Identifying Triggers

Sometimes it is difficult to know when the desire to self-harm will come. and It can be difficult to change self-harming behaviors if you don’t know when to be on your guard

You can get a better idea of why and when you self-harm by keeping track of times you self-harm and recording your thoughts around the time you self-harmed.

Triggers can be:

• Being with a particular person
• Being reminded of a time you were hurt
• Thinking about negative comments someone made about you
• Preparing for a big project or performance
• Feeling a sense of numbness or “unreality”

To identify triggers and the thoughts that are associated with self-harm, complete the thought record below over a week or two. Identify situations that tend to make you feel worse, identify automatic thoughts that keep coming up, and find alternative thoughts that help you. Here’s an example below: