Help my self harming problem

[Mindisbrokennekorbsi]

I have an an incredibly bad issue with self harm. I scratch my thighs heavily with the tip of my monster 4 and an quarter inch butterfly knife daily, and I have kind of attempted suicide twice with a boxcutter when I was 14, but my mom came home 2 hours early on both occasions before I could muster up the courage to press down fully. Does anyone have any advice or techniques on how to help stop my self harming, and get treatment?

 

[kappa]

I haven't tried this method personally, but I was told a technique to use for extreme emotions. Fill up a sink with the coldest water you can stand, dip your face in the cold water and hold your breath. Making sure the eye area is in contact with water is very important. I don't remember exactly what it does, but it's called a "diving response". It helps to lower your heartrate, breathing, etc.

I will run the coldest water on my hands and pat my face and neck with it, but the sink method probably is more effective.

I don't have any advice on stopping- self harm does remind me of drinking/drugs though. The more you engage in it, the harder it is to resist. I had a long while where I wasn't doing it, slowly started, and now it's on my mind a lot.

The cold water can help for anxiety, or other strong emotions as well.

 

[Emily123]

i started doing very dangerous things. i don't know how to stop it

 

[Soulless_Angel]

I self harm, i do it for many reasons, distractions, when the urge hits in, I try and spend time with someone, so less chance of doing anything,
I have heard of the cold water trick for panic attacks, i heard of ice cubes on the area you self harm on instead. Dont know if it works though.

 

[Iwantoutrightnow]

The face in very cold water is helpful but it does have to be really cold, try putting ice cubes in the water. Also ice cube on the place you want to self-harm. Some people find drawing with red ink on the place you want to harm helpful (never worked for me). I think that what helps depends on what you get out of self-harm.

If you want to see blood the drawing on yourself might help, if you want to feel something the ice is probably more helpful. I do it to feel clean so none of them really work for me.

 

[Mindisbrokennekorbsi]

I self harm, i do it for many reasons, distractions, when the urge hits in, I try and spend time with someone, so less chance of doing anything,
I have heard of the cold water trick for panic attacks, i heard of ice cubes on the area you self harm on instead. Dont know if it works though.

Ice cubes do work. Some people put red dye in them to imitate the blood, if the blood is a "thing" for them.

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

I have a suggestion.

I noticed you called it "my self harming problem." I would suggest you try changing your language, even if it feels awkward. Something like, "Self harming is. I experience problems related to self harming. I am not the problem, and it is not mine. Self harming just is, and I am no longer owning it, nor allowing it to own me. From now one, we may still interact from time to time, but we are separate."

I used to binge and purge. I felt awful about it and out of control. I stopped beating myself up over it. If I overate, I experienced the results, like the sensations of being full. It took the power away from purging. If occasionally I still purged, then okay, it happened. I experienced the purging, I experienced the feelings such as burning throat and heart palpitations. And I moved on. That shift helped, and over time, both acts lost power and control over me. If I occasionally made a mistake and gave in to either compulsion, okey dokey then. It was one compulsion, one mistake. I'm not perfect. And I can recover from it, I already have many times, each time more in control, less affected, and able to give my attention to things I actually want to.