What can you do instead of harming?

On the road to recovery it is important to find other things that you can do instead of hurting yourself. I found that it was a good ideal to write a list of things that I could do so that in times of distress I could go to my list and pick something to do. It may help to do these activities a number of times during the week even if you don’t have an urge to self-harm. That way when you get the urge you will have already been use to doing some of these replacement activities.

One of the things that I found really worked for me was placing my hand in a bowl of ice. I bowl full of ice. It took me a while to start using it because I felt that it was weird. I soon got use to it and now if i am really struggling I will put my hand in a bowl of ice. I would suggest trying that because I have found it to work well and it might work well for you too. It’s painful at the start but it helps relax me. Give it a go and see if it helps you. It’s worth a try.

Some of the other things that you can do instead of hurting yourself include:

Journal writing.

Listening to music.

Art.

Reading.

Getting active do something fun that you enjoy that involves movement.

Go out and do a bit of gardening.

Do a bit of organising or cleaning. (That one also works well with me.)

Talk to some friends, go on the internet, surf the web, make a blog, spend some time on facebook.

Do some homework as long as it doesn’t stress you out.

There are so many different things that you could try. If it doesn’t work the first time give it a few more tries and if one thing doesn’t work there is always another thing. It is important to give this time and don’t give up after the first go. It takes time and practice makes perfect.