For those struggling, every day is a battle. This is true for any kind of addiction, not just the fight against your skin. Some people have trouble simply making it through the day without anxiety, a trigger or a cut. During my sleepless nights, I have discovered some ways to move towards positivity and away from negative behaviors and thoughts. You have to search within yourself and find five things you enjoy. Once you find five things, you’re halfway there.

I have worked in professions that focus on mentoring and guiding others towards positive behaviors. Many of the youth I have worked with have struggled with some kind of mental illness, disability or self-harm. For those who are in the same profession, it feels great to watch others succeed and move in a positive direction. It feels even better to know that you did something to help alter their lives in a healthy way. Sure, it is important to focus on helping others. It’s great providing insight and ideas to those who may be seeking it. However, it is just as important to focus on yourself during times of personal struggle. Sometimes, you push your needs away when they need to be first in line.

It has always been difficult to face my fears and discuss my self-harm with loved ones. Even after five years without an intentional mark, I still fear opening up to family members and friends about it. When speaking to health classes, I find it much easier to bring forward my experiences with self-harm and suicide. However, when it comes to one-on-one conversations, I tend to freeze. How come it is so difficult to talk to loved ones about our experiences with self-harm?

Years ago, my brother introduced me to a movie called The Iron Giant. Some of you may know of this movie and if you’ve never seen it – you need to. You may think it is just another silly, cartoon, kid’s movie about robots, but it most definitely is not. This movie has positive messages that everyone can learn from – especially teenagers and adults. My last blog discussed the good and the bad of the Internet and how it can lead to different behaviors and thoughts. I coincidentally came across a picture of The Iron Giant when re-directing myself from a stressor and it reminded me about how powerful the movie really is. “You are what you choose to be.” Not only is that the main message in the movie, it is also something we should follow on a daily basis.

Since I’ve been having major issues with not being able to fall asleep lately, I’ve been up at night browsing the Internet more than usual. My nightly routine has been as follows: write, push dog off keyboard, look at Facebook, write, look at Pinterest, push dog off keyboard and write a little bit more. During those in-between moments, I started remembering how dangerous the web used to be during my days of self-harm. You can find anything on there. You can find pictures that trigger self-injurious behaviors and websites that support those behaviors. There are websites that support stopping self-harm – such as healthyplace.com. However, do those websites overpower the negative ones for those who are curious self-harmers?

Life is weird. That is one statement almost everyone can agree to be true. Nothing is normal about the lives we live, even if we follow the same boring schedule day after day. Even for those who think they have their lives planned to perfection, something out of the ordinary will happen to rearrange that agenda. Something is bound to happen to shake your life up and when it does happen, will you be ready? Will you have those handy dandy coping skills ready to go? Will you stand with a smile and stay positive? We’re all human and many of us won’t be ready to pull coping skills out from our pockets right when we need them.

I’ve never been one to watch movies on a daily basis. Sure, I like movies, but I’d rather watch Big Bang Theory or How I Met Your Mother re-runs. Hell, I don’t even own a DVD player. However, I do appreciate good movies and the work that goes into making films. Sadly, I only knew Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee from The Hunger Games trilogy. I know he played numerous other roles and was an Oscar winning actor. However, after he lost his battle to drug addiction, it got me thinking about self-harm and how big of an addiction it is as well. Yes, I believe self-harm is an addiction.

I’m not a religious person and I’m not the kind of person to argue about religion. Believe what you want to believe – easy as that. I’ve never understood why people feel the need to push their beliefs onto other people. Don’t make people change if they’re not willing to or are interested in changing. Self-harm is similar, if looked at in that light.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve realized something very important. We’ve been told this over and over and even though I’ve heard it and attempted spread the word, just recently have I begun to listen. Especially during rough times, it’s crucial to keep a positive head on your shoulders. It’s important to be comfortable with who are and the skin you’re wearing.

I absolutely love “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show”. If you’ve never listened to it – you should. It’s on bright and early in the morning and on the rare occasions when I don’t sleep in, I make sure to turn it on. They talk about everything: sex, celebrities, trending topics and have the best ‘phone-taps’ I’ve ever heard. They’re all very real people who say very real things that everyone can relate to. So, why would one of them put a picture of a razor on Instagram with a somewhat offensive caption?