Helping a friend (TW)
Hello everyone. My best friend struggles with pretty bad SH. This is a habit that begun recently. One time she called me and told me she had cut too deep and she was panicking and I was panicking cause I live 4 hours away. She tried to call her boyfriend first but he didn't pick up so she called me. And she cut herself as she was talking to me, her scream still haunts me. She does this due to OCD. While on that call i tried to calm her as best as I could and also tell her to hold pressure with a towel on her wound. It turned out okay, she reached her boyfriend eventually and he came home early from work.
But in those situations I can freeze, not know what to say or do. I was close to calling an ambulance cause I was so worried, but I also couldn't see how much blood she was losing, if she was exaggerating cause she was panicking or if there was a lot of blood. I also asked her multiple times if I should call one and I trust her to be honest with me. Obviously I would've called one if she had continued to cut deep or if I believed it was necessary.
Does anyone have any advice in what to say or do in these situations? Cause I genuinely don't know and I don't want to make her more upset or trigger her OCD more in any way. Please help me.
@theatriclove
This sounds like a really tough situation to be in. The best thing to do if you don’t have special crisis intervention training is to ask her to contact a crisis hotline and end your conversation and allow her the space and time she needs to reach out to the people that are trained to help her. That is what we do as listeners if someone is in danger of harming themselves or if they are s*icidal.
It is also important to have good boundaries when talking to someone that has these tendencies.
if you want to chat more specifically, please feel free to reach out to me. I’m happy to listen and help as best as I can.
Kristy
