[Fallingforyou]

Hey there Elliot,

I'm very proud of you for making it through an entire month without cutting and it's only natural for you to still feel the need to harm yourself. Many of us have been there and it's great you decided to reach out!

For the moment I'm just going to list a few well-known self harm alternatives and it's up to you to find out which one helps you the most:
- snap a rubber band against your wrist
- draw on yourself with washable red marker where you want to cut and wash it off afterwards
- squeeze ice, but not for too long
- draw a butterfly for every person you care about and imagine that it will hurt them if you cut
- exercise
- write down things that you are grateful for, every day (I actually learned that in therapy)
- exercise
- watch an episode (or two, we know how it goes) of your favorite TV show, if you don't have one, pick one that sounds interesting
- cuddle and play with your pet if you have one
- try meditation (there are several apps, such as Headspace, and tutorials out there to help you)
- bake or cook something delicious for your family
- give someone a hug
- do school work
- play video games
- write a letter to your future self

Those are just a couple of alternatives and there are many more out there I might not even be aware of because I don't really use them anymore, Google offers countless results

I hope this helps and contact me any time if you need someone to talk to.