Assessing your immediate need to self-injure

These questions, written by Kharre, can help you assess what's going on with you right now. By answering them, you can be sure you've done your best not to self-injure. As Kharre says,

The questions differ a little bit every time, but I will not cut if I cannot answer them. [...] The most important questions on the list are #'s 4 to 6. In the beginning I would give myself little half-a**ed answers, but as each month passed my answers to myself became more detailed and I began to learn things about myself. I also found out that I can lessen or avoid stress, rather than running blindly into it. It also used to be that #8's answer was always 'yes', but now it is way more often a 'no'.
What this exercise is doing is helping me learn how to identify my emotions and stressors, which is a very important part for me, because those are the things that drive me to SI.

1.Why do I feel I need to hurt myself? What has brought me to this point?

2.Have I been here before? What did I do to deal with it? How did I feel then?

3.What I have done to ease this discomfort so far? What else can I do that won't hurt me?

4.How do I feel right now?

5.How will I feel when I am hurting myself?

6.How will I feel after hurting myself? How will I feel tomorrow morning?

7.Can I avoid this stressor, or deal with it better in the future?

8.Do I need to hurt myself?

From: "Self-Injury: You Are Not the Only One" website:

http://www.palace.net/~llama/psych/injury.html