Quote:
Originally Posted by stopdog
Stopping SI, in my experience, is not just a matter of having it be forbidden and then okay one stops - nor is it something that one can "just stop" doing. Having it be forbidden by some therapist would not stop it for me and would make it more present. It has been helpful to me to have a therapist (not the first one I see with whom I do not talk about it, but the second one) who will simply explore it with me. She has not commanded I stop, she has even said it is understandable, not desirable, but not alien or weird or wrong or so forth.
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I have to agree with stopdog on this one... I have had contracts put on me to stop SI, and it was a miserable failure. Often it made me want to do it more. Or I just became more secretive. One place I lived used to search my bags when I came in, so I just hid the equipment under my clothes. I think it has to be your decision to stop and when you do SI, it is crucial to have an environment where you can talk about it and figure out why it happened. That is the only way I have found it changed for me - being able to explore the meaning of it and learning other ways to cope.