Comment your reasons 💚

I know not everyone here has gotten to that point, and I'm pleased for the people who haven't (and also for those who did get to that point and are still here). But for those who did, what sentence kept you alive?

I’m about to hit a week :)

Every milestone is valid & I’m so proud of you

Your emotions are valid and I love you all.

I need everyone, yes including you, next time you’re feeling down (or even right now) to try out something for me.

🐙 This is my friend Ollie the Octopus. Everyone knows octopuses have 8 tentacles, right?

Go and grab yourself a pen and draw a little clip art octopus (it doesn’t have to be perfect) on your hand, wrist, arm or anywhere that you can see easily. Make sure he has a cute little smile :)

Then either in the comments on this post, in the notes on your phone or on some paper, write down 8 things that make you happy. Small things, like kittens or KFC. Now, give your octopus a name.

This is now your happiness octopus. Now every time you catch a glimpse of them, you’re immediately going to think of one of their happy things, which will help lighten your mood!

As an extra little step, feel free to post a picture on your personal reddit account and tag me (u/anonymouslykinky) and might even make an anonymous post with some of your little octopuses to show people that it really works!

If you can’t go and draw one, you can draw it on your notes app on your phone, or you can just think of 8 happy things and comment them.

Looking forward to hearing from you all x

(alright, i'll start by saying that english is not my first language so sorry if i said something wrong you can correct me)

heyy i'm currently 26 days clean, it's been so long since last i've made it this far, the last time i made it this far before relapsing was 3rd of June it was 29 days :') then i couldn't stay clean for more than 4 days, BUT NOW I MADE IT TO 26 DAYS! i hope i can get to a month (which would be on 3rd of September)

you guys? how long have you been clean for? i'm proud of y'all regardless how long it's been, you can be 5 years clean like you can be 5 seconds clean, it's alright, i'm still proud of y'all, hope you guys (and possibly me too) can get out of it someday🫶

stay strong guys we can do this, i love y'all even if i dont know you

I'm so proud of myself.

I've been spiraling this past month, cutting every single fucking day no matter what, and it's gotten to the point where it's hard to walk without being in a burning pain. I can't wear shorts for PE, and showers burn.

BUT I DID IT! I DIDN'T CUT YESTERDAY, AND I FEEL SO PROUD (too depressed to get my blades, but still). IT'S SUCH A SMALL ACCOMPLISHMENT, BUT I FEEL SO PROUD. :DDD

when my mom first found out, she referred to them as my own personal bar code

i've also gotten questions from people trying to figure out what they are.

"did you have surgery?"

"did you get in a car accident? is that a road rash scar?"

"did you get bit by a dog?"

"are those birth marks?"

also people that i don't know or customers at my job approaching me and just blatantly asking "how did that happen, what is that"

there have been several encounters where people have asked if my scars were "_____" and i just looked at them and didn't know what they were talking about because it didn't click that they'd be referring to my scars... like how could hundreds of relatively small horizontal lines on my forearm be from a dog bite

How old is everybody on here? I'm just wondering because I've met a lot of really nice people on here and I wanna know what ages are in this community.

:D

EDIT: OMFG TY GUYS SO MUCH MY INBOX IS BLOWING UP I'VE NEVER BEEN THIS FAMOUS ALSO BTW U GUYS ARE SO OLD AND IM ONLY 13 😭

I know it's not much but I'm kinda happy with myself ^{^}

Hope you're all doing well guys <3

Edit: thank you so much for the support :0

So I’ve been talking to this guy for about a month now. We’ve been on two dates and the second one got a little spicy. He started taking off my pants and I panicked a little and wound up telling him about the scars and a few fresher wounds on my thighs and my shoulder and I was terrified thinking I’d ruined it. He didn’t say anything at first, then he asked my permission to continue, and when he saw the scars and stuff on my legs, this man didn’t even hesitate, he leaned down and kissed them so gently, then he kissed my shoulder too and he said something like “you’re so beautiful, I’m sorry you’ve had to resort to this” and just kept kissing me and I almost cried in this man’s lap y’all. I’ve only told a couple people about my harming and they either got incredibly awkward or just pretended they didn’t hear it and moved on, so this was really special and meant a lot to me. And it didn’t seem to put him off at all! He still wants to see me next Saturday!

