u/J_450

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So, I just wanted to know if anyone else tracks their progress in a similar way.

I don't reset the timer every time I cut, I reset if I have a real bad relapse. Personally, I don't think one deep styro or 1-7 cat scratches are a relapse, at least not in my case as someone who used to do wayyyy more cat scratches and who has like 12 scars from deep styros. Like, for me a relapse is when I lose control and don't think about consequences or progress and just cut. This has been more helpful than trying to stay fully and completely clean, which just ended in really bad relapses. For me, harm reduction has helped me get to 5 weeks with no actual relapses, and in that time I've cut maybe three times, once 1 deep styro and the other two a few cat scratches which I also did as light as possible so they faded after less than a week.

This method has worked for me and to this day I rarely have urges half as bad as they used to be when I was trying to just abstain myself from doing it.

I wanna make clear that it's not like I just do it whenever I have an urge, I first try to distract myself and wait it out, but I decided I was never gonna let it grow and grow for days until I ended up relapsing. So if waiting and doing things to distract myself don't work for maybe 1 or 2 days, I do it trying to minimize the damage as much as possible.

Another thing that helped me a lot was never doing it out of habit or boredom. It may sound stupid or obvious, but I used to sometimes just cut cuz I knew it'd feel good even tho I wasn't feeling an urge or anything.

Lemme know what you think and if you track your progress in a similar way, thanks for reading :)

I've been clean for one month, and the past 3 days all I've wanted to do is relapse. No amount of motivation, guilt tripping, or distraction has been enough to stop myself from wanting to do it, and there's been moments where I just go grab the blade and then stop midway and go do something else to try and distract myself.

I don't know what else to do, a moment ago I was again just about to do it, but instead I called randomly one of my best friends in a last attempt of having something else to do and we're talking about random stuff.

I feel like the more I postpone the relapse the worse it's gonna be, but I also know the ideal outcome would be not doing it until the urge goes away (which right now I feel like won't happen bcz it's been at peak for THREE DAYS).

Thanks for reading if you did, and I'd appreciate any piece of advice you can give me.