Self-Help on Cutting

[Chy]

I'm working real hard to find you all the resources to help with this issue. I'll be posting the links here.


http://www.palace.net/~llama/psych/injury.html

http://www.palace.net/~llama/psych/fself.html

http://www.self-injury.net/

[pedagogue]

Study into self-harm finds that the urge to cut never goes away

Country Scotland Scotland
Date 02 August 2005

New research has revealed that some people who self-harm may never be free of the “urge” to hurt themselves.

A study carried out at the University of Stirling found that, just like people with addictions to drugs, alcohol or gambling, sufferers can struggle to overcome the impulse even if they have stopped self-harming for months or even years.

Some of the participants in the research, who ranged in age from 29 to 40, even kept their “favourite” cutting tool stored safely in case they needed it.

Rates of self-harm have increased in the UK over the past decade and are now among the highest in Europe. It is estimated that one in 10 teenagers deliberately hurts themselves. However, little research has been carried out to understand and identify the processes involved in the urge to self-harm.

Dianne Cameron intensively interviewed people who were currently self-cutting or had self-injured in the past for her PhD at Stirling University’s nursing and midwifery department.

She said: “What I found was that once the participants started self-cutting it was really difficult for them ever to be free of the behaviour again.

“They may be free from cutting in the sense that they haven’t cut for a few months, weeks or even years, but it doesn’t mean their lives are not still affected by the urge to cut.”

She said the experiences and feelings that the participants had were similar to those felt by people who are addicted to drugs, alcohol or gambling.

“Most of them would not say they had stopped cutting, even though some participants had not self-injured for as long as two or three years,” Cameron added.

“Instead they would say it’s three years since I last cut or two months since I last cut, as if they didn’t want to completely let go of the behaviour.

“Some participants had a specific knife or tool which they liked to use when cutting and even though they hadn’t cut for a few years, they knew where that knife was just in case they needed it.

“One participant referred to this as a ‘safety net’, and just knowing where the tool was helped them not to cut.”

Cutting and burning are the most common forms of self-harm, but it can also involve taking overdoses of tablets or medicines, pulling out hair and scratching or tearing at the skin.

Experts say that while there are many reasons why people do it, the behaviour is often a method of coping with the emotional pain of trauma, such as abuse, or difficult experiences, such as bullying or bereavement.

Linda Dunion, director of the See Me campaign, which aims to reduce the stigma around mental health issues, said: “Self-harming behaviour is not yet well understood.

“That may be why there’s so much secrecy and stigma attached to it. It’s generally a sign of mental distress but it is too often dismissed as just attention-seeking.

“People who self-harm actually go to considerable effort to try to hide the behaviour from others, which can make it all the more difficult to identify individuals who need help.”

Pat Little is the development manager for young people’s services at Penumbra, one of the main organisations working in the field of self-harm. He said that, while the problem was generally only thought of as a young person’s phenomenon, that was not the case.

“We have come across very young people self-harming, but also people in their 60s,” he said. “The biggest group for admissions to hospital for self-harming injury is 33 to 44-year-olds.”

He backed the findings of Cameron’s research, saying that never being free from the urge to self-harm was likely to be a “common feeling”.

“It is mainly because people have learned to use self-harm as a way of coping with stress,” he said. “With something you know works, there is always the temptation to do it again.

“A lot of people, because they have managed to cope with stress in the past, can manage to stop it completely. But for others, harming themselves much less frequently would be a success for them.”

Little also pointed to the fact that while the problem appeared to be on the increase, agencies often struggled to deal with it because of a lack of understanding.

“There is a real need to bring the issue into the open and make it easier to go for help,” he said.

“For example, a lot of young people who self-harm are made homeless as housing associations and housing departments can’t understand it and think, ‘These people are too disturbed to have our accommodation, they need specialist accommodation.’

“In fact they are not dangerous to anyone and the issues are around their own distress,” he added.

Cameron, who is now an assistant psychologist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, agreed that more understanding about the condition was required, including among health professionals.

She said: “It is important not just to look at the cutting behaviour, but for professionals to understand the importance of the urge and how it affects the lives of people who are currently self-injuring or have done so in the past.

“Even though they haven’t cut for a few years, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are managing to cope with the feelings that caused them to self-injure and they might still be battling with the urge to cut.”

