Help quitting self-harm

[jerkbybile]

i will get straight into it: i want to try to stop self-harming. i am (somewhat regularly) intimate with my significant other, and this makes hiding any self-harm wounds extremely difficult. i have tried to stop before, but a lot of the more common methods i have had no success with.
i typically cut my arms and legs with various sharp objects (kitchen knives, razors, scissors, etc), though at my worst, i have also cut on my face and neck. i fully view it as an addiction at this point. i have tried to cold turkey it, but i can hardly last three days. i have tried the rubber band method, throwing ice cubes, submerging my face in ice cold water, drawing on myself, and putting away harmful objects to prevent impulsive decisions.
as for why i self-harm, i do not have a real answer. i do it in bad moods. i do it in fine moods. i do not particularly enjoy pain. i think part of me simply likes the scars. i wish i had more helpful information, but this is all i have. if you have had something that has helped you, please, share with me.

 

[takuyangel]

i'm always trying to sober up lol i think im almost a week sober atm, idrk. biggest tip i would say is don't obsessively count your sober streak. i used to have one of those "i am sober" apps, they honestly just weigh you down and stress you out once a relapse occurs. i've felt more confident and forgiving to myself since i got rid of mine. also, whenever i'd really wanna sh, i would literally just call my best friend. cant rly do it now cuz we aren't friends anymore but if there's literally anyone you can casually talk to, a friend or a sibling, shoot them a call or text and i promise you'll feel better. best of luck, i believe in you !!

 

[ConfusedClouds]

For me, high intensity exercise. Something simple/accessible like run up steps, walk down, run back up etc. repeat until suitably sore legs/lungs or tired. However I note you said its not necessarily always when you're upset or distressed. For me the high intensity is a way to take out my anger and upset (a normal steady state jog wouldn't cut it), but if (at that moment) you don't have a huge amount of emotion to 'get out', then it may be less relevant to you.

Maybe if you can decrease it when you're in bad moods, you'd do it less out of habit in the good moods too.

I'd say be patient and I like what was said above about not putting pressure on 'dates' and 'streaks'.

Good luck

 

[Leonard_Bangley39]

i will get straight into it: i want to try to stop self-harming. i am (somewhat regularly) intimate with my significant other, and this makes hiding any self-harm wounds extremely difficult. i have tried to stop before, but a lot of the more common methods i have had no success with.
i typically cut my arms and legs with various sharp objects (kitchen knives, razors, scissors, etc), though at my worst, i have also cut on my face and neck. i fully view it as an addiction at this point. i have tried to cold turkey it, but i can hardly last three days. i have tried the rubber band method, throwing ice cubes, submerging my face in ice cold water, drawing on myself, and putting away harmful objects to prevent impulsive decisions.
as for why i self-harm, i do not have a real answer. i do it in bad moods. i do it in fine moods. i do not particularly enjoy pain. i think part of me simply likes the scars. i wish i had more helpful information, but this is all i have. if you have had something that has helped you, please, share with me.

reading your explanation, i think it's almost exactly the same for me. at first i started cutting when i felt overwhelmed with negative emotions or stress, then after a few months it slowly turned into doing it whenever i felt irritated or sad, or sometimes even just cause i was bored and felt like it. And yeah, a big part for me is that i like the scars. i try to only cut deep enough into the dermis layer because thats where you start getting scars. i dont want to cut to the fat layer, that scares me.

For me, the biggest thing that helps me is to simply just distract myself and stay occupied with something else. Like cooking or chores or reading or some king of creative project. Like they say, idle hands are the devil's playthings.

 

[Zura]

I never had to deal with self harm so idk if my advice can be of any help but i was kinda somewhat addicted to porn i used to mastrubate like once almost daily in the past and i just realised that i never even enjoyed mastrubating or consuming porn i had just integrated it in my routine like usually at night time before i sleep and even when i decided to quit it for like long periods of time i would like count days even when i would do good like last a week it would eventually come to an end since i was treating it like i am abstaining myself from something as in i am punishing myself by not watching porn which was totally not the case as i never even liked it in the first place
its that when i had to understand that since i am not doing anything fun and not really letting go of something by quitting porn i think is when i think i got better
sorry if none of this made sense porn addiction and self harm addiction and are 2 very different things I wish you the best and I hope you quit sh for good