after...

[zombiepeople]

have you taken care of your physical wounds? if not, go do that now. we'll wait.
yup


what had happened just before?
I was panicking about school starting the next day and i just really lost control i guess.


what were you thinking and feeling?
I was scared, upset, panicky, a bit depressed


why did you end up hurting yourself then instead of some other time? was there an event that was the final straw? what was it?
There was really no "final straw" event, it was just really impulsive...i mean, i hadn't been thinking about it really at all until i did it. As for the time...it was basically the perfect time, it was late, i was alone, the usual...


how did the situation get to the final straw stage? trace it back through the events that led up to the last event. look for some point at which you could have made a different decision and not arrived at the final straw. I had been constantly worrying about going back to school, and I couldn't sleep.


were there outside factors like drugs, alsohol, being off your meds, lack of sleep, etc? can you address those in the future? how?
Well I couldn't sleep, eventhough I had taken my sleeping pill before, i still couldn't go to sleep. That kind of made it worse.


what other ways of coping did you try besides self-harm? how well did they work?
I tried writing, lighting insence, and listening to music, but they didn't really work


in retrospect, are there coping methods that you now realize might have helped? what were they?
I could have tried drawing or coloring or sorting colored beads, or something like that, that could have kept my hands occupied so I would have had less of a chance to hurt myself


name at least two things you will do to help yourself remember those coping methods if you end up in this situation again.
write them down on some brightly colored sticky-note or something and post it on my wall, write them in my journal


how do you feel about the situation that led to self-harm now? is it resolved? if not, what are some steps you might take toward resolution? well i've been in school for two days, but i'm still really nervous, so the situation hasn't really gotten any better. I could try to take things one thing at a time instead of worrying so much about the "big picture" of the rest of the school year.


are you likely to be in that emotional place again? how will you recognize it when you're in that situation?
Yeah, i'm probably gonna be in this situation again cuz it pretty much happens anytime i get nervous. Since i know how it feels, maybe i could make sure that there's nothing sharp or hot in my hand or anywhere near me when i think things are going to get that bad.


what will you try before you resort to self-harm if you're in that situation again? list three specific things you will commit to trying.
I will try to sort things like beads or something, read a book, or doodle