things "better" than cutting.

[Nkaleidoscopic]

I have been using ''cutting'' as a way to relieve stress for a little over a year now. I've used self-injury for as long as I can remember for this (cutting eyelashes, pulling clumps of hair, not allowing myself to eat/drink, nothing serious ..etc) I've thought of numerous ways to stop .. and I've found meditation and physical excercise to help me alot.

 

Anyway .. I'm doing better, so this isn't really about me. People have told me that if I want to stop cutting I should just do other things like: imagine myself cut, poke myself but not actually cut, things like that.

 

I'm just thinking that imagining is pretty much just as bad except you don't have scars. Simply because you don't cut all the way doesn't mean you're not hurting yourself. I'm kinda confused. I imagine it would be pretty easy to just switch from cutting to imagining it or punching walls or doing it with red markers. The real difficulty [iMHO] is ending the addiction and not thinking about it anymore, and instead dealing with stress and rage in healthy ways, unrelated to SI.

 

Maybe it's just me .. but is it really okay to do things like that? Does it truly rid you of the addiction?

[Bigfootedfred]

Though i have cut myself on occasion, i wouldn't even try to claim ive been near where you are.

 

but i can attempt to draw on a similar idea.

i turned to weed for my answer to stress. in many ways it was like an addiction (and still is)

 

but i think you have to ask yourself, as i did.

 

what am i getting out of this?

what is it that you get out of cutting yourself?

believe me i understand stress. so why does cutting yourself alleviate it?

 

i wont claim to understand the problems you face.

and im not going to rant at you either. (i.e. big speech "cutting is not the answer...ect..blah")

because, i think you already know that, i think what you are looking for is not an "answer" or a "solution".

 

i have no idea what the addiction is.

i had no idea why i felt a need to smoke weed so much.

but it is there. some claim it isn't, but it is.

Its some form of mental need.

and when extra stress or problems arise, we go back to it.

that is what i think the addiction is.

 

as to how we fight it. i don't know.

you will only stop cutting yourself, when you really want to.

and i don't mean want to in the sense you know you shouldn't do it.

i mean want to stop.

 

i haven't reached that point at 19.

 

but as to things better than cutting, read a book, common suggestion i know, but suprisingly helpful, i love been taken away to another reality by great storytelling, you can sink back an just enjoy a spell of non-reality.

 

im not sure if i helped at all (in fact i probably just stated the obvious)

....but thats what i have to say on subject.

 

My Best wishes to you.

[_hopeless_]

Well I am a cutter... and trying very hard to stop. You have to realize that it is a addiction and you are always going to be addicted to it... but you can stop doing it... I usually put ice on my wrists when I feel the need to cut.. it's a numbing feeling and it hurts a bit but it's not damaging so I think it's the best thing to do.. I also agree that exercising helps greatly... whenever I'm stressed I jump in my treadmill and run angrily... it's making me healthy and stopping my problem..

[Nkaleidoscopic]

Well thats not really what i was asking.

 

I know it is an addiction, and I am recovering and this wasn't really about me.

 

Like that ice thing, dont you still do it to feel the pain/ pressure whatever alleviate your stresses? isn't it still the same mental addiction, and you're not really solving the problem.

 

it is a addiction and you are always going to be addicted to it... but you can stop doing it...

 

I don't think you're ALWAYS going to be addicted to it. One day I hope to be completely free and i think i'm decently close.

[UT]

Pardon me for this, but to me the though of cutting myself or causing any other voluntary injury to my body is just... in a way sickening. So I have a question. How does that work with cutting yourself and relieving stress? People have you tried talking to someone about your problems, maybe a doctor or someone you trust? Don't cut, it leaves horrible scars.

[Outcast-Angel]

Pardon me for this, but to me the though of cutting myself or causing any other voluntary injury to my body is just... in a way sickening. So I have a question. How does that work with cutting yourself and relieving stress? People have you tried talking to someone about your problems, maybe a doctor or someone you trust? Don't cut, it leaves horrible scars.

thanks for the input.. i think you'll find that everyone here who cuts is aware that it leaves scars. i mean.. how could we not be? cutting works for us in a lot of different ways. for one, it transforms emotional pain into physical pain, which, i for one deal with way better. we're also aware that most people find this habbit "sickening", but thank you for pointing it out to us all, possibly reminding a few of us why we don't tell people that we do it..

 

as for how to stop, the real trick is to replace this coping mechanism with another one that's just as effective for you as cutting is. i'm not saying that that's going to be easy or anything. i've yet to do it. take to cleaning the house when you feel like cutting, to start cooking something, or write whatever thoughts flicker through your head in a notebook. or take up boxing or running or some sort of physical activity. anything that keeps your mind and hands busy, really.

[darkblue]

Don't cut, it leaves horrible scars

Don't attempt to tell people what to do - it backfires, and provokes revolt.

[estelle]

well...i dont find that drawing on youself and imagining cutting actually helps to get rid of the addiction. i agree, the addiction is the hardest part of recovering. if medication and exercise helps you, continue doing that. try other methods as well, you never know, they might work, but stick to what you know

keep up the good work

[xtina]

Pardon me for this, but to me the though of cutting myself or causing any other voluntary injury to my body is just... in a way sickening. So I have a question. How does that work with cutting yourself and relieving stress? People have you tried talking to someone about your problems, maybe a doctor or someone you trust? Don't cut, it leaves horrible scars.

 

Let's say some people CAN'T talk to others about their problems. Maybe they have no one to talk to. Maybe they are looking for counceling. Maaaybe they want attention or maybe seeking for affection.

 

I have a HUGE difficulty to talk to people because I never believe that people would actually want to listen to me babbling. In other words I don't trust people so much.

 

Anyways, does that answer your question?

[ShySoul]

Some people get so depressed or down with themselves, that they start to emotionally feel like they deserved to be punished. So they punish themselves. Or it could be similar to being so frustrated that you want to scream, only they take it to hurting themselves.

 

I haven't actually done it myself, but I've been on the brink. I won't dare say I fully understand how people who do this feel, but I am saying how I have felt.

 

To answer the original question, I think the imagining thing is to get the psycological thrill from it, meet that need, without actually having to do it. Ultimately though, they are still holding onto the idea and that won't help them fully recover. Maybe it's like the patch for smoking? A gradual way of recovering instead of just stopping all at once?