I am doing psychotherapy atm and it’s about changing the destructive behaviours I do and replace them with something else.
TW – for example ; instead of selfharming I am supposed to eat something spicy or put effervescent Pulver in my mouth.
On the long run it’s supposed to make the feelings (that cause me to want to self harm) be more manageable- but why?
It’s not as if my brain knows the difference of if my behaviour is damaging long term or not, does it?
Why does it work for most people?
In: Other
Because with many things it’s mind over matter. We can be our own worst enemy inside our heads but if you can give your brain new ways to look at something and do this consistently, you’ll stop repeating the negative ideas and start repeating the positives.
Eventually it reprogrammes your brain so that when you have a destructive urge you reflexively express it in a non-destructive manner. It’s like training a new muscle memory.
Doing to humans what Pavlov did to dogs. And it seriously works if you persevere. From my own personal experience.
I’m no psychologist or expert, but from living with a partner who used to self harm, this is my personal view on this… Self harm is generally done by people who either want to feel something or by people who want to feel something other than whatever they’re feeling now. In rarer cases it can be seen as a form of self punishment. So the pain is a substitute for either a lack of feeling or excess of feelings. The pain is what works for you, the actual physical method makes little difference to your brain. The brain responds to the stimulus, not the method. So if you can slowly transfer your self harm into a method that still makes you feel pain without physically harming yourself, that’s a step in a healthier direction. It’s not going to solve your issues, but it will do less harm. It’s a small but useful step in the right direction, not a cure.
The real problem with cutting yourself is that it often leaves permanent scars. The big reason why a non-damaging self harm option is so important is that later on when you’re well on your road to recovery, your scars are still a permanent and visual reminder of your dark days and could cause relapses and prevent progress because they’re always there. Even many years down the road, your self harm scars can still negatively affect your self image and make it hard to let go and move on. That’s why you should try to transition to a method that does no physical harm to your body and leaves no permanent reminders of things you want to work through.
Maybe it makes you focus on something else?
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