national self injury awarness day 2016

stop punishing yourself you didn't do anything wrong

hello friends

I know another mental health blog in a week I'm treating you. Today is Self injury awareness day, this is something very close to me, as someone who is pro recovery and wants a world where we are open about mental health and no one is ashamed to talk about their problems. I want to talk to you about things that help me when I feel self destructive and misconceptions about self harm

before I start I do want to say if you are harming yourself then please go get help from a GP or tell someone; a friend, parent, teacher anyone please let someone know. I know it can be scary my first time telling someone was hard. telling my friends was fine but when it came to family it was so hard and it hurt to tell them how much I was hurting, and telling my family was the hardest thing iv ever done but I promise you wont regret it, once you get help. my story with therapy and the NHS is a good one and a on going one, a lot of people haven't had good experience with therapy or the NHS  so I cant tell you anything major that effected me but I cant speak for others I can only tell you through my experience but I don't regret saying anything to anyone or getting help.

I also want to mention, I understand if you 'cant stop' self harming I also understand it can be addicting I have defiantly  felt the addiction when it comes to self harm and I thought I would never stop and I'm in no way recovered but you can stop. I may offend people here in the since that you need to want it. Iv heard it said a lot and I thought others were being harsh but you have to want to stop for yourself, not for your family, or a band (which I can understand because I am one of them fan girls who love bands) but it needs to be for you. how you feel isn't your choice how you react to these feelings is...I know its hard but distracting yourself will do you better in the long run.

these are things I use for distractions. however these distractions can be different for every individual (I also want to say quickly if you go to the GP you may not find their distractions helpful I went to the doctor soon before my 15th birthday and they told me to hug a teddy so I found they didn't help at all so find out what does help on your own might help)

distraction

1. Movies, I'm a huge movie buff I really like Jurassic world and if I'm in the need to harm myself while I'm at home I always turn to Jurassic world or any Jurassic park movie.

2. I find staying off of social media is grate to stop hurting myself, I tend to go down dark paths in the search bar so I log out of social media, however I find youtube helps. I find watching things you enjoy or any videos that make you smile is good to watch I have a play list of videos that I watch because they make me smile; I find tattoo videos, crime documentary's without any triggering pictures, GTA IV and any videos that have good memories to you behind them

3. Music has helped me so much when I want to self harm, I find loud music helps get some aggression out. if I'm triggered during the day I will put on some really angry loud music then start throwing clean clothes at the wall above my bed getting all my aggression out when throwing the clothes then gets me in a better mood to put my clothes away after.

4. I find cleaning helps taking all the clothes out of my draws and folding them and putting them away nicely I find makes me feel accomplished

some people like to look at pictures of loved ones but I find it makes me more upset

5. I like to read I find books take me out of the mind state I'm in and puts me in a new one. I find Wattpad is the best thing for me, because of the choice and if its dark your reading on your phone so it gives light but books are good too

6. chocolate. I'm a chocaholic. I'm so conscious about my weight however chocolate gives endorphins that make you happy so chocolate of any kind makes me happy. chocolate and a good movie and you a very happy girl

7.exercising. I am very health conscious and my self injury is linked with control so exercising can also be seen as being destructive in the way I do it, I push my self really hard to the point where I cant move I feel like when I exercise I release the energy that has built up and the energy
that I would use on the self harm I us it to do something to better myself

8. candles or anything scented. I love things that smell I find them very relaxing and they help me gather myself and concentrate. I use this mostly with my anxiety but it definitely help

9. writing things down. my parent call me a "stress head" so writing things down are really helps me. writing down my feelings or making lists really helps me when I'm super stressed to the point of wanting to hurt myself. I write fantasy in my spare time (which I don't have a lot of) along side my blog which is a bit more formal where is my fantasy is my escape

I want to stress that the things you do to distract you are things you enjoy or make you relax
misconceptions about self harm 

(this will be about cutting no so much any other forms of self harm that iv heard but if you have heard this for any other forms then please let me know)

"people who self harm are suicidal or its a suicide attempt" this isn't true, however I can see why people have this thought. suicidal thoughts or suicidal desire is the want to take your own life for what ever reason: its the easiest way out or that things will be better off without you here (this is never true!) self harm is something that is used to cope with emotional or physical pain, a lot of the time its used as a last resort. people who do self harm may have suicidal thoughts or have attempted but I want to make this clear not everyone will have. this is a link to the full difference between self harm and suicidal thoughts.

"self harm is only cutting" this is anything but true. a large percentage of self harmers do cut but cutting isn't the only form of self harm. things like Trichotillomania- puling of the hair, Dermatillomania-skin picking, burning, obsessive exercising. there is loads more, so no cutting isn't the only form

"self harm is a young person issue/ phase" this definitely isn't true. the older generation believe this because it wasn't as talked about it was something to hide under the carpet. studies have shown that the rate of self harm has gone up but doesn't mean its anything new. self harm can effect anyone; adults, teenagers, children. it can attack anyone no matter the age, the race the gender. it can affect us all. self harm can be the only control the person has, the person must be suffering to injure themselves.

I could go on all day about this but this is some of the things that I hear a lot. if you want to know more misconseptions leave me a comment that you want more, to see the eating disorder misconseptions ill link it HERE to see where I got a lot of inspiration for this post go check out LikeKristen and Laura Lejeune so thank you to them.

Much love speak soon
D
XX

ps. stay safe my love, your worth all the love in the world!