writing about SI

tips on how to cope: dealing with your feelings, dealing with the consequences of self-harm in your life. share your ideas and maybe pick up some new skills, too. you don't have to want to stop to learn something new here.

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marronyeux
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writing about SI

Post by marronyeux » Wed Apr 28, 2004 3:47 am

Does creative writing like stories, poems or also art about your experience with SI or your feelings about SI help you get better? Or does it make you worse?

I can't stop thinking about SI, and I started to write about it. So far, I'm fine but I wonder if it will have a negative impact on me.

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Post by Searching » Wed Apr 28, 2004 4:07 am

I don't know if you'd consider it the same, but if when I'm journaling, I write something about SI, it doesn't affect me. It's more of something that I can write down so I can remember later, or so I won't 'forget' it forever, since it will always be in my journal. I also know that for some people, talking with their T about SI is a huge trigger for them, but for others it doesn't affect them, or it's helpful for them to talk about it.

I know none of those were really talking about creative writing, but I'm assuming it would be fairly closely related. It all depends on the individual, whether or not writing/talking/thinking about SI triggers them or not. Sorry that I couldn't be more helpful, but I think this kind of thing is pretty individualized, something that you'll have to make a judgement call on if you start noticing negative effects, like if writing about it just draws you deeper in and starts being more of a trigger than an outlet.
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Post by Oizys » Fri Apr 30, 2004 3:48 am

I find it helps sometimes. I write about SI in my journal and it helps because it gives me something to do through the urges and it keeps my hands busy. And I'm proud when I look back over upset depressed journal entries and know that I *didn't* SI even though I wanted to. So... I don't think it will have a negative impact, but I suppose everyone's different...
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Post by Guest » Fri Apr 30, 2004 2:07 pm

It's weird that you've brought this up now... At the moment I'm SI free (98th day today). I was looking through my old diary a few days ago and found something I'd written when my SI was at its- I don't want to say worst. When I was SI- ing a great deal and doing more physical damage than at any other time, anyway. I found it really disturbing to read what I had written, especially as I didn't remember writing it, and it was very pro- SI as well as graphic.

Maybe at the time it helped me, I don't know. These days I'm finding reading old things I've written about SI to be really upsetting, and a little triggering in the sense that if I think about it in depth, I start trying to understand my train of thought when I wrote that, which sometimes leads to me starting to think those thoughts again.

On balance I'd say that writing things down helped me at the time, but it is a very bad idea for me to read them back now.

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Post by eyeris » Fri Apr 30, 2004 6:14 pm

writing stuff about what's bothering you, SI, etc., is usually a therapeutic thing to do b/c it gets thoughts and things out on paper -- a different outlet for those feelings that make you SI. So I find it helpful, and I think only good can come from it.
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Post by marronyeux » Sat May 01, 2004 4:16 am

thanks for letting me know about your thoughts on it..

i agree that re-reading your past writing on SI can be really triggering and very pro-SI that is for sure.

marronyeux.

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Post by pinkllama » Thu May 06, 2004 6:24 am

I found that painting usually helps, unless I'm unable to express what I need to through it...it I'm not, I get more triggered....while poetry usually is a big NO NO for me...hence you won't catch me hanging around the expressions forum very often.
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Post by Orange Crush » Tue May 11, 2004 8:39 pm

I like to write songs which usually helps.

I don't re-read what I've written in my diary cos it helps at the time but you just feel like crap reading it back.
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Post by Orange Crush » Tue May 11, 2004 8:40 pm

I like to write songs which usually helps.

I don't re-read what I've written in my diary cos it helps at the time but you just feel like crap reading it back.
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Post by Orange Crush » Tue May 11, 2004 8:41 pm

I like to write songs which usually helps.

I don't re-read what I've written in my diary cos it helps at the time but you just feel like crap reading it back.
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Post by nirvana » Wed May 12, 2004 12:16 am

hey... i sometimes write poems about si, when i'm in a sad depressive mood. but i'm careful reading them after, because i don't want to trigger myself again. i often write down angry things, trying to express how i'm feeling, because i can't always come up with names for my emotions, and i find that much more helpful at the time than coming up with a poem. if i try and force a poem, i just get more frustrated. :-?

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Post by angelic212 » Wed May 12, 2004 12:33 am

i write in my journal when i have urges to si and when im depressed and i also write alot of poetry when i feel like cutting and oding and when im very depressed but i tend to not read what i wrote cause it triggers the hell out of me and i end up dissociating but writing helps me alot to deal with the urges.

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Post by Calluna vulgaris » Wed May 12, 2004 2:44 am

Yeah, it does help me. I find it helps a great deal during school to write about what I want to do to myself, how I'm feeling, how much I hate my math teacher. If I write it all down, I often go back and read it when I'm "safe" and have a good laugh over how irrational I really was, and how unwise it would've been to SI in that situation.

Unfortunately (fortunately?) I keep EVERYTHING I write, from "my mom's pissing me off" to "I really wish that kid would stop tapping his foot". My writing has been a source of evil many times... causing unnecessary pain and suffering.

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Post by jed » Wed May 12, 2004 10:17 pm

Sometimes it helps me, other times it makes things worse

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Post by limestone » Thu May 13, 2004 6:20 pm

art helps but not writing. writing is not good as it renforces the thoughts etc and it doesn't 'get rid' of them, from my experience.

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Post by lost down here » Wed Jun 02, 2004 11:05 pm

i'd say about 99% of the time writing about my SI/SU helps alot, its only like 1% of the time that it doesnt, so if its working for you, i'd definetely keep at it and dont give it up for the small minority of the time when it may or may not work

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Post by FreedumMyWay » Mon Jun 07, 2004 6:41 pm

I wrote a play about it for school. Yeah I dont have any writting talent, but it got my message across. Writting that helped me stop for 4 months. I say writting about it helps a TON!

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Post by adaleigh2005 » Wed Jun 16, 2004 2:58 am

I tried to keep a jornal about SI and it didn't work out. At times I felt it only made it worse. But now I found writing poetry helps. I still SI but not as much thanks to writing.

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Post by fireflower » Wed Jun 16, 2004 8:56 pm

I have wrote several poems about si. It helps me to put what I feel into words.
If I am silent then I am not real. If I speak up then no one will hear. If I wear a mask there's somewhere to hide. If I raise my voice will someone get hurt and if I can't feel then I won't get touched. If no truths are spoken then no lies can hide. -Garbage "Silence is Golden"

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Post by Calluna vulgaris » Thu Jun 17, 2004 2:50 am

Writing is how I spend my days, nights, classes, homework time. Anything and everything. The only bad thing that's come out of it is:

1) I'm never really "all there" during lessons at school
2) My parents found something that I wrote about a year ago, and made me go into intensive therapy.

But it really does help me. I can overexaggerate and overreact because... I can. And it helps.

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