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Lets Stay Together Always

@taylorwearsheelys / taylorwearsheelys.tumblr.com

Hey! My name's Taylor! I am an asexual homo-romantic garbage can lid of the age 20 and a Slytherin who enjoys video games, anime, superheroes, animals, food and books. Also, under "hotlines" to the right (or below on mobile), you will find the numbers for the depression and suicide hotlines, and others similar in case you need them! She/her/hers pronouns please~
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Self-harm education Saturday:

Educating others about self harm, one post at a time.

Self-harm includes anything you do to intentionally injure yourself. Some of the more common ways include:

  • cutting or severely scratching your skin
  • burning or scalding yourself
  • hitting yourself or banging your head
  • punching things or throwing your body against walls and hard objects
  • sticking objects into your skin
  • intentionally preventing wounds from healing
  • swallowing poisonous substances or inappropriate objects

Self harm recovery projects:

The Butterfly Project:

  1. when you feel like you want to cut, take a marker or pen and draw a butterfly on wherever the self-harm occurs.
  2. name the butterfly after a loved one, or someone that really wants you to get better.
  3. NO scrubbing the butterfly off.
  4. if you cut before the butterfly is gone, it dies. if you don’t cut, it lives.
  5. if you have more than one, cutting kills them all.
  6. another person may draw them on you. these butterflies are extra special. take good care of them.
  7. even if you don’t cut, feel free to draw a butterfly anyways, to show your support. if you do this, name it after someone you know that is suffering right now, and tell them. it could help.

The Paper Chain Project:

  1. For every day you go without self harming or purging, add a colorful link to the paper chain
  2. If you relapse, just add a white link to to the chain and carry on the chain without any disruption
  3. Over time the paper chain will grow in length and you can see your progress, and see that even if you do relapse, the are still days you go without hurting yourself. The colorful links.
  4. Over time and through your recovery watch the amount of colored links begin to increase, and the amount of white links begin to decrease.
  5. If you feel like hurting yourself, look at the paper chain and realize just how far you’ve made it, and realise that if you’ve resisted before you can do it again

Journaling:

  1. DELAY: delay giving in to the urge for a set amount of time. Write down this amount of time and set a timer.
  2. DISTRACT: do an activity that will occupy your thoughts and use your physical energy. Write a list of things you could do.
  3. DECIDE: after the set time period, decide how you’re going to respond to the urge. Write down: advantages, disadvantages, reasons you want to stop, life goals.

You can also try distracting your mind. Do something where you are able to focus you mind on and be physical at the same time whenever you feel the urge to cut coming on.

For example:

  • Exercise: yoga, Pilates  zumba, dance, jogging, and if you have a gym membership go there.
  • Take a leisurely stroll through a park or even your neighborhood.
  • If you have a pet, try to teach them a trick.
  • Watch a crappy movie marathon, or have a marathon of your favorite show.
  • Take a nice relaxing bubble bath
  • read a book
  • listen to loud music and sing along to it and dance around if you have to
  • go out with friends, or call up your boyfriend and see if you can spend some time together (nothing special just hang out).
  • play video games
  • try tetris, a crossword puzzle, mind games

Coping skills for any addiction, self harm included:

Need to express pain and intense emotions

  • Paint, draw, or scribble on a big piece of paper with red ink or paint
  • Express your feelings in a journal
  • Compose a poem or song to say what you feel
  • Write down any negative feelings and then rip the paper up
  • Listen to music that expresses what you’re feeling

If you need to calm and soothe yourself

  • Take a bath or hot shower
  • Pet or cuddle with a dog or cat
  • Wrap yourself in a warm blanket
  • Massage your neck, hands, and feet
  • Listen to calming music
  • Color in a coloring book
  • Plant flowers

If you feel disconnected and numb

  • Call a friend (you don’t have to talk about self-harm)
  • Take a cold shower
  • Hold an ice cube in the crook of your arm or leg
  • Chew something with a very strong taste, like chili peppers, peppermint, or a grapefruit peel.
  • Go online to a self-help website, chat room, or message board

If you need to release tension or vent anger

  • Exercise vigorously—run, dance, jump rope, or hit a punching bag
  • Punch a cushion or mattress or scream into your pillow
  • Squeeze a stress ball or squish Play-Doh or clay
  • Rip something up (sheets of paper, a magazine)
  • Make some noise (play an instrument, bang on pots and pans)

Substitutes for the cutting sensation

  • Use a red felt tip pen to mark where you might usually cut
  • Rub ice across your skin where you might usually cut
  • Put rubber bands on wrists, arms, or legs and snap them instead of cutting or hitting
  • Cut an apple with your blades, scissors, knife, etc

First Aid:

For cuts:

