[Cocosurviving]

I've been trying to keep myself together and my oldest daughter (15) just dropped a bomb. She cuts herself. I listened to her and asked if she would get help. She agreed to get help. I'm just left with questions. What can I do to help? What help is available?

[~Christina]

I cut .. I don't want to post here as it can be a trigger .. Pm me if you want and I'll help I can

[Victoria'smom]

Same with me. Pm me if you want.

I'm not a cutter but u could look into dialectical behavior therapy for her. Marsha Linehan created it. It has wonderful coping strategies.

[BlueInanna]

Oh Coco I'm so sorry, it is so frightening to know your daughter is struggling this severely. Does she have a T? Both my teens did that too. Luckily I haven't noticed anything recently. I will ask my oldest, almost 19 if she's still doing it (she was depressed yesterday but we didnt have a private time alone long enough to discuss in depth). She may have advice for a young girl at 15. That seemed to be the age where we had the roughest time with both my teens. Sending prayers and love your way.

[cocoabeans]

I used to do that when I was a teenager. It was because I didn't have the ability to cope with bipolar moods and being a teen so, I'd cut myself to distract myself from the emotional pain I was in. I also had some strange probably psychotic thoughts back then that contributed to that behavior. I'm sure that doesn't apply to your daughter. The whole strange thinking that came up is unusual for your typical cutter. I have scars all over my arms and legs but, grew out of it by the time I was 21 with one exception when I was pretty much psychotic on Zoloft.

Now the thought makes no sense to me and I have no urge to inflict pain on myself. It hurts! Of course, now things are a lot less intense. I have answers to what is going on and I have coping skills.

You're doing at least one thing right though! Your daughter actually came to you about it. Even now, years later and I finally told my parents about the bipolar diagnosis, I'd never tell them that I used to do that. We aren't the type of family that talks about emotions. That's for normal people, who ever they are, and families on tv.

Does your daughter know why she is doing it?

Edit: read another post of yours and see you're a church goer. No judgement there. My experience though is that you want to keep this behavior away from "Christian counsellors". The whole your body is the lord's temple approach really does not help someone dealing with self harm. There is already a lot of shame involved in the motivations to do it.

[Cocosurviving]

Originally Posted by BlueInanna

Oh Coco I'm so sorry, it is so frightening to know your daughter is struggling this severely. Does she have a T? Both my teens did that too. Luckily I haven't noticed anything recently. I will ask my oldest, almost 19 if she's still doing it (she was depressed yesterday but we didnt have a private time alone long enough to discuss in depth). She may have advice for a young girl at 15. That seemed to be the age where we had the roughest time with both my teens. Sending prayers and love your way.

She does have a T and has agreed to tell her. Thanks for the prayers and love.

[Cocosurviving]

Originally Posted by cocoabeans

I used to do that when I was a teenager. It was because I didn't have the ability to cope with bipolar moods and being a teen so, I'd cut myself to distract myself from the emotional pain I was in. I also had some strange probably psychotic thoughts back then that contributed to that behavior. I'm sure that doesn't apply to your daughter. The whole strange thinking that came up is unusual for your typical cutter. I have scars all over my arms and legs but, grew out of it by the time I was 21 with one exception when I was pretty much psychotic on Zoloft.

Now the thought makes no sense to me and I have no urge to inflict pain on myself. It hurts! Of course, now things are a lot less intense. I have answers to what is going on and I have coping skills.

You're doing at least one thing right though! Your daughter actually came to you about it. Even now, years later and I finally told my parents about the bipolar diagnosis, I'd never tell them that I used to do that. We aren't the type of family that talks about emotions. That's for normal people, who ever they are, and families on tv.

Does your daughter know why she is doing it?

Edit: read another post of yours and see you're a church goer. No judgement there. My experience though is that you want to keep this behavior away from "Christian counsellors". The whole your body is the lord's temple approach really does not help someone dealing with self harm. There is already a lot of shame involved in the motivations to do it.

She suffers from major depression. I'm sure she's trying to escape from the pain. Thank you for sharing with me. I do agree w/ you abt Christian counselors.

[faerie_moon_x]

I don't cut. I hit. I know maybe that's weird. I won't go into details but I do hurt myself pretty bad sometimes. Mine comes out as an explosion during episodes, though, so it's really hard to stop. I don't plan it out, it's just suddenly happening.

I really feel for her. And yes, for me I think it's because the inside pain is so big and terrible that it's like trying to even out the outside with the inside. It's like the dumb idea that if you stub your toe, slam your finger in the door so your toe will stop hurting.