Bipolar Disorder Support Group
Bipolar disorder is not just a single disorder, but a category of mood disorders marked by periods of abnormally high energy and euphoria, often accompanied by bouts of clinical depression. This is the place to talk about your experience with bipolar disorder, learn from others' experiences, and find support.
I know there is a self injury board. Those folks are good, supportive people. The problem is it can be very slow at times. I am posting this here because I know some of you struggle with self injury as well and I am looking for any words of wisdom.advice..call it what you will, I could use a little help. With that said..I want to cut. I can't stop thinking about it. I don't know what to do. My mood isn't horrible but I feel its a bit mixed and maybe thats whats causing the urge, I really don't know. What do I do to not cut? Some encouraging words and/or advice would be very appreciated. Even if you don't struggle with self injury if you have helpful thoughts on this I would appreciate them. Thanks for reading.
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Hey All...I hope that you have a lovely, peaceful beginning of your weekI have a bunch of chores that need doing but may put them off til tomorrow and just hang out with my landlord/roomie todayWhat about you?...Anything special going on?Have a great day and take good care of you!!..Xo
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Once again I've had a fever today. I'm not going to the hospital because that's a huge waste of time but I did schedule a dr appointment for Wednesday afternoon.
I hope you get many, many replies.
We don't want to see you hurt. You're a wonderful, caring, sensitive person. You wouldn't let someone else hurt you would you?
Hang on wolfie...
As a cutter of 30+ years, the urge can be all encompassing....even when we swear and promise ourselves we won't do it. I'm pretty good at using learned behaviors, coping skills to avoid cutting when I'm up and about these days...but my body/brain has gotten so good at it that I cut in my sleep, the fancy term being, "amnesiac dream states with aggressive activity". So I have to work very hard at making sure my mind is in a good place before I go to bed and that there are no sharp objects within a 50' walking space of my bed. It's all a big pain in the ass.
The best thing that I've learned over the years to fight and control cutting is to regularly see a Psychologist who specializes in that behavior if possible, or a regular Psychologist if not. There are many coping skills that can be learned to keep you from cutting, but you have to be willing to put the work in and learn them. Lithium has been shown in Research Studies to help lessen the urge to cut. I used it myself for many years with pretty good outcomes.
For the immediate problem, keeping yourself calm, finding your "happy place" that 1 memory that was happy, and you want to go back to, and you never forget, bringing that back and thinking of it actively can help push the urges out of your head. When you get the urge to cut, doing something physical instead, burning off endorphins, can make the urge go away. Go for a walk, ride a bike, go for a swim, or if none of those are available just do some jumping jacks. Make your body busy working on something else, your brain will follow. Get the bad thoughts that are causing the urge out of your head and put them on paper, don't worry about grammar or neatness or spelling, just write it all down. Then wad it in a ball and throw it away, or light on fire and let the bad thoughts burn. Until your urges go away, try to stick to positive things in the music you listen to, the TV you watch, etc. flood out the bad with the good.
There are many ways to keep yourself from cutting, but in the long run, dealing with the feelings that are causing the urges in the first place is what's going to make them go away. Check into seeing a Psychologist.
Take care and feel free to message me if you need to talk.
OCP