Doing fine by design.
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Name: Charlie
Pronouns: they/them
Location: on the ladder
Posts: 7,323
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Join Date: September 20th 2009
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Re: Giving up self-harm. -
October 16th 2015, 01:05 AM
I'll come through and edit this later on, but for now I have a few suggestions. To make it easier I'll list each under their respective subheading so it's easy to follow. I'm not sure how helpful they'll be, so feel free to pick and choose as usual.
Deciding to recover.
Here you could stress that while other people can support you on your journey or act as motivation during it, you should never try to 'get better' for someone else. It's your journey and you need to do it for yourself.
Being scared to recover.
Before you go into ways to combat the fear of recovering, maybe you could quickly mention that it's totally okay to be scared at first. I know you imply it with the first couple of sentences, but explicitly stating it might be a good idea - that way you're reinforcing the idea that accepting and dealing with emotions is better than just distracting yourself from them all the time.
Finding alternatives.
In this section I would stress that 'quitting self harm' is not enough - you need to replace it with other, healthier behaviours. You do go into that a bit, but I think it definitely needs emphasis because if you don't replace SH with something safer, you're likely to try to deal with the feelings in unhealthier ways. It also might help to clarify what you mean by 'alternative box' for those who haven't come across the term before.
Fighting urges.
You could talk about how every alternative you try is a learning experience, and although it might be slow going at first you'll gradually learn which alternatives work for you and that will in turn make it easier to deal with each urge. You could also go into how there might be spikes occasionally - so even when you feel like your recovery is going well, you might come across a suddenly intense urge - and how that doesn't mean you're going backwards or that the next urge will be that bad. And you could quickly mention that you can prepare in advance (such as knowing your triggers or making an alternative box, like you mentioned earlier) so that you don't panic in the face of an urge and instead can redirect your feelings towards a better pursuit.
What if my alternatives aren't working?
I think the part you mentioned might fit better near Reaching Out.
Goal setting.
You could say here that how open you are about your goals is up to you. For example you could tell a close friend every time you reach a goal so they can share your happiness, or you can keep your progress to yourself if you feel it would be more stressful to talk about it. It's a personal decision and you can be as open or otherwise as you want.
Relapse.
I've always tried to avoid using the term 'relapse' and using 'slip up' instead, because it's less black-and-white and less likely to conjure feelings of failure, so it might be worth a reminder in this section that recovery is a journey and there are bound to be bumps in the road, but that doesn't mean you're not still in recovery.
Reaching out.
Here you could put a quick list of people to talk to (friends, family members, professionals - you know the drill) just to give some examples.
Annd, there you go. As I said before, you're welcome to use any of these or none of these, and it's entirely your call.
"Love means never having to say you're a werewolf."
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