[amayastar]

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So I'm a cutter.
I want to know how to bring this up, I don't want my therapist to commit me to hosptial.
I'm not sudicial I just struggle with self injury.
I know this can be a tricky topic.
Advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated???

[dapplebay]

Maybe start by saying you've struggled with it in the past...?

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[lostwonder]

Let me preface this real quick by saying that I have also used cutting as a coping mechanism off and on for over half my life. I would like to encourage you to not think of your self as a "cutter" but someone who uses cutting as a coping mechanism.

Are you wanting help stopping? Are you wanting accountability? Are you wanting to bring it up so that someone else knows and you aren't carrying it around alone anymore? Basically, I'm asking you why you want to bring it up. Please feel no obligation to answer here. There isn't really a right or wrong answer, just your own personal truth.

Most therapists know well how to handle this type of coping mechanism. Your T will likely have questions about it, but in my experience hospitalization isn't a high risk for nonsucideal self injurious behavior. Your post here would be an excellent way to bring it up.

[ScarletPimpernel]

I don't know if the rules are the same no matter which state you're in, but no one can technically hospitalize you for SI.

When I first started with current T she used to threaten that. I've been in "the system" long enough to know she can't hospitalize me for SI. When I told her I knew, she was kinda upset...lol.

You can be hospitalized if you are at risk of taking your own life whether it's from severe SI or SUI.

How to bring it up? There's several ways. You can bring up the topic in a general manner. You can say "I have a friend who cuts..." As someone else mentioned, you can bring it up by discussing when you first started. You can also preface it saying you have something to tell her but you have fears and concerns. You can write it and have her read it. It's just however you feel comfortable.

I told my T from day one that I have SI'ed since I was 13 (am now 32). She knows I'm completely honest with her about it, and that I won't hide it from her. She checks in with me every week about my SI. I also cut and I also pick my skin (more an OCD type thing) and I scrub my skin. So she asks about those things and my SUI thoughts. She also sometimes asks about how much I'm smoking. She asks so she can guage where I'm at emotionally.

Many people SI and so many Ts have experience with it. You could even ask your T how much experience she has with treating someone who SI's. And remember, you don't have to tell her everything at once. And you shouldn't be expected to quit instantly. Hopefully what happens is your T starts helping you with coping skill so your equipped to quit when ready.

I see you found the SI forums here. Check out this link for coping skills posted here on PC:
http://forums.psychcentral.com/self-...-yourself.html

[ThingWithFeathers]

Hi amayastar! I think you can just tell your t straight up. My t knows (I told her by saying something along the lines of "I'm not sure I've been completely honest and upfront about something/how well I cope" then I went on to tell her) , and she has avoided hospitalisation for me over the last 20 months. Hospitalisation is a last resort for my t, not the first port of call. Hospitalisation is not the answer to chronic SH. The thing I find hard to talk about is the types of SH I do and the severe SH urges I get. Talking in detail about it is unfathomably painful. But you can just let your t know - your t will be trained to deal with it professionally.

[RedSun]

I really struggled with just saying the words. I couldn't actually do it, so I sent t an email explaining that I needed her to ask me about SI. It was so much easier when she led me. Xx

[Raging Quiet]

I told my t that I had unhealthy coping mechanisms which led the topic forward.

Good luck x

[Lauliza]

I don't think a T will hospitalize you for the cutting, so I would tell her. If the words can't come out, can you perhaps show her your cuts? That's what I did years ago. I just couldn't get the words out coherently. So I just said I have to show you something...

I wasn't hospitalized for it, just had to have more intensive therapy.

[guilloche]

Just wanted to agree that SI alone isn't, afaik, grounds for hospitalization. Previous T knew about my SI... and never even mentioned a hospital (thankfully). Although he did think I'd benefit from medication, which I was pretty strongly opposed to.

I'm with a fairly new T now. I just wrote up a letter. I didn't actually want to tell him at all, because when I'm feeling good - it's completely in the past, and when it's not in the past, I don't want to tell! But, we bumped up against it with me trying to talk about something else, and since I wouldn't tell him in the moment what things I was referring to (why I thought another T had kicked me out, and why I thought I was such a mess back then), he assumed it was suicidal thoughts.

I just gave him the letter last week, so I'm kind of freaking out a little bit. But it's still so much easier to write it out (even if it took me ~3 hours to get a few sentences out!) than to try to figure out how to say it in the session. We'll see this week what happens... I wish I wasn't so nervous about it now.

[wotchermuggle]

If you're ready to stop or find better coping skills, I'd start with that. "I have poor coping skills when it comes to X. I do X to cope, but I'd like to stop doing X. Can we work on that?"

[secretgalaxy]

I remember when I told mine. It was accidental actually, but I guess it was for a reason. I was talking about my new friend and my T asked me to describe her. After I started going, I mentioned "and she has deep scars on her arm." At that moment, my heart sunk, because I, first, didn't want to say that, and second, didn't know how she would react. By that time, I had been SH on and off for a couple years, and at that moment, hadn't relapsed for a few months. My T asked more about it, and I explained that my friend had battled with it before but for the most part has overcome it. She then confronted the big question... "Are you cutting?" I panicked at that moment, honestly. I wasn't and hadn't for a while, but I felt I would be lying if I said I wasn't, especially because I was having bad urges at the time. I looked at her for a few moments, signed, and said no. She looked pretty concerned after that, but dropped it. By the next session, I had relapsed and she brought it up again and I told the truth. We talked about it for a while and I asked if she was going to tell anyone. She said that since I let her see them and they were not dangerously deep or life-threatening, she wasn't going to tell anyone. That was 3 years ago. I have relapsed many times after that and she, while was upset in a loving way, supports me through the tough times. It made it easier once it was out in the open and kept me in check with how I was *really* doing rather than hiding. All I can say is don't worry. A good T won't over react and will help you through this, just like anything else. Many people do/has done it and Ts have seen their fair share.

[Teepee]

I also use this method to cope in rough times, all my cuts require 10+ stitches so I asked my GP to call my T they both handled it very gently and expertly. I am now 5wks SI free

[brokenwarrior]

Unless you are cutting through tissue, your T will mostly likely not send you to the hospital. Hospitalization is acute care for someone who is suicidal, attempted suicide, or is psychotic. They could mention IOP or IP but you can't force a patient into either.

I think it is great that you want to tell your T! That is a huge positive step and you deserve to be free of SH. It's not easy. For me, I just came right out and told my T. However I told her with no intention of stopping so maybe thats why? I'm not sure. I did the same with my ED.

Sometimes it's easier to write a letter and have them read it in session. That way, they will start the conversation and you can just go along with it. I would recommend this method.

Keep up the good work!

[Irrelevant221]

I wasn't even aware that talking about self-harming to your T could lead to hospitalization. Is this only a thing in certain areas? My Ts certainly never threatened hospitalization for talking about SH.

I honestly don't even remember how I told my former T about my self-harming (my current T already knew about it from my file). I'd been trying to talk about it for a while, and then we spent a session with me getting as far as telling her that I had something to tell her that I felt was important, but it was really hard for me to talk about. The session after that was when we talked about it directly, and I don't remember what exactly I said, but I know that she hardly even reacted, and was quick to reassure me that she understood and that everything was fine between us.

EDIT: Thinking back, I might have said something along the lines of how I had struggled with coping with my emotions in the past, and how I had a history of self-harm. I think that might have been what got the conversation going.