Posted by fallsfall on September 24, 2003, at 7:13:41
In reply to cutting, posted by underthecs on September 24, 2003, at 0:35:24
> hi. is it normal to cut and not tell your therapist? it's just too humiliating. am i the only one who thinks this?
No, you are not the only one.
There are lots of different reasons that people do SI. I do it for more than one reason, depending on what is going on in my life. Here are some reasons:
1. Replace emotional pain with physical pain
2. Distraction
3. A feeling of control
4. Communication
5. Rebellion
6. Physiological relief (the act of cutting sends something in your body that reduces the stress - or something like that)If you do SI for communication to your therapist, then you will always tell her. But the others can still be effective for you if you keep it a secret.
Your therapist shouldn't judge you if you tell them about doing SI. They should see it as a symptom of your problem, and try to help you solve your problem and find healthier ways of coping in the meantime. If you feel judged by your therapist, you should try to talk about that with them.
Since you feel humiliated I'm guessing that you don't feel yet that your therapist is there only to help you. It is hard to trust someone and tell them things about ourselves that we find unacceptable. But they really only can help us if they know what is going on. If you can't talk to her about the SI, then maybe you can talk to her about feeling humiliated so that you can't talk about things that need to be talked about.
How long have you been seeing this therapist? How long have you been cutting? Have you told her in the past about your cutting? What did she say?
So, are you the only one who doesn't tell their therapist when they do SI? No. I don't always tell him...
poster:fallsfall
thread:262850
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20030905/msgs/262882.html