- how will this situation or feeling change if i hurt myself?
I will be less anxious. My mind will not race so much and I will be able to calm down enough to sleep. I won't continue having these thoughts that I can't control and that just keep going for hours until I'm in the middle of a panic attack. - what will hurting myself bring to the situation? what will it take away from the situation?
It will bring more peace from anxiety. But it will take away my resolve and the hard work I've done to avoid SI. - how do i want to feel about this in the long run? is hurting myself likely to get me closer to or farther from feeling that way?
In the long run I want to be proud of how I handled the situation. I know it will take me farther and farther away from being proud of myself. - if hurting myself seems like my best option right now, how long will the relief it brings last? what will i do then?
Maybe until morning. Hopefully by then the anxiety would have gone away. But if it hasn't I will probably go to my other compulsions and then want to SI again. - what is something i could do now instead of hurting myself? how will it change the situation i'm in? how long will that change last, and what will i do then?
I could do one of my other compulsions that doesn't involve hurting myself. But I don't want to do that either, so I could read and try to distract myself with the story. It will hopefully distract me from my thoughts enough that I can get to sleep. - how will i feel tomorrow if i hurt myself? how will i feel tomorrow if i do the other thing i came up with?
I will feel guilty and ashamed if I hurt myself since I've been doing so well. If I read, hopefully I will be happy with how I handled the situation. - what do i really want to do right now? how can i best honor the self-protective instinct that has me wanting to self-injure right now?
I really really want to SI, but that doesn't help keep me safe. I want to talk to my BF and I can't. So, what I will do is post on BUS, post in games for awhile, read, and watch tv until I fall asleep.
- Why do I feel I need to hurt myself? What has brought me to this point?
Because I can't get the thoughts to stop. They've been nagging at me all day and making me anxious and scared and feeling out of control. I cannot get control of it, and I know that today its entirely my OCD that brought me to this place. - What I have done to ease this discomfort so far?
I have been going about all my other compulsions that didn't involve hurting myself all day. They have eased my anxiety only slightly. I have talked about my feelings with my BF. I have tried taking a relaxing shower. - How do I feel right now?
Anxious, upset, nervous, out of control, like I want to cry - Can I avoid this stressor, or deal with it better in the future?
There is nothing I can do about this stressor, these thoughts are related to my OCD which isn't something I can control. But I can use the tools I learned in therapy more often instead of giving into the anxiety. - Do I need to hurt myself?
I don't know. Not right this second, but I can't promise that will stay the same later.