Takashi Morihara’3,5, Bruce Teter’3, Fusheng Yang’3, Giselle P Lim’3, Sally Boudinot?, F Douglas Boudinot?, Sally A Frautschy’3,4 and Greg M Cole% 1,3,4 ‘Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare Systern, GRECC, Sepulveda, CA, USA; “Department of Phormaceuties, Virginia Commonwealth Universi Richmond, VA, USA; “Department of Medicine, University of Califorio, Los Angeles, CA, USA: *Department of…

Hi darling,

Please know that this is not minor and even if it would be, that’s totally okay. We are here for everything someone struggles with, no matter major or minor!

As you might know, self harm is a coping mechanism. But I think you and I will also know that it’s never enough. We want more, deeper. And then we come at a point where self harm in general is not enough anymore. I think that’s where you are now. Which is why you’re starting to abuse painkillers, as another way of coping. But sweetheart please believe me when I tell you that there are other, better coping mechanisms. You don’t have to use these unhealthy ones. Taking ibuprofen might not cause the harm you wished for, but it is still causing you harm. Your kidneys and liver don’t take painkillers well, especially not when there’s nothing the painkillers can fight. Abusing painkillers not only is unhealthy, it’s very addicting too. So love, please take a step back. Is this what you want? Is this how you want to live your life? Or do you want to be happy? I’m well aware that when you say yes to that last question it doesn’t all magically go away. But the first step in recovery is that you need to want recovery. You need to be willing to fight for it. So if you can answer that question with a yes, you’re on the right way.

Now let’s get back to me talking about coping mechanisms. It’s easy enough for me to say that it’s good to stop the unhealthy ones, but how on earth do you do that? People with no experience will say ‘just stop’, but that’s unfortunately not how it works. Reason 1 is that stopping is not easy and reason 2 is that then you’re left behind with no coping mechanism, not a good situation! Something that is helpful is to try and replace your unhealthy coping mechanism with a healthy one. The difficulty is now left in finding what healthy coping mechanism works for you. This is something that I’d really recommend you to try and figure out with a professional. They can come up with ideas on what coping mechanisms could be helpful for you, but they’re also a coping mechanism themselves! Talking to a therapist is really helpful (I wanted to say therapeutic, I should sleep). If you want more information about getting help and all kinds of therapies you can get a look here. I really think it will help you! Because you know what, therapists are not just to help you fix your behaviour or what is bothering you. It’s about the whole image, also with everything underneath the surface. The reason why you use that behaviour, the reason why that thing is bothering you. And if you work on that, it will come back less and less often and that’s what we want! Keep fighting love, I believe in you ❤️

She's saving me with this heated blanket. Best friend. Ever. 

Seriously though, being a girl sucks. You're not as funny as boys are, plus, your ovaries betray you on a monthly basis. 

Can I get an, "amen!?"