is it possible to get healed of cutting?

[alilsa]

Is it possible to actually get healed of cutting? I still do more minor self injury stuff but haven't actually cut myself in 10 months. People on here sounds like it is an addiction that one always has. Like a person that has quit drinking is a recovering alchololic. How long after a person stops cutting can they claim healing? I still have the urges and want to cut but I haven't cut in awhile. My pastor left to go on to evangelism field but he was my pastor for 16 years. He prayed for me and counselled me a whole lot of times and now when I feel like cutting, I think about my pastor and I decided to not let him prayes and help be in vain. I also think about how much Jesus loves me and it would hurt him if I cut. So at what point is it safe to stop stop calling myself a cutter and call myself healed instead?

 

[Mayflower1]

You know, that is a question. For me I haven't cut in five months. The world wants to tell me I still have a problem and I need to get help before I start again. I stopped sharing with the world the struggles I have. Why? Because I BELIEVE I AM healed. And until you believe it yourself, you can never be completely healed from self-injury or any other disorder. All of us have to eject the lies of the world, and replace it with the truth. God is the ultimate healer and He can heal in a short period of time, just as much as a long period of time. And you know, to get to ten or twenty years, five months is needed... I am over it for good. I might have urges again if things get tough, but never again. It is finished.

So my answer, is call yourself healed today. Make a commitment to God that no matter how hard things get, you will not hurt yourself in any way, thank God, and live...

 

[littlenova]

i dont know yet & i'm being truthful. i'm on 2 weeks of healing myself.

 

[Everlasting33]

It IS possible to be healed of cutting. I have not cut for 7 years now. I remember a time when something stressful would occur and I would immediately want to hurt myself. Seven years later, I think " How am I going to make it better?" Change really is possible and do not give up on the hope that you can be healed...just believe!!!

Take care and God Bless!

 

[Leechness]

 

[Tenebrae]

I was a chronic self harmer, and still bear the scars from it. I havent self harmed for over 3 months and before that it had been over four and closer to five years since I had last SId on a regular basis


It is a journey,


Its important to celebrate the small steps, when you are SI free for a week, do something to celebrate that, when you reach your next goal, its also another reason to celebrate. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a couple of steps.



Also important that if you do slip up after a prolonged period of being SI free to see it as a speed bump rather than it totally undoing all the good work that you have done.

 

[GodDoesListen55]

i think that self injury can be healed over time. like me, for example, i havent cut since february 15th, which is 22 days.

 

[Kristen.NewCreation]

Is it possible to actually get healed of cutting? I still do more minor self injury stuff but haven't actually cut myself in 10 months. People on here sounds like it is an addiction that one always has. Like a person that has quit drinking is a recovering alchololic. How long after a person stops cutting can they claim healing? I still have the urges and want to cut but I haven't cut in awhile. My pastor left to go on to evangelism field but he was my pastor for 16 years. He prayed for me and counselled me a whole lot of times and now when I feel like cutting, I think about my pastor and I decided to not let him prayes and help be in vain. I also think about how much Jesus loves me and it would hurt him if I cut. So at what point is it safe to stop stop calling myself a cutter and call myself healed instead?

I believe it is possible to recover from cutting. The approach of looking at it as an addiction means that if we don't take care of ourselves and continue to do what we need to do to stay in recovery, it is something we could go back to because it used to work for us.

On the recovery side, reinforcing for yourself the postive (I can be SI free, I can manage life without SI). I never refer to myself as a cutter any longer. That's not who I am, it's what I did. Cutting is what you do - not a title you have to wear. Focus on who you are... put in positive adjectives... smart, sensitive, compassionate, funny, determined, a princess, a child of God, etc.

 

[berry2000]

Wow i don't know. I stuggle with the same concept. It does seem somewhat like alcoholics who believe once an alcoholic you always are. But at the same time I really don't like labels. What is similar I think is that from time to time our mind probably will always go there even if just for a brief second. I think it is more about what we do when we get those thoughts that determines if we label ourselves a "cutter" or not.

 

[reesie]

i think that as soon as you repent and leave the habit behind, that is when you are healed. you are freed from the need to cut, and although you will most definitely be tempted, you have Christ's power within you to live above it!

 

[brea]

Is it possible to actually get healed of cutting? I still do more minor self injury stuff but haven't actually cut myself in 10 months. People on here sounds like it is an addiction that one always has. Like a person that has quit drinking is a recovering alchololic. How long after a person stops cutting can they claim healing? I still have the urges and want to cut but I haven't cut in awhile. My pastor left to go on to evangelism field but he was my pastor for 16 years. He prayed for me and counselled me a whole lot of times and now when I feel like cutting, I think about my pastor and I decided to not let him prayes and help be in vain. I also think about how much Jesus loves me and it would hurt him if I cut. So at what point is it safe to stop stop calling myself a cutter and call myself healed instead?

