Alternatives To Self Harm: Drawing

Drawing helped me recover from self harm a lot. Drawing is a great way to express your inner feelings and release those negative emotions rather than harming yourself.

You don't need to be good at drawing, just get some pens, pencils, crayons and paper and go crazy! You can scribble, draw shapes or doodle any random things that you want; just don't self harm! You don't even need to draw pictures on paper, you can draw on your wrist/arm. For example, when you feel the urge to self harm, draw a line on your wrist instead of cutting or burning it.

(not our picture)

You could also take part in the butterfly project;

• When you feel the urge to self harm, draw a butterfly instead.
• Name the butterfly after someone that wants you to get better or someone you look up to.
• DON'T SCRUB AWAY YOUR BUTTERFLY!
• Your goal is to not cut until the butterfly has faded away.
• Draw as many butterflies as you want, or get someone else to draw the butterfly for you.

Things I like to draw:

• People/characters: I like to draw little cartoon people either in the anime style or some random scribble - this distracts me from the urges and, by the time I've finished the drawing, the urges have gone and I've calmed down.
• Scribbles: When I'm more angry/frustrated rather than sad, I scribble all over a page until I've calmed down. Sometimes I just colour in the whole page until I'm calm, however many pieces of paper it takes (remember to recycle! Haha).

Drawing really helped me recover, (although I'm still no da Vinci), and I really hope this post helps you stop self harming too! Stay strong.