How to Prevent and Control Self-inflicted Injuries

 If you feel guilty, discourage, busted, failed, or anything that makes you worry or blame yourself. here are some of the things you can do to ease the burden and carry the pain away ,

1. Talk to someone
Deciding whom you can trust or to talk to. Ask yourself who in your life makes you feel accepted
and supported. It could be a friend, teacher, religious leader, counselor, or relative. Sometimes it’s easier
to start by talking to someone you respect—such as a teacher, religious leader, or counselor—who has a
little more distance from the situation and won’t find it as difficult to be objective.

 
2. Identify the triggers/desire to hurt yourself
Figure out the reasons why inflicted injury is committed, to learn other ways to reduce your desire to hurt
yourself. What feelings make you want to hurt yourself? Emotional awareness means knowing what you
are feeling and why. It’s the ability to identify and express what you are feeling from moment to moment
and to understand the connection between your feelings and your actions.

 
3. Find new coping techniques
If self-harm is your way of dealing with unpleasant feelings and difficult situations, you need to have
alternative ways of coping so you can respond differently when you feel like hurting yourself.
If you self-harm to express pain and intense emotions, you could:
• Paint, draw, or scribble on a big piece of paper with red ink or paint
• Start a journal in which to express your feelings
• Compose a poem or song to say what you feel
1• Write down any negative feelings and then rip the paper up
• Listen to music that expresses what you’re feeling
If you self-harm to calm and soothe yourself, you could:
• Take a bath or hot shower
• Pet or cuddle with a dog or cat
• Wrap yourself in a warm blanket
• Massage your neck, hands, and feet
• Listen to calming music
If you self-harm because you feel disconnected or numb, you could:
• Call a friend (you don’t have to talk about self-harm)
• Take a cold shower
• Hold an ice cube in the crook of your arm or leg
• Chew something with a very strong taste, like chili peppers, peppermint, or a grapefruit peel
• Go online to a self-help website, chat room, or message board
If you self-harm to release tension or vent anger, you could:
• Exercise vigorously—run, dance, jump rope, or hit a punching bag
• Punch a cushion or mattress or scream into your pillow
• Squeeze a stress ball or squish Play-Doh or clay
• Rip something up (sheets of paper, a magazine)
• Make some noise (play an instrument, bang on pots and pans)

 
4. Professional treatment for cutting and self-harm
The help and support of a trained professional can help you work to overcome the self-harming habit, so
consider talking to a therapist. A therapist can help you develop new coping techniques and strategies to
stop self-harming, while also helping you get to the root of why you hurt yourself.

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