tell them.

Rap