Self Help - Part VI in the Self Injury series

about doing it? About not doing it? Sometimes writing this down can help you make a decision not to harm. Self-Soothing This, like improving the moment and distracting, is a distress tolerance technique. It's pretty straightforward: use things that are pleasing to your senses to soothe yourself. Some people find that active distraction works better for violent angry feelings and soothing is more effective for soft, sad ones. Reducing Vulnerability to Negative Emotion Prevention of states in which you are likely to self-harm is covered in this worksheet, which suggests ways of taking care of yourself in order to minimize the times when you feel the urge to hurt yourself. If you're balancing eating, sleeping, and self-care, you're less likely to be overwhelmed by emotion. Interpersonal Effectiveness Being clear about what you want and about your priorities in an interaction are crucial to good communication, and this worksheet offers a series of questions and steps to follow to help you determine how to approach a difficult interpersonal interaction. It is truly amazing how much going through these steps can help. More information about Dialectical Behavioral Therapy can be found at DBT-Seattle.

Individuals' suggestions for self help Kharre, a subscriber to the bodies-under-siege list, compiled an excellent list of ways to cope with si. She covers topics such as: Questions to ask before you hurt yourself Realistic acceptance A letter to my SI Things to help you through the bad times Important tips for those who interact with someone who SI's Kirsti, who has assembled an incredible page on self-injury, dissociation, and abuse, has some very useful coping ideas.

An anonymous poster, an22340@anon.penet.fi, put together a great deal of information about self-injury. Included was this useful list of things to do. It contains suggestions both for self-injurers and for their friends and loved ones. I've added a few of my own, noting them with [brackets].

A shorter list of 12 things you can do to try to climb out of a mild to moderate depression or urge to cut can be found here.

Another bus member, Tammy Bucklew, adapted these suggestions for families and friends of abuse survivors from Kubetin and Mallory (1992).

You may at some point want to find professional help for this problem. I've collected sources in the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia. If you know of people or organizations I've left out, contact me.

There is also a DBT skills discussion list. To subscribe, send mail to the listowner (Kieu)

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