TW: Is this normal?
Some times when confronted by the people around me I will get a strong impulse to self-harm. At times i will get strong impulses to start screaming and will panic a little. I will not be able to process what is happening at the moment and will feel incredibly dizzy. I can't help myself. Is this normal?
Comments
Welcome @Jae 👋😊
I am on board with what @Tiny_leaf, @MisoBear and @Bre-RO have said and want to make sure you recognise you are not alone in this. Confrontation is never an easy thing to be around and experience so it's common for us to respond in such ways. It's uncomfortable and can really heighten our anxiety levels. I know I will often respond in self harming ways myself or escape the situation completely as I also struggle to process what's going on. I hate conflict so will avoid it at all costs, but unfortunately you can't always do that so I suggest you do check out the links the others shared here because they can be really helpful 😊 Not everything will work, but until you try some out you'll never know.
Thank you for sharing this with us, it's very brave of you to speak out so you should be proud of yourself. We are always here to listen and help where we can ❤
Hey there @Jae
Welcome to ReachOut and thank you for taking the step to talk about the emotions and impulses you are experiencing. It so hard having all these strong feelings running through your body and not knowing what to do in the moment to feel better.
You mentioned that you can't help yourself and I wanted to acknowledge that by coming here to get support, you are taking action to get help. It sounds like having some extra support could be a good option for you at the moment. I'm just wondering if you've ever thought about chatting to a counsellor or psychologist?
It can be a real relief to chat with someone who understands the behaviours you've described and can help with building your "tool-kit" for coping in those times.
Also, you've asked if this is normal and I wanted to let you know that many, many people struggle with what you've described. A lot of people won't openly talk about it though, so it can feel like you're not normal. That goes to show just how brave you are for speaking up about what's going on for you.
How are you feeling about everything today?
Hi @Jae,
I'm sorry you're going through this right now, it sounds like it's really distressing for you. Are there specific situations or people this happens with, or just any confrontation? Is this the first time you've experienced this? There are a lot of good strategies for distracting from these sorts of urges and thoughts here.
Hi @Jae
It's not exactly "normal", but you aren't alone either. I have really similar reactions to conflict, even ones that I'm not involved in and just overhear.
It sounds a bit like confrontation is making you really anxious, and you're wanting to self harm as a way to cope. Do you think that sounds like what you're experiencing?
There are a few things you can do to help you deal with this.
Firstly, finding more healthy ways to cope with feelings like this can really help. We have a thread for alternatives to self harm which I can find for you if you want. I'd also recommend looking up "stimming". While stimming is mostly an autistic thing, literally everyone does it to some degree, and it can be really good for dealing with strong emotions. We actually have a thread on stimming if you want to check it out.
Another thing that can help are breathing exercises, which can really help with keeping yourself grounded and reduce how dizzy you feel.
Finally, remove yourself from the situation if you can. Even if you have to lie and say you need to go to the toilet or something.
Having some space to just breath can really help, and hopefully the situation will de-escalate a bit in that time.
Anyway, I hope this was helpful in some way, sorry for the long response.
