Relapse IS Recovery: 4 Ways to Cope With Self-Harm Relapse (TW)

Trigger Warning: The entry below mentions self-injury and other trigger words.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

♡♡♡♡♡♡

♡♡♡♡

♡♡♡

♡♡

♡

Dear Readers,

Self-injury is something that I have dealt with on both a professional and personal level. For 10 years, I juggled various forms of self-destructive behaviors. Among them were drug use, impulsive spending, reckless driving, unprotected sex, eating disorders, and cutting. Most of this came to a halt as a result of becoming a mother, and flinging myself into intensive therapy in the name of hard personal work. Despite my happy ending, my road has been far from perfect and my personal relapse occurred July 15th of this year after a traumatic event took place.

Why am I telling you this? Because I am someone who had considered herself recovered from self-harm. It had been at least two and a half years completely harm free with long periods of normalcy in between. This, from a girl who used to hurt herself every single day. I was so proud of myself, and thought for sure that my darkest days were behind me.

However, life happens and when life happens sometimes we fall back on old behaviors simply because they work. When discussing self-injury with others this is a concept I bring up often. Simply, it works. However unhealthy and completely maladaptive the entire process of self-harm can be, the social repercussions are almost nothing in the face in the efficacy of these methods. The brain science behind what happens when we hurt ourselves proves why it is so difficult to stop, and why relapse is simply a part of recovery from ANY addiction.

Validation aside, it is important to acknowledge and accept that relapse will happen because relapse IS recovery. That said, there are extremely important things to remember for those of us who may walk through a relapse of any kind and it is this:

you are not a failure

you are not back at square one

you are not your illness

you are worthy of love and good health

MOST IMPORTANTLY, the nature of the Beast is extremely cyclic and toxic. While we may allow ourselves to grieve the loss of perceived progress or simple self control, it is imperative that we not use these feelings of guilt or shame as a catalyst for further self harm. In fact, this is the perfect opportunity for self love and compassion.

Please read more about coping with self harm relapse in the article below:

Pandora's Project: Relapsing After Quitting Self-Harm

You are not alone.

♡

What are some positive ways in which you can cope with relapse in your personal life? We're you able to identify the who, what, where, when, why- and plan ahead for next time a surge of overwhelming emotions happen to you?

You have made it to the very last clue! [T] Often, self harm isn't talked about due to stigma. Find a post that addresses this issue!