Source: Sunday Herald, 30/07/2005 (Originally found by "Erratic" over at SR)

[sayoe]

i was told that this would be a good forum for me to go to

[denny]

hi sayoe
i'm denny i haven't self-harm in a few months but still struggle with it from time to time. look at some of the threads or start ur own, to look at the threads in this forum u might have to change the setting at the bottom of the page to within a 100 days instead of just the last month.
hugs denny

[sayoe]

i don't really cut myself i just hit my head against things

[denny]

it's all self harm weather it's cutting burning hitting head against sumthing punch a wall pulling out hair ect... take look around forum start a new thread saying wot ever u need too

[CarChick4life]

Denny is right. Cutting is the most commen form of SH but hitting, burning ETC is also SH. I think that even ED's, and drug abuse can be catorgorized (meh spelling) as SH.

[sayoe]

i know it is still sh but it is not as bad as cutting

[CarChick4life]

Actually it kind of is as bad as cutting. I mean your still intentionally hurting yourself and still trying to cause yourself pain, so um when it comes down to it, it’s just as bad. Sorry

[*silenced*]

Denny and CarChick4life are right, hitting is still SI.
I can't bring myself to stop cutting, it is the one thing i have left and i just can't let go.
I discovered it when i was 10, i still remember my first cut like it was yesterday!
And having ED's and Drug addiction don't help with SI.
Like, if you are under the influence of alcohol, and depressed, you cut deeper because you cant feel it so bad, i have ended up in hospital a number of times.
And ED's can be catoragised under SI, but i dont agree with that, i didnt become anorexic or bulimic because i wanted to hurt myself.
Thats like saying people do drugs because they want to hurt themselves.
Cutting is so misunderstood and more and more people are doing it.
Its even "cool" to some people, which is really messed up actually, just 'cos some damn celebrity did it, dosnt mean its cool to like, carve somthing in your arms!
Saz

[sayoe]

and i understand it is sh and that drugs will make it worse

[*silenced*]

Yes, drugs to make SI worse.
The only times i've been rushed to hospital from SI is when i have been on lsd or alcohol, seeing and lsd can cause "bad trips" (not fun) and alcohol is actually a depressant, it makes you feel less, so you must cut deeper to get the same effect.
SI is addictive, no, you can't get physically addicted to it, but its addictive and its really hard to break the habit.

[sayoe]

yes it is hard to break the addiction

[Done-With-It!]

Help for self harm

There are a number of ways to help someone who self harms, and this will usually involve help from professionals, but also in supporting and enabling people to begin to take steps to help themselves.
Help from professionals

Many people who self harm recover and don't self harm again. Doctors, psychologists and other professionals can help in many ways. However, many professionals find self harm difficult to understand and you may feel misunderstood. It can help if you are able to find an understanding professional or if you give the professional some addresses of organisations that provide information and advice on people who self harm.
Professionals can help you by providing:
Support, practical help to deal with the situations that led or could lead to self-harm, help understanding the thing that lead you to harm and your motivation for self-harm , an evaluation of the short term risk of suicide, psychiatric assessment to identify mental health difficulties, treatment of mental health difficulties, access to talking therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy and psychotherapy, access to problem solving therapy/training
There are a number of therapies offered both by the NHS and privately that have proved successful in reducing and stopping self harm

• Cognitive behavioural therapy
• Cognitive analytic therapy
• Psychotherapy
• Medication
• Dialectical behavioural therapy
• Interpersonal group therapy
  (The last two are for people with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder).

Talking treatments
Ultimately talking therapies are better in the long term and often deal with the root cause and not just management of the symptoms. Talking treatments

Medication
Research into the effects of medication on self harm is patchy in many areas and often done on people with learning difficulties in which the motivation for self harm may be different and who often represent a minority of people who self harm. Two of the most researched drugs are naltrexone and naloxone. However, there is conflicting evidence as to their use in treatment of self harm. Medication

There is some evidence that atypical antipsychotics may have some role in treating self harm. Case reports indicate that clozapine, risperidone and olanzapine can reduce self harm in individuals although there are no well-controlled studies of these drugs in the treatment of self harm.

There is also limited evidence that the mood stabilisers carbamazepine and valproate can reduce self harm, and a class of antidepressants known as SSRIs in high doses can be effective.

Most people find stopping self-harm is very difficult. Even if stopping completely is too hard at the moment there is plenty you can do to increase your control over your self-harming behaviour

What can I do to help myself?

Stopping self harm is difficult. The first step is to decide that you want to stop. Thinking about it for the first time, you may see more reasons not to stop and decide that the time is not yet right. Perhaps keep a list of reasons for and against self harm. Often people need a good support network before they can think about stopping.

