Help for Cutting

How can i help a friend with cutting?

• Ask about it-Friends with cutting problems are often glad to be able to talk about it. If you bring it up and this person isn't self-injuring it won't start just because you said something about it.
• Offer options but don't do. If someone's using cutting or some other kind of self-injury as a way to feel in control, it won't help if you try to take control. Helping someone see ways to get help-like talking to a parent, teacher, school counselor or mental health professional-may be the best thing you can do
• Seek support. Knowing a friend is going through this can be frightening and stressful consider telling a teacher or someone else you trust. And remember even if you don't want to share your friends's secret, you can still talk to a mental health professional about how it is affecting you.

Remember you're not responsible for ending your friends self-abuse. You can't force someone to stop or to get help from a professional. What you can do always, is keep being a good friend.

How can i help myself?

• Talk to someone you trust. Maybe its a parent or a good friend or a school counselor. Tell them you're cutting yourself, you want to stop. Ask them to help you find help. Know that you may get some tough reactions like denial or sadness or anger, but that will pass. If you're not comfortable with that, cotact a local mental health group or a hotline.
• Get help. Cutting isn't something to deal with on your own. There are therapists and support groups who can help you work through what makes you cut. Even if you're nervous about getting help NOW is the best time to do it. If you wait, the problem will only get bigger and harder to hide. And remember, you can stop cutting.

ya know i type all this up about get help and i've got help ya know but its hard and sometimes i don't even want to quit so i don't know about this whole thing.....i encourage everyone to get help and talk to someone about it.

Cutting info

I found this on a website called mpower musicians for mental health and they had great articles and stuff. but this one is on cutting and i promised a few weeks ago i would get you some info on cutting and what the deal is with it.


what is cutting?

• cutting is when someone takes something sharp, like a razor, knife, scissors or piece of glass,and runs it along a part of their body usually to the point of bleeding or bruising.
• Most cuts are made on arms, wrists, and legs. sometimes peope cut their chest, stomach,face, neck, breasts, or genitals. Cutting on the arms and wrists is the most common because it's often easier to make up excuses for marks on these parts of the body
• Cutting is a form of self-injury or self-mutilation some people also call it slashing or slicing
• Besides cutting people may hurt themselves in other ways, including scratching,burning skin with a lighter, punching, or headbutting

Basically peope cut to deal with difficult problems or fellings, but there are better, healthier ways to cope.

Who Cuts?

• About 2 million people in the us hurt themselves in some way. most are teenagers or young adults, and they're from all races and backgrounds. To hids their cutting they often wear clothing like long pants or shirts, even in warm weather

Why do people cut?

For most people, it's hard to understand why anyone would intentionally hurt themselves. but, for those who cut, there are a few reasons

• some people say they do it because of emotional pain they can't put into words
• Some say it gives them a sense of control when other things in their life are out of control, like a break uup, a friend who's sick or a parents divorce.
• some people cut to punish themselves for troubling thoughts and acts
• some find the act soothing and it makes them feel alive
• some cut to get a reaction

No matter the reason, cutting is a serious, dangerous behavior, and may be a sign or another problem

Is Cutting a Suicide attempt?

usually, people who cut aren't trying to kill them selves. At the same time, cutting can be life-threatening. In fact, sometimes, people can't control the injury and die accidently

If you or someone you know is thinking about killing themselves, contact 1-800-273-TALK(1-800-273-8255) immediatly to talk to a crisis center in your area. Suicide is never the answer to your problems.

Ok thats it for today i'll have the second half of the info tomorrow or the next day. The rest of it is on how to help a friend or how to help your self if your cutting or your friend is cutting.

I am also going to start working on a massive coping skills list with every coping skill i can find on it and i'll have it posted in a week or two.

If you are struggling with this or have any questions just email me at hot_smiling_gurl@yahoo.com with the subject as cutting and i'll gladly answer any thing or just be there to talk as a fellow cutter

Things to do-Oct 16 2007

1. Write erica my tech an apology note(we kinda got into it on friday because i wouldn't take a bath to go out with her and she got mad. I could tell she was mad and i don't want to lose her so this is what i've gotta do)
2. Make out a list of things we can go do together
3. Make up my own distraction list.
4. Go get my lip pierced with stephanie and taz. I'm actually getting my labret pierced. I think its gunna hurt like hell but thats ok i can take it. I actually want to do a post on tattoos and peircings and aftercare and that type stuff.

