[heroes911]

Hey everyone. I have a problem with self injury. Ive been doing it for years and I cant get myself to stop! My parents found out and are considering having me hospitalized. I need to kick this addiction. If anyone has ny experiance with this please help me

[Christina86]

Do you think that being in hospital might help? Self injury isn't something you can normally just quit without some sort of fallback and tools to cope - it's an addiction. Maybe talk to your parents about seeing a therapist instead to help, rather than being forced to go into the hospital?

[SoupDragon]

This is something I do - In my opinion it is not something that you can stop on your own as it is usual to start SI to cope with something else that you have difficulty with - for me it is dealing with emotions and darker thoughts. Cutting releases endorphins which temporarily can make you feel better and so it can become addictive.

Thankfully I have a degree of control over my behaviour and my wounds have not needed serious medical attention, however as with other addictions I am aware that the behaviour can become more intensive and become more serious.

Also it can leave life long scars that people can be embarrassed about.

I think SI can be scarey for others to deal with and as a mum myself, that concern would kick in big time if my kids started doing this and my reaction may also be to get them immediate help.

My T is happy to work with me with this - actually we don't talk about it much, he just checks in form time to time as the behaviour gives us some inidication of how I am doing in terms of dealing with the big emotional stuff. I think the theory is as I get better at dealing with life, this behaviour will stop.

Sorry if this sounds a little theoretical and not very real - I can only really talk about it if I detach myself from it slightly and talk about is as my "behaviour".

I would definitely recommend getting a T who is used to dealing with SI. Good luck, let us know how you get on. Keep safe - SD.

[kaliope]

there is a book/workbook called the scarred soul you could try. it is very nonthreatening easy book to work through. it really helped me understand my SI behaviors. I was unable to finish the book when it finally got to the chapter to work on committing to stop SI, but I was also did not harm myself for about five years after working through the book to the point that i did.