After

tools to help you assess your urges before you give in to them, and to help you understand and learn from slips after they happen. by posting here, you're saying that you are serious about exploring the feelings behind your self-harm in depth, whether you're ready to stop hurting yourself or not. to request posting access, click usergroups above and join before and after.

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Stellaria
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After

Post by Stellaria » Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:11 am

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

Done, this happened five days ago.

what had happened just before?

I had gotten up in the morning, seen my son and my boyfriend off to work, had breakfast and a shower. Like any regular morning. No particular upsets. Got out of the door, but instead of going to work rehab I went to store to get tools.

what were you thinking and feeling?

Was thinking that I ought to be dealing much better with things, that I feel too much and take things harder than I ought to, that many other people live under much worse conditions than I do and they still make it, that my inability to just get a grip proves that I'm not fit to live, su thoughts. Also, was kind of disappointed that staying away from si for a few months hasn't really changed the way I feel about myself.

Was feeling depressed and scared at first. Once I had decided to si, I felt stronger and more dissociated, a weird mix of feeling in control/out of control, like being remote controlled by myself.

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 wasn't any obvious final straw. It just suddenly seemed like a good time to do it.

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 can see a few stressors in the past couple of weeks, but it's not exactly like a string of events.

I have been feeling emotional and over-sensitive and don't know why.
I had a T session that left me feeling upset (but I was already feeling upset before) and then T cancelled two sessions, which made me dread going back there.
I saw my mother, which I don't do very frequently and tends to unsettle me.
I was reminded in several ways about a bad time in my past.
An old friend called and reminded me about the past in another way.
My boyfriend was very happy about me going 6 months without cutting (yes that somehow upset me)
I went off my med (on a whim, not for any good reason)

I could have not gone to see my mother, but that would have upset me in another way.
Reminders of the past are hard to avoid.
I could have not told my b/f about the 6 months.
I could have told someone more about how I was feeling instead of going off med.

were there outside factors like drugs, alsohol, being off your meds, lack of sleep, etc? can you address those in the future? how?

Didn't sleep much the night before. Went off my medication a few days before. Not sure how to prevent these things. Just making a rule for self that I'm not supposed to mess with meds and sleep isn't enough, because a big motivation behind why I do it is either intended self-punishment, or I get really fed up with taking care of myself and "being good".

what other ways of coping did you try besides self-harm? how well did they work?

Urges had been there strongly for a couple of weeks at least. I feel like I have just been stalling. Made a 'before' post, talked some to boyfriend, stayed away a couple of days from bus to try to not think about si, went to gym or took walks when I felt urgey, various distractions.

That sort of worked for the moment for a while. Not sure how to avoid things building up for a long time until the bubble bursts.

in retrospect, are there coping methods that you now realize might have helped? what were they?

I don't know.

name at least two things you will do to help yourself remember those coping methods if you end up in this situation again.


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?

I think it's resolved for the moment. I'm calmer now. I'm back on my meds and sleeping.

Long-term, it's not resolved. I'm feeling hopeless, I find it hard to imagine that things will ever be different and don't see very clearly what I'm supposed to do (other than stop being such a miserable wimp :roll:)

are you likely to be in that emotional place again? how will you recognize it when you're in that situation?

Yes. I know it when I'm there.

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 really don't know right now.

<hr>

About Opportunities to SI
Opportunity to Self-Harm seems to be a common theme. Think about why opportunities are important to slips and learn why opportunity is important to you.

What made that opportunity more appealing than any other?


I don't know. I was home alone, but I am that at other times as well. I think the combination of being in a mindset where I really wanted to si and being alone.

Did you make an opportunity or was it there for the taking?

Both, I think. Some of the mindset was created by going off meds and not sleeping. Being alone happens naturally now and then.

What would you have done if there was no opportunity, how would you have handled your urge?

Waited for another opportunity.

If there had been no opportunity would your urge to self-harm have increased or decreased?

Increased, probably. I can wait for weeks without the urge decreasing.

What consitutes opportunity for you? Being alone? having new tools? waiting for the right feeling?

It's that combination of really wanting to si and being alone for long enough.

If your opportunties were taken away, how would you feel?

Trapped. Completely trapped.
Challenges, hugs, and just about everything welcome. :bfly:

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Post by Proximity » Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:29 pm

The way you've described the situation sounds all to familiar to me. In the past, that was similar in a lot of ways to how I would end up SIing.
It doesn't sound so much like you made a choice TO SI, more that you stopped making the choice NOT to SI.

When you made the decision to SI, and you felt a weight lifted/felt stronger, why do you think that was? Did the SI end up helping you? Did it change your feelings?

I often feel like my 'inability to just get a grip' makes me less worthy, or not fit to live, or work in society. I think there are 2 things wrong with that - first, that having problems doesn't stop me from being worthwhile, or from being a good person or having some things to contribute to the world. Secondly, it makes it sound like it's something I could do or should be able to do very easily, and somehow I'm a big loser for not being able to take that step.

