How can I stop Self Harm if its the only thing that's keeping me from my anxiety?

The best way to stop self harming is to get to the root cause of it. If you self harm just to help your anxiety, then you'll have to do things to help your anxiety without having to hurt yourself. I don't know you, so I'm not sure what the best way to help your anxiety is. But a good way for me is to use breathing techniques and count down from 10 slowly. If you don't want anybody to notice, try bending a paper clip or pin in your pocket or, what I usually do, squeeze your sleeve of your shirt or a piece of cloth in your pocket really tight, wring it, or whatever you have to do. But after you get the right technique, stopping self harm should be easier. If you still need help, talk to people on this site or look up alternatives for self harm. I hope that helped :)

The answer for this is going to be different depending who you are. I think that depending on Self Harm for relief from anxiety is very dangerous, so it's important to find something to replace it. It can be very hard to stop hurting yourself, but if you want to stop, you can, I promise. Find something else that gives you a sense of security and relief that is accessible to you whenever you are feeling anxious. For instance, I feel very secure in long sleeves. Caffeine also boosts my mood, and warm drinks make me happy/secure. Something I do when I know im going to be in a situation that could provoke my anxiety is I wear a comfy sweater and sometimes bring a small coffee/tea for preventative measures, and I am less likely to feel overwhelmingly anxious in that situation. I'm sure we can find a healthy substitute to Self Harm for everybody; If you need help finding your substitute, you can talk to me or any of the other listeners about it and we'd be happy to help you through it. :)

Find other coping methods. E.g. Meditation/Yoga - meditation actually increases the amount of grey matter in the brain, essentially rewiring the body to stress less. Create a vision board. - If the future seems big and scary, try changing the thoughts about what lies ahead. Sometimes the mere act of setting concrete goals can take the edge off anxiety about future unknowns. Journal - Helps to track progress and express emotions. A Destroy This Book - A book in which you can write, burn, draw, tear, cut etc. This is best for those who can’t keep ordinary journals.

you can find alternatives. Like doing artwork . Or drawing on the area you want to hurt yourself .Or you could wear a rubber band and flick them

Of course the most logical answer would be to attempt to find what is causing your anxiety in the first place and address all those problems eventually, but temporarily you can imitate the satisfaction after a self-harm event but not actually endanger yourself by snapping a rubber-band around your wrist, but try not to do it too often or too hard or you might end up with painful pinches. I find it therapeutic to also tear out pages from diaries I keep specifically for stressful times, a messy solution, but anything is great as long as it doesn't hurt yourself.

You should speak with someone and make sure you're comfortable with them. It's best if you try to 'cool' down your anxiety and try to see the good things in life! :)

Learn to accept yourself , know that you are beautiful. Find something else that truly makes you happy

I can truly understand how that feels. I am 4 months clean from all forms of self harm. Being able to stop self harm is different for every person. Somethings that I did was write, go outside, talk to someone who was my friend at the time, and just try to distract myself from other things.

A person told me that I should draw a butterfly on my thighs and if I cut then I kill the butterfly but if I let it fade then it is let free so that helps me to stop self harming. Also it can be helpful to have an elastic band around your wrist and ping it against it when you feel the urge to self harm. This can be helpful as it means that you get the feeling of pain that you are craving but you do not get the severity of cutting or burning etc. This means that you still have some pain stopping the anxiety but at the same time you are not causing severe harm to yourself

I would recommend doing something that takes your interest away from the thoughts of self harm. I always found drawing or music would help me ease my mind, Some people do physical exercise (such as using a punching bag). In the end self harm will only be a temporary fix and people will often revert back to it to calm their mind. With anxiety related issues i recommend reading the book "Dont Panic" as it's helped me through a lot of my anxiety problems. Anxiety doesnt define the person you are, it's something you live with. So self harming yourself shouldn't be the option you use to ease your anxiety because unfortunately... anxiety will always resurface, you need to find the best way to beat it.