Self harm scars & prevention

[thomas718]

Hello there,
I'll explain a bit before getting to the point:
I've suffered from depression about 5 years ago, and I was diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder disorder, I spent a few night in a mental health department at a local hospital. Eventually, I've been self harming myself for about months, which is about as long I was depressed, and wasn't getting much help.
This year, I had some of it coming back, I'm having a hard time coping and I get anxious and stressed around people, to the point of physically and very visibly shaking over just talking during class. (I'm a CS BsC student at a local university)
What I need advice about is what I can do to deal with my anxiety? I sometimes end up hurting myself, or harm certain parts of my body, apart from the injuries I already have, and I need to be able to control this, because I don't wanna ruin my life and every screw up every opportunity I get.
Second thing is regarding the visibility of my scars. I have a few 5 year old scars that I'm willing to get rid of , I was wondering if anyone has any advice on that?
Is a gel like kelo-cote is a good option or anything else anyone can suggest.
Thanks in advance.

 

[CatLord]

Hi Thomas !
First of all thank you for being honest and willing to explain your situation. I would like to add that I'm slowly getting to your point as well - growing anxiety, stress around people, etc. One thing I can suggest though is to not avoid people. The key is not to force yourself into encounters, but to admit that there is nothing wrong that can happen to you. Nothing to worry about. In the worse (or extreme) case - people can reject you, call you bad names or avoid you. You continue living your life as equally as before. Nothing bad will happen to you, you don't have to take action. You can never fit into expectation of every living human on earth. There are people, that can hate you. But there are also people, that love you.
The second point I'm slowly getting used to - it's my first summer with scars and I'm afraid of showing them. I've never heard of kelo-cote but I am trying out makeup (ofc on healed scars). Although it doesn't provide as much cover as I would've liked, it's certainly something. If you want and if you are able to, tattoos cover scars the best.
Sorry if I misunderstood your point but I hope I helped a little.

 

[Prycejosh1987]

I've been self harming myself for about months, which is about as long I was depressed, and wasn't getting much help.

Depression leads to suicide if left untreated. Stop self harming an cut off the suicidal triggers.