I know this thread is old, but I've been gone a long time

I wrote these reasons not to si a long time ago, when I was trying to convince myself I wanted to quit.

I know that many of these reasons are hard to believe or internalize, but I hope this lists helps someone. Take it one day at a time...

It brings as many bad feelings as it chases away

You have hurt enough

Protecting the child inside you, who is already wounded

Self-injury makes relationships with others harder: it isolates you, may make you feel ashamed and/or feel the need to be secretive or push others away

You need to be able to experience your feelings in order to learn to cope effectively, and recover

Feeling worse about yourself after you're past the si incident

You do not need to have cuts or scars to prove it: your pain IS REAL

You do not deserve to be punished

You have a right to your feelings, and you have been denied that right for too long already

Avoiding si can help you learn to feel safe with yourself. You deserve to feel safe

You can rely on your higher power, whatever/whoever that may be to love and protect you. And you will feel that security and safety even more when you are not being self-destructive

Self-injury is a "quick-fix" that really doesn't fix the problem, only distracts from it temporarily

Real healing is possible for you, even though sometimes that is hard to believe