cutting yourself... Options

[sailornaruru]

HHm....my friend started cutting herself and im woried
She says that she does it to relieve her paine and suffereing, but i dunno, I've tried cutting myself before, and it hurt, so i stopped and to me, it doesn't relieve pain [IT HURTS]

I want herto stop, but she said that shewants to keep doing it because it makes her feel batter


Should i back off and let her do it? [im sorta backing off right now] but i still want her to stop

I think its bad to cut..what do ya'll think? And Do you guys think i should back off and let her do it?

[needlenymph]

Tell her down the road, not across the street.

Defintely DONT do that..heh. The point is to make sure if shes going to keep doing it, shes causing as little harm as possible...and this is coming from a cutter, so I do know what Im talking about, for the most part at least .....

First off alot of the people here are right about the 'why'..Its a coping mechanism. And it comes from craving attention. Maybe she doesnt know that yet, but in her subconscious (sp?) she feels lonely. You gotta explain to her that you want to support her in everyway but you dont want her to hurt herself. Also it is very addictive. Take it from me, its like smoking or doing a narcotic..remind her that even though its helping her now, eventually she will wanna quit, and if shes been doing it for awhile, she might not be able to quit by herself...Just keep helping her find other ways to express her pain.

Finally...if all the good advice that people here are giving doesnt work, and you know you cant get her to stop...at least make sure shes safe about it..at least convince her to do as little as possible and not use something bad like a huge knife or something really dirty... I wish there was more to tell you Im sorry hun