In addition to what @A MyDepressionTeam Member said, If you are having really strong urges and you feel like you have to self-harm then you can try something like squeezing an ice cube in your hand or putting a rubber band around your wrist and pulling it and letting it snap back because it hurts but the chances of you seriously injuring yourself is pretty much zero. Hope this helps.

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A MyDepre...

That is a really tough question. Back in 2002 and for five years following I was a cutter. I have had staples and stitches so many times I can't count. What my therapist explained to me was that self-harm is a primitive coping skill. It is what you do when you don't have any other way to cope and you have a need to feel better, or feel numb. People cut for different reasons. What I figured out was that even if it made me feel better it was not only a temporary solution but a very brief time of relief. It's effects are so brief you have to continue to feel better. I don't deserve that. You don't deserve that. The first part of healing is learning to love yourself. You might need to seek therapy because there are deep-rooted reasons that make you feel this way that you may need to deal with. However, I have been in therapy since 2002 and I do from time to time have the urge to self harm. It is a tough battle we face but we can come through it without hurting ourselves. You are a very special person and you need to cherish yourself and do kind things for yourself. I wish I had better advice but these are the things that helped me. I hope you get some help and can refrain from this behavior. Try to distract yourself with other things to get the thoughts out of your head and I hope you are in therapy. Big Hugs.

I haven't self-harmed in several years but I do sometimes get urges to do so. My doctor explained to me that self harm is a primitive coping skill, it's what I go to when nothing else seems to help. Through therapy and learning ways to cope with stress and anxiety I have been able to stop. It isn't easy as it can be an addictive behavior but remember when you hurt yourself the relief you feel is temporary if even 10 to 15 minutes and then you have to do it again. I will never be able to wear sort sleeves again without drawing unwanted attention and it just isn't worth it. I hope you are able to see that you are better than this, you deserve better and to feel cherished especially by yourself. It took me a long time to learn to love myself enough to quit and when very depressed it is still hard but it is possible.

I try to tell someone I feel like self harming, like my counsellor, who doesn't stop me, but asks that I talk to him about it first, about why, and to ensure I keep it clean, and have appropriate clean blade, and bandages, steri-strips, plasters etc, and that I'll seek medical treatment if I need, he'll try to encourage me to find better ways to deal with my feelings, like snapping an elastic on my wrist, or clenching ice cubes, or to go and vent on an online forum, just as a distraction or prolonging technique, to try to reduce the amount I harm by, by reducing the amount of time available to me to self harm, sometimes this is enough to get me through an urge without the need to self harm, also writing yourself a list of alternatives can help, as well as a list of the pros and cons of self harming 🙂

Meditiation helps, I draw that helps me