I have this concern. My concern is that I wonder how much of our talking affects or encourages others in the forum to try SI. I'm not suggesting that we not talk about SI. I guess I just feel horrible when people talk about reading our posts and then they connect it to starting their first SI. Is there anything preventative that we could do to discourage SI in others who might visit the forum and be in pain? Could we have some info thing that says, if you are ever thinking about SI, read this. I'm not sure and don't have many ideas, but I just know that people who are in pain may be influencable perhaps. Forgive me if I'm wrong. I'm just worried for others.

EV

[h0kie]

Just wanted to let you know, I've wondered the same thing.

I know I've contemplated what SI would be like since reading things here, but have concluded I am too big a wuss to even try it.

I like your idea though about "If you're thinking of SI..." I think many of the people here could give great advice to those contemplating things.

Good point EV. Hopefully others will have better answers for you....us...lol

[SweetCrusader]

I can see that as a problem as well. Honestly, though, I think that those who are going to try si will probably hear about it one way or another- and if not, they might even try it spontaneously.

I don't think there is much we can do about it if someone wants to try it- not anymore than we can do about it if one of use cuts. Ya know?

But I think we can try to discourage it, and be honest about our own feelings about it (and I know for a lot of us- those feelings are that we wish we never started it, even if we "like" to do it now).

Ya know??

sometimes when i am on the verge of cutting, i provoke myself a little bit. i intentionally look at triggering websites and images.....
nothing on here triggers me.....
but i could certainly understand the need someone may have of reading these posts and then harming themselves. call me crazy, but i think a trigger can be helpful. i have found SI to be an effective coping strategy, and prevents suicide in some cases.
if it isnt a suicidal action, i dont see any real harm.

http://www.psyke.org/coping/coping_skills/

[SpazKatt]

I have to say that this forum is much much more conservative on SI... the old one I was at seemed to encourage much more SI. With the methods sharing and posting of pics on thier injuries. I came here because the old place I was at was not helping me over come my SI... this place has helped me TONS! I think it's fine the way it is. But I do get your point EV

[Shaymus]

Im pretty easily influenced and i considered trying it as a non lethal coping method. Then i read some of the posts in here and realized the compulsive draw of it after a time and realized i probably shouldnt electively add more probs to my list than i already have. Specially when i have my own problems with compulsions already.

[tearless]

I kind of wonder if this post was provoked by my confession of SI ? Believe me, this forum was not my deciding factor of whether I'd try it or not. I didn't learn what SI is on this forum. My daughter had a serious problem with SI several years ago (stitches, hospital, etc) and I never understood. We would have discussions about it and it never made sense to me why someone would hurt themselves. I was supportive, but totally baffled.

About 3 months ago I found myself with a blade to my arm. I made some superficial marks. Within 2 weeks I was cutting deeper and was thinking about it constantly. I came to this forum and read - hoping to gain some understanding what was happening to me. It was then that I learned how addictive it was (and I was experiencing it myself) and how most people who SI reported that it caused more problems than it solved. That's what you guys taught me. And that was my encouragement to stop it when I could. My only way to stop at that point was to shut down and pretend that everything was okay.

Now my life is in shambles and I can't hide from my emotions and fears. So I started something I didn't go through with a few months ago. Again, this forum was not the reason I did it!

As I told my T about it our last session, I kept saying, "Yes, I hurt myself but I don't SI". Total denial huh? %#Y#, I'm 41 years old. This is not what I wanted to become. I'm ashamed.

Just my thoughts as a SI "newbie".

[Rapunzel]

EV,

That is a very good question, and I think you're great to be concerned about others that way. I appreciate those who have answered also. I have wondered the same thing, and I'm aware of at least one person who said he tried SI after hearing about it here. Although I have hurt myself in one way or another since I was a little kid, and joined this forum because I was learning about what SI was and I needed a place where it was ok to talk about it and sort it out, I even escalated after a while and I think that I was influenced by what I read about. The danger exists, and I think your idea about a warning not to start is a good one. I also think that people who hurt that much are probably going to be destructive anyway, if not by cutting maybe with drugs or eating disorders or something else, and warnings probably won't talk them out of it. Overall, I know that this forum helps me much more than any hurt I could attribute to it, and I hope that that is true overall as well.

Oh, and CCL, I look for triggers too, and wanted you to know that I understand your point there about sometimes triggers being helpful. At times I get stuck and can't move forward without something pretty significant happening to motivate me. Sometimes getting triggered helps get you moving sooner than you would otherwise, or helps you to stop being stuck. It can also help you to become aware of issues to deal with that might not have been discovered otherwise. So, depending on what you do after you get triggered, yes, I do think it can be helpful.

Just my 2 cents, or is that more like 14?
Rap

[BamaSurvivor]

I think most of our post should be self explanitory as far as, 'this is what could happen if', you know? I mean, I read a lot of the SI posts made and all of them have at least one thing that should turn someone who has never SI away from ever wanting to try it, but if it doesn't, there's nothing anyone can do to really prevent them from trying it. I think it's pretty obvious to see from the posts made, that SI can turn into an addictive behavior and regardless of trying to really do damage, it can cause severe damage.

I hope my SI posts haven't provoked anyone to turn to SI, because I know I shouldn't cut and I know it's not healthy. But if someone is determined to do something, more than likely, regardless of our posts, they'll eventually do it anyway, sadly.

Hope all that made sense, I'm kinda out of it right now.