Before - feedback appreciated

[Butterfly.]

Before:

Before You Self-Harm
write down the shadow that's hiding behind the urge. look at it. ask yourself:

• how will this situation or feeling change if I hurt myself?
  I'd feel calmer, it would give me something very physical to focus on
• what will hurting myself bring to the situation? what will it take away from the situation?
  It would bring some relief, an outlet, and possibly some calm. It would take away my recent streak of not self harming.
• 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?
• if hurting myself seems like my best option right now, how long will the relief it brings last? what will i do then?
  No idea how long it will last.
• 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'm trying to keep distracted. Reading on here, playing games online, etc. Cuddled my cat but that didn't help either.
• how will i feel tomorrow if i hurt myself? how will i feel tomorrow if i do the other thing i came up with?
• 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?

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?
  Here because everything is just so overwhelming. My mood has crashed since Sunday night, I'm not coping. It's like old times.
• Have I been here before? What did I do to deal with it? How did I feel then?
  A lot of times. In the past I SIed
• What I have done to ease this discomfort so far? What else can I do that won't hurt me?
  Tried to cuddle the cat. Distract myself with games and BUS. My focus isn't good so I can't do a lot. Thought about journaling but that's a fail right now.
• How do I feel right now?
  Anxious, overwhelmed, depressed.
• How will I feel when I am hurting myself?
  Focused, relief.
• How will I feel after hurting myself? How will I feel tomorrow morning?
• Can I avoid this stressor, or deal with it better in the future?
• Do I need to hurt myself?

Remember you don't have to answer all the questions if you don't feel up to it.

[NobodyToYou]

A couple questions...
Do you know if the feelings are connected to anything? Sometimes it can be difficult situations or things like not enough sleep or too much caffeine or (for females, at least) hormone changes during the month. I know sometimes there are feelings that just seem to show up and don't have any obvious reason, and you can still deal with them, but I find it easier if I know what might be causing the feelings.

Does your body feel more tense or lethargic right now? I am guessing tense, since you are looking for a way to feel calmer and less overwhelmed, but I could be wrong. I also wonder if the cuddling the cat was just "not helping" or if it might have made you feel worse? I ask because I used to have a very hard time identifying what I was feeling, but I noticed that if I tried the "wrong" type of coping, it would make things worse. If I were feeling angry (whether I knew to call it that or not) and tried to use soothing types of coping skills, the feeling would get stronger and the attempt at coping would just annoy me. I wonder if this is happening to you right now?

If you think that might be it, then I would recommend looking for another type of physical coping activity, preferably something that uses a fair amount of energy. (Sometimes tension and agitation are signs that you have too much energy and no place for it to go.) If you like exercise and have a safe environment for it, running helps some people. Or for a shorter term burst of activity, push ups, or picking up something heavy and just holding it for a bit. Anything that can get your muscles working has the potential to help reduce the feeling of tension. I have also found that things as simple as taking my pillow and hitting it against the mattress on my bed over and over can help, but if you do that, you need to know what to expect. If you are feeling angry but don't know it, and you do something that you associate with "being angry", sometimes it can make the feeling a bit stronger and clearer before it helps it become less intense. That can be very useful, but I don't want it to take you by surprise, especially if you aren't comfortable with that particular feeling.

I don't really know what you are facing right now, so I don't know if this really applies, but hopefully something in here will help.