How can I cope with the fact that I self harm?

Understand that self-harm isn't some kind of terrible act that you should be demonized for. Self-harm is often times an unhealthy coping skill one develops in response to stressors when they feel as though they don't have any other way to deal with these feelings. You aren't a bad person for self-harming, you've merely developed a maladaptive coping skill. Replacing your self-harm with a more healthy coping skill is a follow-up step you can pursue.

Try not to think about it too much. If you are harming yourself while not getting help we at 7 cups strongly suggest seeing a counselor or therapist. If you are already seeing a therapist, and still struggle with self harm, try freezing what you harm yourself with in a cup of water, that way if you have the urge to cut or burn or whatever your poison is, you have to wait for it to melt. Then see if you really want to make that choice after you've waited such a long time.

There are many websites that give alternatives when you are feeling a need to self harm such as cutting paper or drawings, find someone you trust who you can share these feelings with or talk to one of us!

Self Harm is a very dangerous as well as potentially fatal addiction, but like other addictions you can work through the urges, you have to believe that there is a better way, and a big thing that has helped me is talking about it to my friends,

You'll have moments where you'll regret ever putting that blade to your arm for the first time, but you can't change it. You can stop, but you can't change what already happened. You just have to accept the past and move on.

Try not to self-harm. Later on you'll regret it. But, when you self-harm, try to think about why you shouldn't do it. Sometimes it helps you stop.

It can help to think about the ways that self-harm has helped you. In the big picture it is a maladaptive coping skill, but if it didn't do anything to help us, we would have no reason to do it at all. Sometimes, when you feel overwhelmed with grief/regret/self-loathing because you have harmed, it can help to remember there was a reason. It can also help to think of ways you can start to actually give yourself alternative. By researching and practicing a wide variety of healthy coping mechanisms we can eventually face overwhelming emotions & situations and truly have a choice - how will i cope with this? And then, over time, you can start to recover. But, realizing self harm has a reason, and realizing recovery is about REPLACING self harm, not just stopping it, can be really important parts of accepting that this is something you have done and something you continue to struggle with.

Dealing with the Fact that you self harm is never an easy thing to do, it takes strength and courage to accept that fact but once you have accepted it which can be done in many different ways which are different to each person i.e. talking to your parents/ an listener it becomes a lot easier to cope with the idea of not self harming again and that you are worth the recovery.

To cope with self-harm I found that I had to first learn to accept myself, as well as accept support

Accept that what you are doing is not something that defines you. it is a dangerous and sometimes permanent solution to a temporary struggle. Speak up and talk to someone until they start to listen.

Maybe stop self harming. If you're feeling guilty or bad about it, you should probably just stop. Instead of finding a way to cope with self harming, how about we replace self harm with a coping mechanism that doesn't need it's own coping mechanism.

The first step is to recognize that you deserve to take care of yourself. It is important to see this in a positive light, i.e. "I deserve to take care of myself", rather than in a negative light, i.e. "it is not ok to treat myself this way" because it might fuel feelings of guilt, which in turn cause self harm. The second step is to find someone to talk with about this behavior. It is best to seek support from someone who is not involved in your life, such as a psychotherapist or a doctor, because family and friend might become judgmental, or controlling, in order to manage their own feelings of guilt. The third step is to learn to love yourself. This is a long path, and it is best to leverage the love others give you in order to build a strong sense of self, in which you can reflect your own value as a lovable person. But for now, maybe try to accept it as a dogma: you are worthy of being loved, and it is ok if it is being loved by you only.

It can help to identify the reasons why you self harm, when you understand the why you can find a starting point to try and stop these behaviours and reach a place where you no longer hurt yourself. Counselling can help you not only discover why you self harm, but find healthier ways to deal with and overcome these issues.

Use art to release feelings in other ways. It sounds cheesy but works. Other ways may be to instead of cutting snap a rubber band on your arm

I think the best thing you can do is acknowledge that it is a problem. Then work from there and try to figure out other activities that can distract you from self harm or help you "let it out"

You can visit the self-harm communities here on 7 Cups or elsewhere. If you are a listener, there are guides to learn from under My Path > Training/Certificates. If you are comfortable, you can talk to a therapist. Good luck, darling!

You can try to consult or to talk about it with someone. I think it's important for you to see that you need help and you can't continue to mutilate yourself. You need to evacuate your emotions by another way.

just relax. the best thing you can do, is to contact an adult, or a supporter for that matter. Talking with people is the best thing you can do. especially because people loves you, and wouldn't want to see you hurt.

When something bad happens to you, you have three choices. You can either let it define you, let it destroy you or you can let it strengthen you. When you look at your scars, you should see that they represent every battle you ever had with yourself that you lost. But that just drives you more to be better than you were yesterday.

Understand that it's not your fault even when it may feel like it. During this time your not completely yourself and have complete control over your brain and that's okay. Are scars show us where we been and the journeys we been through.