Deciding to stop
Everybody is unique and what works for one person may not necessarily work for another. Here are some suggestions of things you can do to help yourself gain control over your self-harm and in time these might help you stop completely.

Most of these suggestions are based on the ideas that self-harm is usually a coping mechanism to express distress that you can't find another way of expressing, and that self-harm is often a result of you feeling helpless and out of control over your life.

By finding different ways to express distress and by exercising choice you are loosening the grip of self-harm. Try experimenting with different ideas to find things that help you. For example:

• seek social support from friends and family
• talk to someone who understands what you are going through, this could be a friend, a relative or another person who self-harms
• find other ways to express feelings and relieve tension, such as hitting something, writing, drawing or doing sport
• do anything but self harm, such as doing things that cause intense sensation, such as biting into ginger or squeezing ice. The important thing is that it causes intense sensations, perhaps even pain for a brief time, but does not cause lasting harm
• try to delay self-harming for a short time (e.g. start with 15 minutes and gradually increase this time)
• get up and go round to a friend or relatives house
• do something soothing such as having a hot bath with bath oil or make a hot cup of cocoa and snuggle under the duvet
• do something practical, like write a letter to a friend, choose a random object and think of 30 different uses for it

Before you cut...
Try to ask yourself the following questions and give answers:
Why do I feel I need to hurt myself?
What has brought me to this point?
Have I been here before?
What did I do to deal with it?
How did I feel then?
What I have done to ease this discomfort so far?
What else can I do that won't hurt me?
How do I feel right now?
How will I feel when I am hurting myself?
How will I feel after hurting myself?
How will I feel tomorrow morning?
Can I avoid this stressor, or deal with it better in the future?
Do I need to hurt myself?

Staying safe when cutting
Not sharing cutting implements with other people - many diseases including HIV/AIDS can be transmitted this way;
Trying to keep cuts shallow;
Making sure you have first aid supplies and know some first aid;
Making sure you know what to do in an emergency (e.g. dial 999 if you need an ambulance)
Before you self-harm set yourself limits - deciding how many cuts or burns or bruises and how big they will be - and set these limits so that they are just enough to relieve your distress but no more.

How can I help someone who self harms?

Perhaps someone who you care about has told you that they self harm or you have found out some other way. Now that you know, this section provides some basic guidelines how to deal with and possibly help that person.

Don't take it personally
Self injury is about the person, not about the people around them. Even if it feels like manipulation, it probably isn't. People do not harm themselves to be dramatic, annoy others, or to make a point.

Educate yourself
Get as much information about self harm as you can. It will help you understand what the person is going through. There are many good books out there and several good websites.

Understand your feelings
Be honest with yourself about how this self harm makes you feel. It is ok for you to feel frightened, repulsed or provoked.

Be supportive without reinforcing the behaviour
It is important that the person who self harms knows that you will love them whether they self harm or not. Be as available as you can be. Set aside your personal feelings about the behaviour and focus on what's going on for the person. Provide safe space if you can. However, you should be clear about boundaries and what you can and can't do.

Take care of yourself
You are no good to the person if you are burnt out and emotionally drained. Setting limits can help you both. Don't be afraid to take a break to recharge making it clear that you still love the person and you will be there for them when you get back.

Ultimatums do not work
In practice, ultimatums can drive behaviour underground and make it worse. Confiscating tools used for self harm is also useless; it just encourages the person to find more ways of harming themselves. Punishments and guilt trips also make self harm infinitely worse.

Acknowledge the pain of the person
Accepting and acknowledging that someone is in pain doesn't make the pain go away, but it can make it more bearable. Be hopeful about the possibilities of learning other ways of coping with the pain. If they are open, discuss possibilities for treatment with them. Don’t push them into anything; they will decide when they feel the time is right.

Don't force things
Don't feel at a loss if you are rejected at first. Some people need time to trust other people. Be patient.

Some people find support groups helpful in caring for someone with self harm. Most carers support groups deal primarily with people with mental illnesses but should be open and may have experience of self harm also. There are several places on the Internet including chat rooms and bulletin boards where carers of people who self harm meet regularly and are able to exchange information, experiences and coping strategies.

http://www.rethink.org/living_with_m..._for_self.html

[annihilate_me]

:d

[ashlee19554]

You are 100% correct abou that been doing it sence i was 12 going on thirteen im 16 now.

Originally Posted by sayoe

yes it is hard to break the addiction