Alternatives To Self Harm: Sharpie

  Yesterday night, I tried something new.  I took a Sharpie and began to write.  On myself that is.  I wrote the word 'beautiful' on my hip, reminding myself to eat.  Its already begun to fade, but I can always touch it up a bit when I have to.  The point of doing this is that the sharpie lasts longer than a pen, it's more difficult to wash off.  If you wrote 'beautiful' or 'gorgeous' on yourself the night before, because you were feeling more confident, and then the next day you lose hope, what you wrote isn't coming off for a while.  It's a reminder.

    What I also wrote was a letter on my hand.  I was talking to a friend last night and we'd ended up on the conversation of how much we cared about the other.  I'm not sure she would want me to share her name, so for now she will stay anonymous.  But, she kept going on about me being strong and I ended up crying because I knew she cared, but I never knew she cared THIS much.  It was just amazing of her to be able to list the reasons she loved me.  So, I took the sharpie and on my hand I wrote the letter of her first name, a Y.

  Think of someone you know cares about you.  Even if you think they don't, but you know they do.  Write their initial somewhere on your hand or maybe your foot, I don't know.  Wherever you want, if you don't want anyone to see it.

  I'm not completely sure where this post has gone, but this is a tip I want to give you.  It's just a way I found to cope that's actually working.  This is also a pretty bad first post since I didn't explain more in depth, but I never was a talker.

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. 

Alternatives To Self Harm: Love Spreader

Twitter user @thelovespreader made an amazing video for people to watch then they are feeling the urge to self harm.

She encourages us to resist the urge to self harm, as it will get easier and easier for us to stop the more we resist the urge. The first time we resist the urge is the start of it getting better. If we can do it once, we can do it again and again until we've fully recovered! :-)

The also talks about what to do instead of self harming;

• Talk to your friends/family.
• Watch one of your favourite movies, eat snacks and chill.
• Clean your room whilst playing some music - a great way to distract yourself!
• Draw, paint, be creative - it's a great way to release your feelings and emotions.
• Embrace your feelings - it's ok to cry. Cuddle up in bed, cry if you need to, release all of your negative energy and relax yourself - don't let it build up.
• Think of all of the people that have ever been kind to you - imagine that they're surrounding you with love and kindness.

I really enjoyed this video, and I hope everyone else does! Make sure you follow her on twitter. She's such a kind and beautiful girl, who is spreading love to those who need it. Thank you!

- A