Just for an update i dyed my hair last night its like a blackish brown color looks really good. Today i'm going to get my labret pierced. I'm sort of scared but definitly want it done. granny is gunna dis own me after i get it done and stuff. I've got some new pics that i should definitly put on here. I want to borrow moms camera for getting these pictures made. oh well gotta go. see ya

To do tomorrow-oct 14, 2007

1. Get up and take a shower
2. start going through my books-i want to make 3 pills keep, maybe, and get rid of. So i will need three boxes to start doing that tomorrow.
3. work on my plan to quit cutting and feel better-this includes.....making an info sheet for everything i do to be recorded....like what time i wake up, what time i go to sleep, what i did during the day what i ate, breakfast, lunch, dinner, did I self harm, did i have thoughts of self harm, did i have thoughts of suicide, Did i take my medicine, morning and night. All that stuff on one sheet. This will help me keep up with what i'm doing what skills i'm using how my lifestyle might be affecting what i'm doing and i can use this for my counselor to provide her with the info she needs cause she always ask how much sleep have you been getting so now i'll be able to tell her......also i need to find more coping skills
4. When i go through my room and like my closet area like with games and puzzels go through them and see if they have all the peices count out all the puzzle peices and see if they don't have it then get rid of them i need the space....start that tomorrow
5. Then i got this great idea for our avon business. It has to do with selling the breast cancer stuff and Domestic Violence stuff. I got the idea that we could take the items and make a flyer out of them with using pictures and stuff and putting all the order info on the flyers and passing the flyers out to everywhere to get the word out about breast cancer and domestic violence. We could try to get kmart to let us sell the stuff in front of their store or maybe walmart or sams and then maybe we could pass them out at the library or leave a big stack for the librarians to give to each person who checks out. We could distribute them to churchs to put out or use as bulletine inserts. Maybe the receptionist at universal would be willing to hand one out to all the people who come through. Maybe see if we could put some in the hospital waiting rooms. maybe give some to the school. We could posibly get personal on the flyers saying how much both these issues mean to us since we've had family in both situations. We can look up facts and info on breast cancer and domestic violence and put them on the flyers. Or we could just order us a crap load of books probably for the same price as making flyers and make a fact sheet insert to go in each booklet. thats an idea.

well i guess thats the end of my list i will probably be posting my plans to quit cutting on here soon so stay posted.

my to-do list Monday oct 8

This is just a list of things i sat down and decided i wanted to get done today.

1. get my haircut
2. go to somewhere and get minutes for my phone
3. ride my bike for at least 15 minutes
4. look up fake lip rings and see what i find
5. Write lacy a letter
6. Call the guitar store and find out about strings.
7. Buy some poster Board and make a thing where i have like different things i can do and stuff and then space for each day of the month and then if i do that thing that day i get a mark or sticker or something.
8. Get rollerblades from moms house
9. Go through my books and make piles of keeping one nad the get rid of ones and stuff like that.
10. Do my laundry
11. Start cutting letters out of the newspaper and stuff and magazines to my collages and things and scrapbooking.
12. Start Scrapbooking.....like i want to start a scrapbook for my coping skills and stuff....maybe see if mom will take me to the scrapbooking store.

Well i already got my haircut so hopefully i'll put pictures up soon.

well thats it for now.

Coming Back

Hey everybody, sorry i haven't been on here much to post anything. I've been going through a hard time lately. I think this time of year is just a bad time year for me cause this is the month i had my suicide attempt last year. And i'm having small thoughts of wanting to do it agian but not major thoughts so thats a good sign.

I have started cutting agian. For those of you who don't know what that is I'll explain a little bit about it and then do a little longer post on it later in the week. Cutting is a form of self-injury. Self-injury includes cutting, burning, hitting, etc. People who self-injure tend not to be able to regulate their emotions well, and there seems to be a biologically-based impulsivity. I'll include more details later.

Also since the last time i have been on here I have smoked pot for the first time with my sister. It was pretty cool I guess. I just felt cool doing it. I also have been taught how to snort pills which was cool but didn't do anything for me so i haven't done it agian since.

I'm gunna work hard a t keeping this thing up to date so keep checking back.

Cutting

i've been cutting agian. I know i've gotta stop though its bad to do. here's some coping skills to help with urges to cut.

1. write poems
2. write songs
3. read
4. sing
5. listen to music
6. paint
7. draw
8. talk to someone
9. tear some paper
10. eat
11. take a shower
12. hold ice
13. rubber band on wrist

theres lost of others that i'll try to post later those can help you for now.