how will this situation or feeling change if i hurt myself?
Control. Do not have to ask others to help me while I am panicking. Stop the pain in my heart, and put it externally. Help me remember later.
what will hurting myself bring to the situation? what will it take away from the situation?
Brings relief from the pain I feel in my chest, that hurts so bad.
Takes away... I don't know yet.
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?
I want to resolve my issues. Stop being afraid.
It's going to take me farther away because I will be afraid now of what people think of my cuts and scars.
if hurting myself seems like my best option right now, how long will the relief it brings last? what will i do then?
The relief will last a day maybe... Then I will want to cut 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 need to get back into meditating when I need to relax.
I don't know how long it will last. I'm scared of that. I don't know what else to do.
how will i feel tomorrow if i hurt myself? how will i feel tomorrow if i do the other thing i came up with?
If I hurt myself, tomorrow I will feel ashamed... but proud at the same time. But if I don't hurt myself, I will feel like I am stronger, but yet weaker at the same time.
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?
Right now I want to die.
urges aren't necessarily the enemy. they happen for reasons, and they're an expression of a desire to stay alive and stay sane and keep coping. remember that.
More Before Questions To Answer
Why do I feel I need to hurt myself? What has brought me to this point?
I get panic attacks. I get scared of being alone or of being abandoned. I feel that I deserve to be abandoned. But when I'm happy I don't think of these things. When I cut, I get hurt, and I get scars I can see. The scars I can see I look at and remember when I'm happy so that when I get sad or panicked again, I don't crash as hard, because the cuts help me remember the pain inside all the time. It is easier.
Have I been here before? What did I do to deal with it? How did I feel then?
I cut before when I was in high school but then it was because of ED not because of PTSD or panick attacks. Then it helped me but I only did it maybe 10 times over the course of a year and then stopped. I don't know why, I just stopped.
What I have done to ease this discomfort so far? What else can I do that won't hurt me?
I've tried medicine but I need to get back into therapy.
How do I feel right now?
scared. can't breathe.
How will I feel when I am hurting myself?
I feel like I can breathe again.
How will I feel after hurting myself? How will I feel tomorrow morning?
Sad. Lost. Alone.
Can I avoid this stressor, or deal with it better in the future?
no
Do I need to hurt myself?
right now I don't know how not to need it
Remember you don't have to answer all the questions if you don't feel up to it.
