[vinylchick96]

I've cut myself on and off for 5 years. I guess I don't know how to deal with my emotions. I bottle everything up, and when I do explode a combonation of things: cry, throw things, and cut. Of course I do this in the company of my own room but it's always taken away my terrible feelings and replaced it with nothingness.

I'm not usually trying to kill myself, just take away the emotional pain. over the past 5 years

Possible trigger:

I've tried killing myself twice,

other than that the cuts have just been nicks with minimal scaring and discoloration.

Sometimes I worry that it's all I know and that I'll end up dead by the my mid-twenties. I'm honestly surprised I've made it this far. If I do live a long life, I worry I will always cut. It's a terrible habit and I want to know how to stop, I just don't know how.

[splitimage]

The good news is it doesn't have to last forever. I self-injured for a little longer than you, before actively deciding to stop, and then it took me another 3 -4 years, with long periods of no cutting with occassional slips.

It has now been over 4 years since I cut. I still get urges sometimes, but I can ignore them, and do something healthy to cope.

For me, learning what was underneath the need to cut - what emotions I couldn't stand, was key, as was learning healthier coping alternatives.

I had the help of a great therapist who was experienced in dealing with self injury plus a lot of help from another web site. If you're not currently seeing a counsellor, I'd highly recommend it, if you can. I also recommend dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) if you can get it. It helped me stop some other unhealthy coping mechanisms.

splitimage

[mazing]

I definitely agree with splitimage. It is not easy and takes a long time but it is possible to overcome. I don't know if the urges completely leave but in time you can find other ways to cope and to manage them. The biggest thing for me was finding a good support network and working through my other insecurities. The more I worked through the other stresses in my life and found ways to cope with them, the less invasive the self-injury thoughts became.

Don't give up . It is possible to get through this. It doesn't have to be forever.

[Fizzyo]

Originally Posted by splitimage

The good news is it doesn't have to last forever. I self-injured for a little longer than you, before actively deciding to stop, and then it took me another 3 -4 years, with long periods of no cutting with occassional slips.

It has now been over 4 years since I cut. I still get urges sometimes, but I can ignore them, and do something healthy to cope.

For me, learning what was underneath the need to cut - what emotions I couldn't stand, was key, as was learning healthier coping alternatives.

I had the help of a great therapist who was experienced in dealing with self injury plus a lot of help from another web site. If you're not currently seeing a counsellor, I'd highly recommend it, if you can. I also recommend dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) if you can get it. It helped me stop some other unhealthy coping mechanisms.

splitimage

Thank you splitimage, this is good advice indeed. Nothing needs to last forever, you have to want to stop. I'm trying to break the SI addiction, some days are easier than others. It's great to hear from someone who has managed and can deal with the temptation.
Vinylchick, hang on in there, if you can't stop now, it's understandable, but you can get to a place where you will be able to stop.