Self harm

[PinotAndPlaydough]

My 9 year old DD is self harming, we think she has autism, she’s due for an assessment soon and I feel pretty certain that most harming episodes are because she’s having a meltdown or feels overwhelmed.
She bites herself, stabs her legs with pencils and today when we were out and she got told off for something she used a holly leaf to stab and scratch at her hands until they bled.
The school are aware and even though she’s told me she does it at school they have never witnessed it so aren’t doing anything. The gp knows but had said because she’s not critical they can’t refer to CAMHS.
I don’t know what I do, trying to make her stop makes her very angry but I can’t sit there and watch my 9 year old draw blood!

It’s like no one cares, I can’t understand how a child self harming isn’t a big issue?!

What can I do to stop her and help her?

That sounds very distressing. I haven't got any experience but didn't want you to go unanswered.

Hopefully someone will be along soon

for you, that's really tough.

To me (I self harmed a a teen) it sounds like she needs a way of letting out anger/upset, those sound like impulsive/reactive actions rather than planned. So maybe given her something else to direct the energy into might help? A stress ball or something she similar she can put her emotion into?

I know some of the traditional "alternatives" to self harm include elastic bands on the wrist that you can twang, or squeezing ice cubes.