If you are feeling stress at this point in your life trying to get through nursing school......do you really think it's going to be that much better once you start to have the stress of a career in nursing?

The thing is in DBT, we have learned that when we are having a problem....there is a reason.....& like you say...it's usually the stress we are under & the only way to solve the problem is to analyze the stresses & figure out what we are able to get rid of because it's NOT HANDLING the stress to be dealing with it the way you are.

I know I went through a change in direction of my education because there was no way I could handle the direction it was going in & I was a music major at the time.....but I never would have made it to my degree if I had kept going.....I had to reassess my life & figure a different direction.

It comparison.....I ended up in an firmware/software engineering career....but after 15 years....there was some serious stressful situations I went through when the career wasn't going well.....the problem was I was trapped in that situation with no way out....& I ended up having a complete breakdown & ended up on permanent disability.....the point is.....when we get into situations where our stress is too great for us to handle (which by the way you are responding to your stress, that's exactly what your actions seem to be saying)......if we aren't able to make the changes & keep pushing ourselves.....our body & mind will NOT CONTINUE & the problems will only get greater until the point where we can't function any longer.....in reality, it's better to analyze our life before it gets to that point & make necessary changes using our wise mind rather than destroying our lives permanently.

Your body & your mind (with the cutting for relief) is telling you that you are beyond what you can handle & you need to make some serious changes in your life.....don't know if you have a T....but it would be a good thing to talk your situation over with them if you do & see if you can get some help to analyze the situation you are in.

It's important to understand that we all have our limitations & it has nothing to do with being a disappointment......most people in your overload situation wouldn't be able to handle it either.....but wisdom tells us when we get to that point that we need to sit back & analyze where we are going & how we are doing it & make the necessary changes to survive. It's better to have reasonable & attainable goals in our lives than ones that we are struggling just to survive from day to day. When we are in that sort of position....one little bump in the road & we end up loosing everything.....& there is so much more to life than living that way.

Hope you will be able to sort through all of this with your T....& really sit back & figure out a better direction....one that can make your life go in a more positive direction.