  1. Apply direct pressure to the area to stop the bleeding. If the cuts are on a limb, hold it above your heart.
  2. If the cut is wide or deep, hold the sides of the injury together
  3. Clean the area with warm water and soap
  4. Apply an antibiotic ointment (such as Neosporin)
  5. Apply a sterile bandage or wrap over the area

For burns:

  1. Cool the area with low pressure cool running water or cool cloths for several minutes. Do not use ice, oil, or butter. Burned areas are weak and may become frostbitten easily. Oil or butter will trap the heat in.
  2. Remove all jewelry and tight fitting clothing as soon as possible - the swelling may make it hard to remove later. If clothing is stuck to your burn, do not try to pull it off.
  3. If you wish, treat with a topical water soluble burn cream to reduce pain. After 2-3 days, you can use aloe.
  4. Do not pop blisters
  5. Wear loose fitting clothing while healing

Call 911:

  • If a cut is spurting blood in time to your heart beat, you have hit an artery. Call 911 and do not remove pressure from the area.
  • If the cut is deep or over a joint
  • If you have lost sensation in the area of injury
  • If you continue to bleed heavily after taking the above steps
  • If you can see yellow fatty tissue or underlying muscle (will look like a slab of meat)
  • If it is hard to hold the sides of the cut together
  • If something is stuck in your wound/burn (in the case of something being in your cut, hold the sides together around the object and do not attempt to remove it)
  • You were burned using a chemical

How to respond when someone asks you about your self harm scars..

  • “I battle with sharks in my spare time”
  • “I was attacked by an evil cheese grater”
  • “IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS WHO THE HELL ASKS WHY SOMEONE HAS A LOAD OF SCARS IT’S OBVIOUSLY GOING TO BE A TOUCHY SUBJECT YOU MORON”
  • “I’m slowly transforming into a zebra”

Helpful Links:

Here is a master post on coping with urges to self harm:

More self harm help/recovery links

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itsmemorized

I’m still trying to follow everyone back from my old blog OTL I hate tumblr

Just a reminder I moved blogs and am doing my best to follow everyone again!! orz

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IMPORTANT- moved to itsmemorized

Hey guys! As you may or may not know this blog used to be itsmemorized. Well tumblr fucked me over and made me change my password but I don’t have access to the email they sent the info to, so I had to make an entirely new blog.

So I renamed this blog to save the itsmemorized url. Now I have itsmemorized set up and ready to go so if you could please go follow me over there it’d be super special awesome!!

I’m super devastated that I have to get rid of this blog and my beautiful followers so please follow me over at itsmemorized so I can keep all of you!

Thank you so much!!

Just a reminder!!

Reminding again!!

ANOTHER REMINDER!! It's been a couple months but just to inform everyone again

Avatar

IMPORTANT- moved to itsmemorized

Hey guys! As you may or may not know this blog used to be itsmemorized. Well tumblr fucked me over and made me change my password but I don’t have access to the email they sent the info to, so I had to make an entirely new blog.

So I renamed this blog to save the itsmemorized url. Now I have itsmemorized set up and ready to go so if you could please go follow me over there it’d be super special awesome!!

I’m super devastated that I have to get rid of this blog and my beautiful followers so please follow me over at itsmemorized so I can keep all of you!

Thank you so much!!

Just a reminder!!

Reminding again!!

Avatar

IMPORTANT- moved to itsmemorized

Hey guys! As you may or may not know this blog used to be itsmemorized. Well tumblr fucked me over and made me change my password but I don’t have access to the email they sent the info to, so I had to make an entirely new blog.

So I renamed this blog to save the itsmemorized url. Now I have itsmemorized set up and ready to go so if you could please go follow me over there it’d be super special awesome!!

I’m super devastated that I have to get rid of this blog and my beautiful followers so please follow me over at itsmemorized so I can keep all of you!

Thank you so much!!

Just a reminder!!

Avatar

Go follow me at itsmemorized please!!

Just another reminder that I moved blogs because tumblr fucked me over! I'm currently working on re-following everyone I follow on this blog but it'll make my life a whole lot easier if y'all could go follow me at itsmemorized! Thank you so much!

Avatar

IMPORTANT- moved to itsmemorized

Hey guys! As you may or may not know this blog used to be itsmemorized. Well tumblr fucked me over and made me change my password but I don't have access to the email they sent the info to, so I had to make an entirely new blog. So I renamed this blog to save the itsmemorized url. Now I have itsmemorized set up and ready to go so if you could please go follow me over there it'd be super special awesome!! I'm super devastated that I have to get rid of this blog and my beautiful followers so please follow me over at itsmemorized so I can keep all of you! Thank you so much!!

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sparrf-blog

this baby chick is almost too perfect shes got eyeliner and look at those cheeks… she is so round and beautiful

4 days old and already a star

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