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How Do I Stop Cutting?
If you're tired of hiding the scars and keeping your secret?if you want to find some successful ways of dealing with your problems?then you're ready to stop.1. Tell someone and ask for help. Admit what you've been doing, and you'll feel an immediate sense of relief?because now you're sharing your problems, and the burden immediately becomes less because it's being shared. Choose someone you like and trust to talk to first - a parent, relative, adult friend, school counselor, favorite teacher, etc. 2. If the person you talk with first doesn't take you seriously or get you the help you need, go to someone else! Sometimes well-meaning adults, even parents, don't understand the depth of teen problems and even consider them to be "just a phase." 3. Identify the underlying problem. Maybe you already know, and maybe you don't. Is it anger? Pressure? Relationship problems? A painful loss or trauma? Or maybe something back in your family history. Sometimes you can figure it out yourself, and sometimes it takes the help of a professional counselor. |
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4. A school counselor or other professional can help you deal with whatever your problems really are and teach you new ways to cope instead of resorting to cutting. Everyone has problems, and learning healthy ways to deal with them is the only real, permanent solution. We all have these inner coping strengths. It's just a matter of bringing them to the surface and building your own confidence and self esteem to KNOW you can do it.
5. If you don't have anyone locally to contact for help, you can call the national hotline number
1-888-HOPE-307 (1-888-467-3307). You can speak to a counselor privately and confidentially, or
you can go to:
www.doorofhope4teens.org
to speak with someone via e-mail or instant message.
