Here are some of the questions I am asked the most...

1. How did you start self injuring?

I discovered self injury when contemplating suicide. I had decided I was going to do it, but I needed to be sure I had the guts to do it. I decided to 'test' my plan by cutting a small area near my wrist. The cut wasn't very large, wasn't very deep, but what I noticed after I had cut myself was that I didn't feel like killing myself anymore. I didn't immediately put two and two together, but the next time I felt suicidal, I made another cut on my arm, and I felt better. From there, my self injury progressed into a regular, daily activity.

2. How did you stop self injuring?

My self injury became a daily event, occurring often more than twice a day. I began to focus solely on self injury, wondering when I could do it next, how far I would push myself, how I would hide it. For me, it became an addiction. I started to realize that I didn't have as much control over it as I used to, but still wasn't ready to stop. I had entertained stopping, as I was running out of places on my body to cut that had not been cut before, but wasn't ready to go there yet.

One night, I cut myself deeper than I had ever done before. I wasn't intending on cutting so deep, it just sort of happened. It scared me. I cut so deep that I cut 75% of the way through one of the tendons in my wrist. I lost some feeling in my wrist, and almost had to have surgery to repair the tendon. This was NOT what I had intended, and it finally made me realize that I was no longer in control of the one thing in my life I thought I had control over. From there, I sought out help, and with professional support, was able to slowly reduce the amount of times I self injured. It didn't happen over night, and I did injure again after my scare, but I was able to finally decide that I needed to stop, and was ready to finally do something about it.

 

Feel free to email me with any questions you want to see answered. I will do my best to answer any question, be it personal, professional, or just general inquiries. No question is too big or too small.