A Safe Space

If you self-harm; it doesn’t mean you’re weird or disgusting or sick.

It might mean you never learned how to deal with bad feelings.

It might mean you’ve forgotten how to put those feelings into words.

It might mean you’ve been listening to lies for a long time now. And maybe you think you can’t be accepted.

It might mean you desperately want to be noticed.

It might mean you want to hide.

It might mean all of these things – or none of them.

Whatever the reason, self-harming doesn’t make you crazy and it doesn’t make you bad.   The way you choose to hurt yourself could be cutting, hitting, burning, scratching, skin-picking, banging your head, breaking bones, not letting wounds heal, among others. You might do several of these. How you injure yourself isn’t as important as recognizing that you do and what it means in your life.

It’s a way of coping: not a very good one, but not inexplicable either. It’s comforting – and it’s scary.  But it’s not a life-sentence. And just as you learned unhealthy ways of coping, you can learn healthy ones too. Please don’t do it alone: remember, Christians struggle with self-injury, just as they do with all kinds of mental and physical illness.  You are not condemned: by Jesus or others.

‘Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us’ Rom 8:33-4

Places that might help:

http://www.nshn.co.uk/

www.self-injury.org (resources from secular and Christian perspective)

www.selfharm.co.uk

For youth leaders: http://www.youthworkresource.com/ready-to-use-session-plans/self-harm-session/

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