For me, coping is putting whatever is bringing me down or causing me anguish into perspective and then trying to work differently with whatever it is to see if I can't "help" it.

To put a problem into perspective, I first have to look at it and see what it is. Lots of time, for me, I let a bunch of stuff gang up and then I feel like someone trying to flee a snowball that's rolling down a hill getting bigger and bigger like it does in the cartoons? If you explode the larger into its smaller "actual" parts, then one can at least deal with some of them and that helps me with feeling effective and like I have a "chance" in heck of getting out alive :-)

Rap, your wanting to have an accident instead of cutting reminded me of one evening when I had been thinking about the book, "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" and kind of feeling like something bad was going to happen, that I was going to harm myself in some way and, sure enough, I did accidentally cut my finger when I was opening the bag of sauce for the pizza I was making. I was bleeding so my husband took over finishing up topping the pizza and getting it in the oven. Guess what? The feeling of "doom" I'd had went away. But I thought the whole thing funny/amusing since it was so "obvious" to me and that amusement about the entire scenario/story helped me more than any of it's parts? Just your wishing for an accident (instead of having to cut, yourself) so you would be "innocent" of SI is a little amusing to me and were I in your shoes I would grab that tiny, imaginative, "twist" and make it help me. Being able to laugh, especially at one's self lets out a similar bit of tension as SI I bet?
</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
Laughter has many benefits, which in turn have positive effects on the human body. Laughter lowers blood pressure, activates the immune system, triggers the release of endorphins (the body’s natural painkillers), reduces stress hormones, helps reduce pain, allows muscles to relax and is helpful for breathing as frequent laughter empties the air of lungs. (From googobits.com)

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For me, laughter is a good re-proportioner and balances me better.

Most situations have us looking at them, as in, can't-see-the-forest-for-the-tree. When I shift my gaze from whatever is bothering me and look at the bigger picture, the problem instantly gets smaller, more limited in time and energy needed to solve it. Looking at the "real" problem instead of a symptom or how I try to get my attention (I often get angry when I'm actually anxious; when I catch myself being unreasonably angry, as in road rage :-) I instantly look to see what the "real" problem is and address that instead). That you want to do these behaviors you don't think are a good idea is not the same as the behaviors being the problem? You aren't trying to cope with cutting but with whatever is bothering you behind the desire to cut. The desire to cut, when looked at in that light is just a "symbol" of something else. And heck, we can deal with "symbols", they're just "things". Put them aside and keep moving forward and they get lost behind you and lose their power.

One of my favorite quotes of all time goes something like, "the adventure doesn't begin until you enter the forest." Thinking of one's problems and their solutions as puzzles, games, adventures, etc. gives you some space from them and makes them more like an interesting book or math problem :-)