Relapse

[Shattered_soul]

So I started SH a few years ago and I managed to stop for a couple of months. Two days ago I relapsed and cut my leg. I wanted to prevent scarring as much as possible so I treated the wound and covered it but it seems to look worse than previous cuts. Was this the wrong thing to do?

[.Jess.]

Hey

First of all a massive well done for being able to stop you’re self harming for a couple of months, honestly I realise that can’t have been easy for you and you should be very proud of yourself! Even if you aren’t I am You need to take massive positives from those few months to help you realise stopping is possible and something you can do!

Don’t be discouraged by your relapse, it happens during recovery. There are bumpy bits in every journey; it would be incredibly unusual if there wasn’t! You just need to try and learn from your slip to prevent it happening again. It’s happened, there’s nothing you can do to change that now, so don’t let it bring you down, pick yourself up and move on

Treating your wound defiantly wasn’t the wrong thing to do; in fact it was very sensible. Treating wounds and looking after them gives your skin the best change to prevent scaring. Stay strong and look after yourself. Be in touch if you need to talk, don’t keep things to yourself, you can beat this

[Palmolive]

Hey there.

Jess (^^) is certainly right. Looking after your wounds was a really positive thing for you to do. I'm glad that even though you self harmed, you've taken responsibility for it. That's really positive.

It is really great that you managed to stop self harming for a few months. Try and not to let this relapse pull you back down because recovery isn't about the slip ups but it's about picking yourself back up afterwards. And you can do it!

I just thought i would send you this link to alternatives to self harm so that when you get the urges to hurt yourself you can take a look and try a few. You will find that they won't all help you but some will so it is all about trial and error.

I hope this helps.
Jessie