It’s often hard to overcome self-injury on your own, but a professional can help you find healthy ways to cope and feel better. Everyone’s treatment plan is different and it’s important to be open and honest with your counselor so they can find the best plan for you. Treatment may include talk therapy to help identify your triggers for self-injuring and to learn healthier ways to cope with painful feelings, tolerate distress, express emotions and build self-acceptance. Some treatment plans also include medications to treat depression or anxiety.

You can help make your treatment most effective by:

• Sticking with the Plan. Recovery doesn’t happen overnight and it’s important to attend all your appointments, stick to your medication schedule and take care of yourself.

• Practice healthy ways to relieve stress. Try healthy coping strategies like yoga, meditation, journaling, walking or talking with a friend.

• Avoid drugs and alcohol. These substances can increase the likelihood that a person self-injures. Also, drugs and alcohol heighten the risk for accidental life-threatening injuries and death.

• Talk to Others: It can be very therapeutic to talk to other people who are dealing with similar issues and can understand your situation. Many schools and communities offer support groups for people recovering from self-injury. It can be scary at first to attend and speak up in these groups, but it becomes an important part of many peoples’ treatment plans.