[iflyaway]

i'm so frustrated i don't know what to do.i am have very very severe PTSD and when i do i have the overwhelming urge to S.I. I have promised my therapist that i wouldn't and i haven/t yet and i'm fighting it but its getting so unbelievable hard. I only want my flashbacks to stop god i just want them to stop i've tried everything i can think of. I have read alot of ur post and the mentioning letting ice melt in ur hand but i'm afraid to do that b/c that's how my S.I. got started. If anyone has any ideas at all please help anything welcome i feel sooo lost with this i don't want to but these flashbacks have to stop.

[Twisted_Soul]

Keep talking about the feelings you are having.
I know how the urge to S.I can be so alluring.
Can you journal? Color? Meditate?
Put your hands in a bucket of icewater, snap a rubber band around your wrist? Do something that will not create injury but at the same time will allow your pain to feel a sort of release?

Flashbacks are the demons of all demons. We already lived through the Hell of the abuse for real and now our brains want us to go through it all over again...and again..and again. Is there anything you can do to get some grounding? Are you in T?

[Lexicon78]

Remove yourself from harm's way. Get away from anything that can be used as a weapon. The next thing you need to do is occupy both your mind and your hands with some sort of activity. When I'm feeling the way you are I try to do something that includes writing or typing. I have old books from college and will start reading them and doing the work in them, from front to back. If I don't want to do that, I read online and type a lot. I have a livejournal that I write in.

I keep myself busy with puzzle books, school work, cleaning, and anything where my hands are doing something active. That helps me a lot.

The last thing is something that I find is very helpful to me. With my cutting, I have to see the blood. So instead of cutting I will put in a horror movie like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser II, or anything where there is a lot of blood and gore. That seems too decrease my need to see the blood.

I've been cutting for the last 15 years, so the things I use may seem odd to some people, but they do work.