Is self harming automatically considered an 'emergency'?

NeuroBeautiful

Hi,

So I'm having very strong urges to self harm and I have this thing working out pretty well so far, getting to email my therapist once in between sessions. One of the guidelines is that if it is an emergency I have to contact proper professionals (911, etc) instead of her.

I don't know what to do in the case of non-suividal self harm though

I am not even sure if I'm allowed to tell her about the urges in real time. I have mentioned having urges in a retrospective way and making sure to mention that it is no longer active urges. But now it is getting harder to keep myself away from self harm. I wonder if I even have to tell her about it at all if I do relapse. The thing is it would have been a relapse after over 2 years of not doing it.

if I end up relapsing and let her know it was only superficial would that be against the guidelines? I am scared to lose my therapist over this. I am also getting impatient with putting off self harm over and over again and really think cutting superficially might be a happy medium to get what I want and also not make it to the point that I lose my job and have people find out.

Clarent

Even if it isn't life-threatening or "severe", if you have a history of that, they could consider even a minor SH episode to be a potentially dangerous event that could lead to full-on relapse.

Think it's the best to bring it up. They're there to help you, hiding important things can hinder the effects of your work together.

Kate*

it's always a good idea to bring this up with her, no matter how strong the urges are, whether they're current or not. Urges by themselves are not considered an emergency, and if you were to relapse, it would most likely only be considered an emergency if it were a suicide attempt, or if you needed urgent treatment for it.

NeuroBeautiful

Thsnk uou for the replies. I guess I will find outg tomorrow evening what her reaction is.

Arabesque- golfing girl.

Hello Violet,

I am so sorry that you have been feeling like this and I hope that you are starting to feel a little bit better. If you have the feeling to hurt yourself, try to call someone who can help you so that you will be okay soon. I know that it can be hard to open up and ask someone for help, they have people who can help you so that you will be okay soon. You can call the suicide helpline and they can help you out with this. They are suicidepreventionlifeline.org

When you have the feeling to hurt yourself try to find something to get you're mind off of this for a while. For example, try going for a walk around you're house or calling a friend or putting on a funny TV show or movie or drawing or reading or find something else that you enjoy doing and do that for a while to help you so that you are doing okay. I hope everything goes well when you see her and that you will be okay soon. No matter what happens when you are talking with her, try to find something to help pick you up after talking to her. So that you are okay. Wish you the best with this.

hocus pocus

Hey Violet,

I think it depends on how you look at it. It could be emergent or at least really important you're considering self-harm because it shows you're feeling badly enough to want to harm yourself even if the harm is non-suicidal. But, in the sense of the guidelines, self-harm might be more or less emergent depending on whether you need treatment for it.

Did you tell your therapist about how you're feeling? How did it go? You could always ask her more about those guidelines before you say anything specific.

NeuroBeautiful

Thank you everyone. We talked about it yesterday. We came up with an agreement that she won't bombard me with questions about it and I don't have to hide it either. I can even bring it up and say I don't want to say more. If I have the regular passing urges, I can skip bringing it up and if it gets worse, I can choose to bring it up whether I do end up relapsing or not.