Relapse

[peace.love.starving]

I relapsed. :(

[Desuetude]

Its ok to relapse, it happens to nearly everyone. Just pick yourself back up, dont even think of it as a set back. you have been able to stop and should be so proud of yourself for just getting that far. You will be fine, believe in yourself and you will find that the days that come with no self harm will be adding up. You can do this! :)

[peace.love.starving]

I had 4 weeks before though...I've let down myself.

[BrokenButterflies]

So did I...after two years...

[flumeendeavors]

Hun, i must say that you are extremely brave and strong to have stopped yourself from cutting in the first place. :) Its OK to relapse. Its a part of recovery. Just think - you didnt become depressed overnight, so you arent going to recover overnight either. Its the same thing with eating disorders. Its completely unrealistic to expect yourself to stop cutting cold turkey forever. Its okay to give up sometimes and let yourself go - so long as you can manage to find yourself again. <3 Im here if you ever need to talk dear. :)

[Jupiter]

Listen, my message may or may not be a long one, so get prepared for either.

To be honest, I have to let myself out. I always said I never cut.

I did :|

But, the point of the matter is that I am 58 days free. If I relapse, I know my consequences. It's up to you to make the decision. We all know what could happen, suffer, or get a nice feeling for a bit, and feel crushed. But, anyway, you know that when you relapse, you learn from your issues.

:hug:

[anonymous53]

I relapsed. :(

Relapses happen, but since Fiction might not be here to answer this right now. I'll have to quote her. "You only fail if you give up" Everyone messes up, things happen. The most important thing is to learn from your mistakes. Pick yourself back up and try again, because as hard as it is, you can do it. Honestly I know you can. Don't ever give up. Please :hug:

[Mortal Coil]

Don't think of it in terms of relapsing and abstinence, think of it as density: if you cut once in the past month, it's 1/30. A year ago it may have been 1/1, 1/2 or whatever. Your relapses are okay, just keep it in perspective. You'e doing better than a lot of us :)

[georgiamay]

Honestly? I don't know anyone that hasn't slipped up. People can go years without it, slip up, and then keep on going. We fall so we can learn to pick ourselves back up again.

4 weeks is such an acheivement, you've proven that you can do it. Does this put you right back to square one? No it doesn't. I've been self harming on and off for 4 years, and I haven't done it in 200 and something days, and even though it might not have been the longest I've been without it, it definitely feels like the hardest. I still don’t feel ready to say “I used to self harm,” because even though it’s been over half a year now, I still feel like it could happen. I’ve had several close encounters, and some have been quite recent. I feel like there’s still a chance I might relapse. I don’t want to, and I hope I don’t, but it could happen.

What I’ve noticed though, is that every time I’ve felt like I would literally explode if I didn’t hurt myself, I never did. I never exploded, I never screamed, and I never killed anyone. I always felt like I would if I didn’t self harm, but none of these things ever happened. I guess what I’m trying to say, is that no matter how strong the urge is, it will always pass. Maybe you will relapse every now and then, and maybe it'll take you a long time for to feel like it's not a big part of your life, but one little relapse doesn't mean you start again, because you're never really starting again. You must have done something right for those 4 weeks, and there's no reason that you can't do it again. There's nothing stopping you. This might put you back to day one, but you're not starting over, you haven't screwed everything up. Relapses are a part of recovery. You have to relapse to learn to pick yourself up after them.

PM me if you need anything, I'm always here :hug3: