Treatments first begin with an evaluation of the person's psychological state. If there seem to be mental health issues, those are addressed. Medication, therapy and support groups are often used to help self-injurers find healthier ways to express their emotions.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is a therapy that explores the causes of your negative feelings, tensions and thoughts. Creating new ways to handle anger, emotional pain and other negative feelings is the focus of this therapy. The therapist wants to eliminate the behavior and get rid of the desire to self-injure again. The patient learns how many choices they can make to change their thinking and behaviors.

Psycho-dynamic Therapy
Psychotherapy aims to identify the triggers of self-inflicted violence, explores the history of abuse, and gets the patient medical treatment for the injuries (as a way of letting go). In addition, news ways to handle increasing tension, anxiety, and anger are explored. How do these feelings related to past experiences?

Interpersonal Therapy
The idea behind this form of treatment is that we are best at solving our own problems. Much like psycho-dynamic therapy, the patient explores their feelings and tries to relate these to past experiences. However, the self-injurer is given freedom which shows that his or her feelings are respected and supported.

Hospitalization

In-patient
If a person is at risk for harming herself or behaviors begin to interfere with her everyday life, a hospital stay is necessary until the risk is gone.

Out-patient
This type of treatment involves counseling sessions and/or telephone discussions. The person receives treatment but doesn't have to stay at the hospital. This is for individuals who are not at risk for seriously harming themselves or committing suicide.

Partial (6-12 hours each day)
This treatment program offers support group sessions or therapy in a hospital setting. After a counseling session, the person is free to leave.

Finding Alternative Behaviors
There are several theories as to what will help a person overcome the urge to self-mutilate. Some researchers suggest that you replace the self-inflicted violence with another activity that mirrors how you feel.

Rage, restlessness, frustration
Do something physical or violent like cut up a t-shirt, slash a pillow, or tear an old doll apart. If you have a punching bag, take out some aggression on that. Throwing ice against a wall or turning your music up really loud and dancing can make you feel better. Go for a run, jog, or play a sport that requires a lot of energy. If you are not around anyone, yell, scream, rant and rave, even cry.

Sad, depressed, alone
Do something relaxing like taking a bath, reading or listening to your favorite, soothing music. Lighting scented candles or inviting a friend over to talk can also help.

Numb, detached, disconnected
Here researchers advise people to do relatively harmless things to make them feel something. Examples are taking a cold bath, squeezing ice really hard or biting into a hot pepper. Below you will find the controversy surrounding such advice.

Want to focus
Web surfing, computer or video games require that you pay attention. Attempting to complete a difficult puzzle or write a story can also help you focus. Find an object in the room to stare at. Describe everything you can about it and then come up with a bunch of uses for it.

The idea behind these alternative behaviors is to take your mind of the urge to self-injure. Once the urge has passed, you will see that you can resist and possibly not obsess about self-harm. With some of the suggested behaviors like tying a rubber band around your wrist and snapping it, there appears to still be an element of pain. You will feel a sensation similar to burning if you squeeze a piece of ice in your hand while it melts. Although the feeling is less, and you are not altering or destroying your body tissue, some feel that is still promotes the self-abusive behaviors. Other things like jogging, listening to music, taking a warm bath, or having a good cry seem harmless. The best thing to do, if you want to stop the self-abuse is to get help, and create a solid support system of family and friends around you as you begin the process to overcome the self-injurious behaviors.