The other night I tried to answer a blog written by a guy who was trying to help his friend. His friend had been talking about wanting to cut and this guy was looking for advice on how to help him. Unfortunately, many of the concerned comments were regarding suicide. I tried to post a comment about cutting but the writer of the blog deleted it before my fingers were finished typing. So I thought that I would post this blog about cuttting.
A person who is cutting or feels the desire to cut is not necessarily suicidal. Cutting comes from the need to feel something other than numb. Someone out there may correct me on this but this is how I understand it.
People who cut should not be told to stop. This is their way of coping with their situation. What they need is an alternative to cutting - even just to delay the cutting for 20 minutes or an hour. Eventually they will find another way to cope or get help.
If they are feeling anger, frustration or restlessness, they might hit a punching bag, rip up an old phone book, yell out loud, go for a jog, or slash up an old shirt.
If they are feeling sad or depressed they might take a hot bath, listen to soothing music, read a book or call some friends.
If they are feeling unreal or crave a sharp sensation, they might squeeze some ice in their hand, take a hot or cold shower, bite into a hot pepper or a lime, try snapping their wrist with a rubber band or stomp their feet on the ground.
Other things that have worked for some are drawing on themselves with a red felt marker or focusing on an object noticing it's size, shape, weight, texture and colour.
They might also set a limit to how much they harm themselves, engaging in only the minimum harm required to ease their distress.
They should have a healthy support person to call if they need to talk.
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