Well, I think for myself, I'll always have the desire to cut at certain points, but my ability to not do so will become strong enough that I won't. And, the desire really loses it's strength over time as well- it won't always be so overwhelming.

Don't worry about 'claiming healing' of SI. If you feel that you're healed of it, say so, if you don't feel that you are, then don't say so. It's up to you hun, no one is standing over you in judgment of that

 

[LizzieSpinelli]

I know it's possible. For everyone. Cutting has no use, it's of no help, and it is a stronghold that Satan is easily putting on people, particularly teenagers. (It's in association to a fad, stereotype on some occasions...) I will admit I've done it before, and mostly likely would have done it a lot more if my mother were never to have found out. But she did. So I resorted to other things which I won't mention in fear of triggerin anything, but I did things to myself. I didn't know why, I was going through a hard time that made me feel worthless and useless. In fact I literally heard voices saying those things, and many times those voices was my own repeating over and over without my consent. But eventually I started to let time slip by, and slowly I started to hand myself over more to God. The temptation was everyday, but I was deciding to let go. So I called a certain someone who I had been having problems with, and I told him I was just letting go, because it wasn't good for the both of us to have strongholds of Satan like that, and he replied with what should have been the worst thing he could have said. He himself with his own voice told me that I was worthless and useless and the worst thing to ever happen to him. I SHOULD have flipped right there. You would think that would have been the moment I would have let go, because his words and my voice repeating them and other voices I'd never heard were reciting them over and over again and I heard myself saying I'd be better off dead, until I heard another voice. Not for the first time, but loud enough for the first time for me to really listen. An idea sparked in my mind. "What a minute. If you're really so worthless, like everyone is trying to make you think, regardless of all the talents you seemed to posses before all of this, why in the world would Satan even waste his time on you? If you really WERE worthless, and NEEDED to do these things to yourself, he wouldn't have to make people tell you, you wouldn't have had a great life until suddenly when your life seemed at its happiest and then you find yourself upset UNLESS you were some kind of a threat to Satan." I pondered this, and somehow while I was thinking the other thoughts couldn't come through. The voice of reason continued to rant towards me. "You've always had these talents and dreams you wished someday would come together and do something big. And why did they sieze? Because they were God-given and for a reason. THAT'S why these burdens fall on you, because Satan wants you to have no faith in God, to have no faith in yourself, and to have no faith in what God gave to you." And it's all true, and I know it's true. God's already using me as I walk through high school hallways which are infested with the worst problems you could think of. He's inspired and equipped me with everything I need to save a generation and anyone else who maybe has gone through something like this.

 

[svl3p]

i consider myself a recovering cutter....sort of like a recovering alcoholic...there was a time i was cutting every day...i have hundreds of scars, tho most are pretty faded...but I still want to cut, even though it's been about 2 years....I don't think I'm recovered or healed because the temptation is still there for me...

But that's not to say you can't be healed from it..I really don't know..I suppose some people CAN be healed from it. Once they get to the root of everything and work through it.

 

[byhisstripes]

Deleted

 

[katautumn]

As someone who has not SI'ed in over two years, I can honestly say I consider myself a recovering, rather than a recovered, self-injurer. Most days the thought no longer crosses my mind, but there are times when I will see a show or go back to a website I used to be a member of and it is almost triggering in nature.

When something appears to become a part of your identity (i.e., "I'm Kat, and I'm a cutter"), a part of a routine, a coping mechanism, an "old friend", it's difficult to step outside of that comfort zone. The first year was the most difficult. I really had to abstain from viewing or reading anything that could potentially trigger a relapse; however, I do believed I can live the rest of my life using the alternate coping mechanisms I have learned throughout the recovery process, like knitting for example.

 

[anberlinfan]

I would say, you are never 'recovered' only forever 'recovering'.
Think of it like cursing, no matter how many times you stop for a period of time, its gonna come back.
But, as long as you keep resisting the temptations, till your deathbed() then you'll do great

You've done great so far, keep it up!

 

[Bryan519]

I think all of these responses are helpful. I think that labeling oneself as a "cutter" is not healthy. You are certainly much more than someone who has coped with pain by engaging in SI. You are a beautiful child of God, and I doubt very much that God sees you as a "cutter".

Secondly, I think of healing as a process rather than a destination. By thinking of it as a point in time you are setting yourself up for failure and disappointment. Let's say you go four years without ever harming yourself, then something traumatic happens and you backslide. Does that put you right back to where you were four years ago? Absolutely not. Because healing is a process and a lifelong journey for some of us, everyday is an opportunity to rejoice.

 

[boofhead]

I am thank God completely healed. 10 years without even a serious thought of self-cutting!

 

[katautumn]

I am thank God completely healed. 10 years without even a serious thought of self-cutting!

That is awesome, Boofhead! Congratulations on your successful recovery. I haven't been "clean" as long as you have, but I hope that someday the occasional urges will be completely absent from my life.