
Alternatives to Self-Injury
Try delaying
- Take a shower
- Go out and be around people
- Go out and dig in the garden
- Call your T
- Call a friend
- Call 1-800-DONT-CUT
Express your destructive feelings
- Break something safe
- Break old dishes you bought from a thrift store
- Rip apart an old cassette tape, smash the casing
- Throw ice cubes at a brick wall
- Throw eggs in the shower
- Rip apart an old phone book
- Smash fruit with a bat or sledgehammer
- Throw darts at picture of perp
- Punch pillows
- Scream into a pillow
- Slam doors
Non-destructive sensation producers
- Hold ice cube to skin inside the arm
- Rub ben gay on skin
- Put a rubber band on wrist and snap it
- Ride a bike fast and far
- Run
- Take a shower and rub skin with cloth or brush
Give yourself an alternate visual
- Draw red lines on arms with felt marker
- Draw red lines with red pencil then drip water on the lines
- Draw sl*shing lines on paper
Express your feelings
- Write what you're feeling. Don't edit, just write. Stream of consciousness
- Identify what it is that is hurting so bad that you'd rather harm yourselves than feel
it. What are you trying NOT to feel?
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