i get eaten by the worms. and weird fishes.

--yes by multiple people

--someone told me they liked me

--i heard someone liked me from a third person

--i had suspicions but no confirmation

--not that i know of

there needs to be room for honest discussions and acknowledgement of the fact that even people who are aiming to stop completely are more than likely going to hurt themselves at some point during that process, and not everyone wants to stop completely.

i’ve been accessing various kinds of ‘mental health care’ for many years and every single time i’ve asked for some advice on wound care and knowing when i need to seek medical help i get met with confusion or shut down completely - once i was even told that the trust in question used to make and give out a leaflet about keeping as safe as possible when self-harming but that they’d stopped because they just wanted to push people to stop instead.

at present most services, therapists, psychs, etc are totally unwilling to engage with/meet someone where they’re at with their goals around self-harm and respect their decisions if they are anything other than ‘i want to stop entirely’. someone like me whose goals around it are ‘take better care of injuries, avoid infections, get medical attention when needed’ doesn’t get help to work towards that goal, only condescending arguments about how i can’t possibly know what is best for me and i have to stop. professionals would rather keep arguing the same point than actually help someone work towards putting themselves in less danger and reducing the negative impact of self-harm on their life and body.

and the amount of times i’ve seen the sharing of harm reduction resources (wound care information, free first aid supplies, etc) in ‘mental health support’ spaces shut down as ‘promoting self-harm’ is shameful.

we are doing people who self-harm a huge disservice by pretending that making harm reduction information so difficult to find is somehow helping.