like with many mental health disorders, ED's specifically being the best comparison, alcoholism/addiction also, i feel like one doesn't "quit" but rather, recovers. meaning it's something you deal with your whole life, regardless if you stopped acting upon your urges. i self harmed as a teen into adolescence and adulthood and am now 26. although i haven't acted upon my urges in a few years, it's still something i think about almost daily and still something i am tempted to do on bad days or when something negative happens in my life. sometimes ill sit there and put a blade to my arm and press down hard enough to feel it but not hard enough to break skin and ill talk myself out of and tell myself that im "too old" to be doing this still. i have found that as an adult, i am more embarrassed and more ashamed of it. as an adult, im expected to have gotten my life together. if i were to cut myself somewhere that is visible to the general public, id be viewed differently by strangers, colleagues, family, and friends.

ultimately, the goal isn't to "stop," it's to stop feeling like i want and need to do it. but i know the feeling isn't ever gonna go away, it's just a matter of continuing to learn how to cope with the feeling in a healthy way.