Self-harming??

[crashdoll]

I have OCD and was diagnosed as a child. I'm on medication, see a psychiatrist and have therapy. I still continue to struggle with my obsessions and compulsions. I obsessively pick my skin, literally tearing it up till it bleeds quite considerably and it's got worse over the last few months. I keep getting skin infections and I'm very scarred. I see this as an OCD thing and while I know it's not a healthy behaviour, I don't see it as self-harm maybe because I have cut myself in the past and this doesn't seem as bad...?

My psych challenged me and said I am self-harming, doing it to hurt myself and to cause pain to ease the mental anguish. I just feel guiltier and guiltier and picked so badly today, I was worried I'd have to go to hospital to stop it bleeding.

Please help. I feel.....stuck.

Feeling increasingly low, can anyone help pls?

Hi Crashdoll.

I self-harmed for a few years and finally stopped with the help of CBT, but I do remember just how addictive it was. It's not fun .

When I got the urge I tried to find something else to do with my hands - it didn't really matter what as long as they were too busy to cut.

Does that help?

Hi Crashdoll - My daughter self harms but is sometimes able to distract herself with drawing or painting until the urge passes. Obviously this doesn't always work but its worth trying to find something that you enjoy that you can focus on totally so that you do it less often. My dd hasn't harmed for two weeks now - although it could be because she recently got a tattoo on the arm that she doesn't cut and wants to show it off.
That means wearing short sleeves so she is more likely to let her cuts heal I think. Who knows!
Try and be kind to yourself and stop feeling so guilty!

And the part about it not seeming as bad - my longest lasting scars are the ones I made with my fingernails.

The other thing my counsellor talked about was visualising myself as a bus driver, seeing the destructive feelings as drunks at the back of the bus, yelling for me to crash. I might not be able to shut them up but I bloody well didn't have to do what they said, I could ignore them and get on with my job.

Sounds a bit daft now but it did work.