How can I stop myself from wanting to cut?

Firstly, recognise the consequence of cutting. Cutting will only give you a temporal relief and your feelings will only come back stronger than before. Think about it. Is it worth to provide a temporary relief for your emotions, only for it to become more intense after cutting? Furthermore, you will need more cutting in order to provide the same relief for the same intensity of emotional pain. Secondly, wanting to cut usually stems from negative emotions and as emotions are innate within us, we hold the power to replace these negative emotions with the more positive ones. This will prevent you from cutting as you hold more positive thoughts. When a negative thought appears, recognise it and artificially replace it with a more positive thought which is often more realistic as well. Thirdly, keep dangerous and sharp objects away from you and if needed, get a trusted individual to watch out for you to prevent yourself from cutting.

It's a hard thing to do but just by asking this, you've taken a huge step forward. The best thing you could do is just find something else that makes you happy and pursue it.

Every coin has two sides, so if you feel like cutting, remember, the situation that makes you want to cut, makes you want to cut because you'd rather not be in that situation in the first place... hence situation that gives rise to the need to cut, is also a chance for you to work towards improving that very situation... the need to cut, is your self-monitoring gauge. If you feel like cutting, acknowledge that you'd rather change the situation instead of making it worse.

Well I can tell you although self-harm and cutting can give you temporary relief, it comes at a cost. In the long term, it causes far more problems than it solves. You can hurt yourself badly, even if you don’t mean to. It’s easy to misjudge the depth of a cut or end up with an infected wound. And self-harm can become addictive. It may start off as an impulse or something you do to feel more in control, but soon it feels like the cutting or self-harming is controlling you. It often turns into a compulsive behaviour that seems impossible to stop and can turn you into a monster. You don't want to risk all of this and much more. You can talk to someone about your feelings and get help with your depression or other acts that are making you feel this way. If you feel really close to self harming and want to relieve yourself, I suggest you immediately call Befrienders Worldwide, as they can help you with your thoughts of self harming or even suicide. Here are some numbers that can help: United Kingdom: 08457 90 90 90 United States of America: 603 357 5505 If you require another country, please check at http://www.befrienders.org

You can never truly make the want go away, but you an put it in that figurative box in your head and forget as best you can, and soon it won't occur to you to cut, even if you want to, because the urge is so small you no longer feel the need to.

You can't stop yourself from wanting to cut,you'll keep having urges until your mind is ready to move on,but on the other hand you can stop yourself physically self harming by finding methods to calm you down and minimise the negative feelings your currently feeling of feeling when the urges take place

Do something else. Draw all over the spots you want to cut - this really worked for me. Hold an ice cube on the spot you want to harm until it melts. Focus on something else - read a book, listen to a song, watch a film, do some colouring. In fact, adult colouring books are amazing for calming you down or distracting you - check out the Millie Marotta or Johanna Basford colouring books.

Sometimes just waiting for the storm to pass is the best thing you can do to helpp fight the urges to self-harm, It may feel awful, but you can do it! :)

You can find a hobby or something you like to do to keep yourself from cutting If you're busy doing something you enjoy it will also make you happier

Instead of cutting yourself, paint yourself.