[josephpawlin]

I cut on my thighs, and I have for about 2 months now. It's getting worse and I'm running out of room on my thighs for it. I told my parents about it, and they kind of coerced me into saying it was for attention, I guess to make them not have to think about it. I'm just so lost and I have no idea what I'm going to do once I'm out of room.
I cut for kind of weird reason: I hate feeling emotions, especially the really strong ones like sadness and happiness, anger, things like that. The pain gives me something else to focus on. I've learned from experience it's not a good thing to get too into emotions, because it all hits me at once and I just lose it.
Any ideas/advice?

[AngelPromise]

It's not stupid or weird at all that you cut for those reasons. Believe it or not that is very common. It is difficult for parents to take a reality check and see that we are hurting or trying to refocus things away from emotions by harming ourselves. Something that has helped me is to write out how you feel on a piece of paper. not a list just make sorta a graffiti collage of words of how you can figure out how you feel. I even write stuff that doesn't make any kind of sense. Rage, anger, numb, shout, scream, disappear, run, ect. if you can write it out sometimes it really does have a huge impact on us. it even helps to get the strong emotions out so the urge to cut is not so tough. I hope this helped a tiny bit.

[Fizzyo]

I understand a little of what you're saying

Possible trigger:

I'm addicted to causing myself pain for many of the same reasons as you just described

I find emotions can hit me like a train sometimes, often when I've been avoiding feeling them. One thing that sometimes helps me is to draw a picture of myself and then draw in red whatever I want to do to myself and then tear it into small pieces and throw them away or otherwise destroy them. Another tactic is the 15 minute game. (Less time if that's all you can imagine but 15mins works well). What you do is remind yourself that you have a choice. YOU HAVE THE POWER, YOU'RE IN CONTROL, NOBODY CAN STOP YOU. When the urge to self injure comes on you, check the time and tell yourself you have felt the urge. If you choose not to SI for the next 15 minutes do something else keep occupied. If after 15 minutes you still feel like SI it's your choice, you have the power, you're in control, choose to wait, choose to hurt....
If you get through the urge and have not hurt yourself, maybe ring a friend to tell them, or email Wedge@lifesigns.org.uk (or not, the choice is always yours). Check out the link
http://www.lifesigns.org.uk/help/ Good luck as you try to ride the wave.