Question by datdudeyahknow: Question about self harm treatment?
I have a friend who cuts herself and she has asked me about what can she do to get better and if there are any treatment places but I don’t know much about the topic. Um she lives in the Phoenix, Arizona area if that helps any. Thanks for the answers!

Best answer:

Answer by anna unff
I’m not sure about treatment places, but I’m positive there must be some sort of Mental Rehabilitation center near you and her tha can offer self-harm treatment but a big deal of getting over her addiction (which is pretty much what it is) is for her to get to the bottom of why she cuts. Some people think you can get over your mental issues on your own (depending on the degree of the issue) and some i’m not sure if they believe that but I am one of the people who believes our own mind and thoughts are the answers. I’ve pulled through a lot, as well as self-harm which is a work in progress but currently going strong, and honestly the best thing i can think to tell her is to realize why she cuts. Is it a family problem? An ex-boyfriend who hurt her so badly? Childhood bullying? For me it was my bullying and then later on a family problem and then my ex reintroduced me to it. I had to realize that even though it took the pain away, it wasn’t helping with my problems.

See if you have a school consellor for her to talk to if she’s comfortable, that would be a good place to start. They can probably give you more information about where to go from there. They may be able to talk her to her parents if she was comfortable with that, but honestly I can say that going to a school consellor would be a great decision as it was the first step for my recovery. By the way, you’re a great friend just because you didn’t turn your back on her and leave her to deal with this alone, she’s lucky to have you 🙂

http://www.rehabcenters.com/categories/Arizona
^ you need to sign up i think or enter a postal code, but i just googled “Self-harm rehabilitation centers Pheonix, Arizona” and this came up,

message me if you have something else to ask if you want

Answer by Frank Thomas
I believe there are generally two ways in which self-harm is treated. A lot of people on Yahoo Answers seem to view it as an addiction. If your friend is religious and believes that self-harm is an addiction over which she is completely powerless, she can check out http://selfmutilatorsanonymous.org/, the website for Self-Mutilators Anonymous (a 12 step program based on Alcoholics Anonymous) that views self-harm as a disease and an addiction. I used to attend AA meetings, but they never did me any good. I have since quit on my own. It is a religious program, even if the people at the meetings say that no, it’s a spiritual program. That’s like saying that it’s a lemon, not a citrus fruit. In 2003 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that AA is actually a religious program. So, your friend must believe in God, and she must believe that only God can help her with her problems. Not friends, not family, not herself, but only God. Alcoholics Anonymous reports a success rate of about 6% to 7% of people who have attended for over a year. The rate of remission of alcoholism, that is stopping without doing anything, is 5% during any given year. So, AA has about a one or two percent success rate, and those are their own numbers. I expect the same from Self-Mutilator’s Anonymous.

The other approach would be a psychiatric approach. Cutting is a symptom, not a disease. If cutting is a symptom, then a therapist would try to get to the bottom of the reasons why your friend cuts herself and helps her deal with it, and a psychiatrist prescribes medication for your friend to reduce her desire to cut herself. Most cutters have bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, major depression, or eating disorders, or any combination thereof. They would try to work with your friend’s impulse control.

I think she needs to be in an inpatient psychiatric facility so that she can’t find any sharp objects to mutilate herself with. She’ll be able to see a psychiatrist about three times a week and therapists every day. It’s not like a prison sentence. It’s a place to get better.

I hope this helps.

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