[Sophrosyne]

Hey,

Firstly welcome to TeenHelp! It's great that you've come for advice and I hope we can help in some way.

Shooting a rubber band at your wrist can be an alternative to self harm, but it can reach a point that it becomes self harm in itself. I don't like recommending it as an alternative for that reason. In your case, I would say it has become self harm.

For some information on self harm, it does make you feel good. That's why people do it. It releases endorphins that makes you feel good. For the same reason, that's why it's so hard to stop. We get addicted to the good feeling of it and when we don't do it the good feeling goes away and what we were trying to get rid of comes back stronger. There is one upside to this, there are so many other things that can give you that same rush of endorphins that are so much less damaging. For you, what you do isn't that dangerous but from there it can develop for the worst so it is better to stop before it gets worse. Regardless of how bad it is for you, it will still hurt and you don't deserve to be hurt. We are all here to support you and if you ever want any advice we are always here.

As I said before, there are heaps of alternatives to self harm. There is a list here that can give you some, but using a rubber band is on that list so ignore that one. There are also distractions on that list that would help for at school and where you can't do alternatives. Some ones that you could use are reading a book, watching a movie, taking a shower, going for a walk, or even just playing with a pet if you have one. All of these should be done out of reach of a rubber band or anything else you could use. Some alternatives could be rubbing ice on your skin, doing exercise which could also be a distraction, ripping up paper, or writing done everything you are feeling and then rip it up. You could even draw on yourself if you wanted to, with a sharpie as normal pens can hurt.

You don't have to go through this alone, feel free to PM any of us whenever you want, or even go on Live Help or HelpLINK. It's up to you. We are always here to support you.

Take care.