10 Ways to Deal With Self Harm Urges

Self harm is something that I dealt with for many years as a teenager and although i’ve been clean for nearly a year now, there are still moments when it seems like urges are going to overcome me. These are some coping mechanisms that i’ve picked up over the years:

1. Draw on yourself with a red pen

• I usually just scribble horizontal lines on my wrists mimicking the common self harm pattern but you could draw pretty patterns or use multi color pens, it’s all up to you.

2.    The 15 minute rule

• When you feel the urge coming on, give yourself 15 minutes to do something distracting such as drawing or reading and when those 15 minutes pass extend them by another 15 minutes. Keep doing this until the urge subsides.

3. Find someone to be with or talk to

• When my urges are really bad I try a friend to spend time with because I know that if I’m with someone I won’t harm myself

4. Go to a public place

•  If you can’t find someone to hang out with, go to a public place. It can be any place, a Starbucks, a park, a restaurant any place where there are plenty of people.

5. Ice

• Place ice (wrapped in a paper towel, never put ice directly on your skin) on the area you want to self harm for a few seconds. This will give a very brief, slight stinging sensation.

6. Punch a something (something soft)

• Punch your couch, a plush animal. It’s a great way to release tension and anger.

7. Scream into  pillow

• This is very cathartic and will allow you to release pent up emotion without causing any harm to yourself.

8. Cut/tear up paper

• I always found that doing things with my hands really distracts me from urges and tearing up pieces of paper is cathartic and distracting.

9. Eat sour candy/suck a lemon

• A lot of the time self harm is just about feeling something, anything to distract from the numbness and the sharp sensation of sour foods does just that.

10. Meditate/do yoga

• Yoga is something that i’ve recently picked up and it’s really helpful in combating negative feelings and focusing on the present. A simple meditation technique is to lay down on the ground with your limbs splayed out and eyes closed, now attempt to completely shut everything out. Just focus on your breathing, if you can’t do that imagine yourself walking around the room touching the walls.

These are just some techniques that I’ve found helpful and I hope that you do too.