Can you find ways to be more gentle in your judgements of yourself? Do you think it's unfair to expect yourself to 'just get a grip'? There are more factors out there.
When you can't pull things together like everyone else seems to be able to, can you try to remember that your situation is not the same as theirs, or remember the patience you would show them were they struggling?

Take care,

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Post by ChaseThisLight » Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:37 pm

That's the thing that is so confusing and frusterating about SI. You can abstain for it for quite a while, and I know for myself, it starts to be that I can't remember why I stopped. And it's frusterating when you don't have a good coping mechanism (or 6) in place for the times when you feel like SIing. You can avoid SIing at the time, but the feeling doesn't go away, and it feels like you are just avoiding it. I'm sure going off your meds on a whim didn't help. That's the way I decided to go off my meds about 2 years ago, and it was hell for over a month. Not helpful in hindsight. Why did you decide to go off them? If you feel like you don't want to be on them, having a doctor's advice to wean off them is the best way to go. Even though it takes a while, you don't feel as...raw...while going off them.

I know what you mean about telling your boyfriend about being SI free for 6 months. The longer I go, the less I want to tell people how long the last time it was. It seems like a really great pressure...and SI is such a personal thing. And the pressure compounds, because if you SI you're not only letting yourself down, but all the other people that have been tracking your days...and it's harder for people that have never SI'd to understand exactly how difficult it is to go for a prolonged period of time, and then "slip". It's just not as easy as throwing away all your tools or vowing never to SI again....you have to replace it with something...SI is so engrained in your behavior after a while that it becomes like second nature, and it's hard to change that. Just know that SIing once...I mean if you haven't in 6 months...that's one day you SI'd out of 120. Good odds I'd say.

I'm sorry if this is rambly or not what you're looking for. Take care of yourself.
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Stellaria
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Post by Stellaria » Thu Sep 29, 2005 6:43 am

Thank you both very much for replies. Gives me some things to think about. No time on the computer right now, but I will come back to this later today.
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Post by Stellaria » Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:39 pm

Feels as if I should apologize for this post being negative in tone. My thoughts are a bit chaotic right now, with constructive and destructive ideas battling for space. I want to clarify that I don't expect anyone else to sort this out for me. I'm writing because it has sometimes helped me in the past, and hey, it's worth a shot.
Proximity wrote:When you made the decision to SI, and you felt a weight lifted/felt stronger, why do you think that was? Did the SI end up helping you? Did it change your feelings?
My spontaneous thought was that when I see myself injured, I feel safe, protected. It doesn't make rational sense to me, but that's the feeling. Magical thinking - I want to ward off bad things happening to me by doing it myself first. In this incident it was kind of convoluted, because I was scared that I might kill myself. After I SI'ed, I felt more numb and could bring myself to talk to people about that, so it felt like it helped me.
Proximity wrote:Can you find ways to be more gentle in your judgements of yourself?
I'm scared of being criticized, and I find it very very hard to let go of incessant self-criticism. Depends on my mood though. There are times when I just go ahead and do and say things without caring, but right now everything about myself seems wrong. I guess I find it hard to talk myself into that things can be different than they seem, so I give up. I know I'm being harder on myself than I would be on someone else in a similar situation... and it somehow seems right.
notmardy wrote:That's the thing that is so confusing and frusterating about SI. You can abstain for it for quite a while, and I know for myself, it starts to be that I can't remember why I stopped.
Yes, I find motivation very hard at the moment. Even if I look back at stuff I wrote before, the only thing that seems meaningful is that a couple of people would be happy if I stop, and now I'm almost feeling resentful towards them for "making" me stop, which they in all truthfulness didn't, I mean I haven't been given any ultimatums.
notmardy wrote:I'm sure going off your meds on a whim didn't help. That's the way I decided to go off my meds about 2 years ago, and it was hell for over a month. Not helpful in hindsight. Why did you decide to go off them?
I'm fairly aware of how unstabilizing it can be to go off meds cold turkey, and the one I'm on is actually the one that has been the most helpful so far, so it was all pure self-sabotage. I felt as if I could not stand being sensible and doing what I was supposed to do. I'm not sure what brought on that desire to make things worse for myself. The thought strikes me that it's a control issue. I'm like a little kid who yells because she has to go to bed when she needs to. Protesting through messing myself up. :roll:
notmardy wrote: The longer I go, the less I want to tell people how long the last time it was. It seems like a really great pressure...and SI is such a personal thing.
I misjudged my own reaction. I told him because I was finding it hard to appreciate myself for going that long without, I thought it might help to hear someone telling me how great it was. Well, I know better now.
notmardy wrote: It's just not as easy as throwing away all your tools or vowing never to SI again....you have to replace it with something...SI is so engrained in your behavior after a while that it becomes like second nature, and it's hard to change that.
I think I was hoping that through going without SI, something else would have the chance to crystallize... but I never really got there.
Challenges, hugs, and just about everything welcome. :bfly:

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