How long before you've stopped?

[FullyAlive]

So bit of a random question, but how long do you think you should have not self harmed for before you can say that you've stopped? Because some people stop for months, years even then cut or burn etc. again so did they ever really stop? How long would you have to have not done anything 6 months, a year, 2 years? I just wondered what peoples opinions were?

[LittleEpidemic]

I dont think you ever 100percent stop, there is always the chance youll relapse wether its 3 months or 3years, you just learn to stop yourself cutting and distract yourself instead "/ i dunno really
I stopped for 3 years and now the most ive stopped since then is 8days itll take time and effort but we can all get through this with the help of eachother <3

[RAWWR]

According to my therapist, it takes the amount of time you have been self harming for ou to be classed as recoverd. e.g. if you self harm for a month, then stop, after a month you are considerd recoverd, unfortunatley, for people like me who have been cutting for 4 years, it means it's 4 years till i'm classed as recoverd -.-

[FullyAlive]

That's really annoying, the longer it takes me to stop the longer I have to not cut for before I can claim to have stopped :/

[TheSleepingInsomniac]

I think you've stopped when you feel no need to cut and don't need something to cope.

[georgiamay]

Once I managed to stop cutting for nearly 2 years. I was 1 year completely self harm free, then in the 2nd year I started scratching and doing minor things as a form of self harm without really realising it was self harm. After 6 months I would think of myself as someone who used to self harm, rather than someone who self harms.

I agree with Nicole on this one. If you've been cutting for longer, it would probably be harder to stop, so you'd have to stop for longer to be considered recovered.

[Fiction]

I think that once you have not self harmed in a while, and no longer feel any need to self harm, you can call yourself recovered.

[Charleigh]

Its sort of like giving up cigarettes (I havent yet acheived that either)
But, the first few days is so so SO hard. For me, the first month and a half was the most difficult time ever, but as you gradually spend longer not doing it, that craving starts to fade and you feel like you dont need it anymore.
I havent stopped harming or cigarettes though. Lol. ^^

[Mike321]

I think once you have stopped for quite a while and you dont get any urges to do it then your recovered. But like the others have said the longer you've been doing it for the longer it will take for you to recover.
Perosnally I stopped for just over 2 years, and now my best is just over a week

[Alexithymia]

Well... stopping is confusing. But this is the stopping that I'm currently going by.

You have recovered from self harming when your first thought when something bad happens is not "Oh, I want to cut..." It's "Oh, I want to cry. Or punch a wall. Or talk to someone. Or hang out with friends. Or something!" It's when you no longer think to yourself "Two days and then it will be a week, you can do that, right?" It's when you don't get triggered severely (once we start cutting it's hard not to be not triggered at all) by certain things. It's when you know that you're cured. But, like all recoveries, you can fall back down. And then it seems like you were never cured. You were, though. Despite what you might think, you did recover. You just had to cut for whatever reason, and so then you did. But you can recover again.

That's just how I look at it. Hope it helps!

[helizabethh]

I thought I stopped, but relapsed after a year.
When you stop thinking about doing it when you're angry, that's when you've stopped.

[Fiction]

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