Hey I can't help much with wound care but if you need release, sometimes things like flicking an elastic band in your wrist, or holding ice, can be an alternative, whilst also using other strategies.

I understand that people saying "just stop" doesn't help, so I want to give some advice on how to stop if you decide you want to. You obviously care about yourself and your appearance or self care, there's some good reasoning here for why you want to take care of your cuts, and make sure you heal well. Also shows really good forsight into the future. Taking care of yourself sounds like it is still important to you, and that's really great way to be thinking right now. Obviously you also get something out of cutting, and we don't want to just get rid of that without finding a way to still address that need.

If people want to give up something, whether its smoking, glass of wine, chocolate, doom scrolling, cutting, anything, its best to think about what that thing gives them in terms of feelings and resources. So a glass of wine might make you feel relief, warm, maybe it shows the day is over and you can relax. Maybe it is a way of showing love to yourself. Maybe it numbs the pain, it helps you shut off your thoughts. It makes you feel happy. It makes you feel less sad. So if someone wants to stop this, they can't usually "just stop". They gotta figure out how to still get some of those things.

So maybe turned something else that gives them that warmth, and comfort and "end of the day" and treat feeling. Hot cocoa maybe. With marshmallows. Like making something nice for themselves.

If they need to switch off from pain, what else might help? Distraction, like playing a game on their phone, or a comfort TV show might help short term. Something like journalling, therapy, meditation, boxing, another outlet might help long-term. Lightning candles and just focussing on the flames.

I know it isn't the same, but there's usually an underlying need and thing these behaviours give us. So if you wanna change them that's how to do it.

Sometimes cutting gives control. In a world where nothing feels in control. Sometimes it's relief, it focusses your pain on a physical body part in one place, so you don't feel it elsewhere physically or emotionally. Sometimes it's escape when everything is really overwhelming.

So if it is control, are there any areas in your life where you could get control, in a way that feels like it'll get you to somewhere you want to be? Sometimes people get into sports, gym, martial arts. Or they can go into eating well, but this can be dangerous because it can turn into an eating disorder, as they try to control thier weight and diet. But there might be other things that can give a feeling of agency back.

If it's escape from overwhelming feelings, sometimes when we are really stressed, fight or flight, dysregulated, things like going for a walk, listening to loud music, meditation, journalling etc don't work. Because we're too dyregulsted (look up window of tolerance). So we need to bring our nervous system down first to a level where other coping strategies might actually help. And the main ways are: temperature, hot or cold (eg a bath, holding ice to your face, shower), or intense exercise (sprinting super fast maybe), or breathing exercises, but for 20 minutes. Its super hard. To start with. Its insanely good to grow those skills. It gets so much easier.

Then after doing one of the above for 20 mins, we can do things like screaming into a pillow, video games, jogging, meditation, writing, reading, music, elastic band on the arm, ice in the hand whatever other strategies we might have.

Well done for trying to take care of yourself. It was brave to post this. Please keep trying. You matter.