Edit: not gonna lie, I didn’t think many people would actually read this. Thank you guys for the sweet comments! And don’t forget this guy isn’t the only people who will do this for someone, y’all deserve someone this sweet and I’m sure you’ll find them! Just took me four years of being single

Edit 2: updating hella late but uh, turns out i’m a lesbian anyway 😂 it’s never too late to figure yourself out!

We came up with coping strategies:

- safe word that signals to me it is time to STOP DROP AND CARE

- weighted blanket

- heating pad

- body safe markers for skin doodling instead of sh

- colorful paper and sharp scissors for cutting up/potentially collage

​

--SO FAR SHE HAS USED HER SAFE WORD TWICE! yay!

​

Other harm reduction plan:

We are getting her a service dog, a 16 week old golden retriever who comes from a long line of service dogs to do things like deep pressure therapy, nudging, kinetic touch, and to be a first responder able to sense the cues we have come up with that signal she is going into panic/overwhelm. We have identified her most common positioning when she is overwhelmed, curled up in a ball with her head between her knees, so that is the first behavior we will be training the puppy to recognize and remedy.

---------

Thank you again, all of you who offered kind words and support and I will continue to come back with updates!

I just thought of this one lol. It’s a fun one that you’d use for like peers and stuff, especially if your scars are on your thighs.

“what happened to your leg/arm?” or “Where are those scars from?”

just answer

“Your mom has sharper nails than I thought”

I just thought this would be a good reminder for everyone to refresh.

Edit: It's so cool reading through these. I think any reason that keeps you going is a good reason. Stay motivated!

i wanted to share that because its a bit funny it was the only dollar left in my pocket 😭

Ok, so we had a very long, and very good talk. Too much was said to type it all here, but we are going to come up with a coping list, things she can do before resorting to sh. We also decided because school is such a huge trigger she would take this week off and we are going to do things together perhaps go to the coast.

I didn't take her blade away, it is an art supply after all, she told me I could take it but I told her that I knew if she wanted to sh it doesn't matter if she has a blade or not, it's all about redirecting that thing to what it is actually used for, ART!

I was very gentle about asking to see, I told her she didnt have to show me if she did not want to, but she actually did, this is where I feel like I fumbled a little, I was trying to be positive, and I told her they were actually sort of beautiful and nothing to be ashamed of(d'oh) it just came out, they looked sort of like tiger stripes. I told her she was strong and brave for showing me and this was the skin she was going to be in for the rest of her life, so we must learn to wear our scars with pride.

anyway I just wanted to thank all of you for your input and ideas for talking to her, you really helped me so much.

he said i shouldnt be ashamed of them and stuff aaaaa love him sm

if you wanna, please reply with 1 thing you genuinely like about yourself. it can be anything from as small as "my hair looks nice today" or "i am good at doing laundry" to bigger accomplishments. no put downs!!

i will start. i learned how to cook by myself and made a yummy dinner last night :)

mine are

"your mom is into knife play"

"i pissed off a wizard"

"the bush outside has OCD"

tell me more! i love the types that are so ridiculous that instantly make people shut up

TELL ME WHAT YOO ALL LIKE LISTENING TOO I like to listen to 90's grunge, and 80's metal, some modern stuff too like Royal Blood and TOOL that are especially good. I like Cavetown and listen to Lo Fi Beats all the time :D

hi everyone, i (20m) unfortunately had to go grocery shopping today. wearing my long sleeves like usual. as i was waiting in line i noticed a girl behind me, (i think about 15 years old) visibly uncomfortable because of her scars and the fact that she's wearing short sleeves. i have never pulled up my sleeves in public before and it's something i am usually very hesitant on, but today i decided to do so in an effort to hopefully make a fellow sufferer feel a little bit better. the girl noticed and instantly looked a lot more comfortable. almost like she realized she's not alone. it was nice seeing her slightly smile instead of that really anxious expression on her face.

edit: wow! thanks so much for the awards and nice comments, really made my day!

i took a shower this morning, brushed my teeth, cleaned my face and cleaned the blood off my arms that had been there for like a week

Hey guys! I’m about 5 months clean right now and I give a TREMENDOUS amount of credit to the distractions I had available!

Building computers, playing guitar, and rediscovering some of my old favorite video games have all helped a ton.

So I’m curious, what are your favorite distractions to keep you away from self-harming?

Not only am I simply curious, but I think compiling a big list of distractions could help a lot of the folks here who’re trying to stop!