Best Place to go for help

[OhMyGundam]

Hopefully this is the right place and in all honesty I think I'm doing this more for my girlfriend then I am doing for myself after passing out while messaging her from cutting and getting panicey messages from her because she thought I'd cut too deep and stuff. She's scared I'm going to be found dead one day so I started thinking about it that I'm not aiming to kill myself and that in all honesty self harm is just one of those things I've been doing for awhile and it's just something I turn too. I live on a university campus about a hour and a half away from my home in one direction and my girlfriend in the other meaning that I don't visit home that often, nor do I see my girlfriend all that often but thank goodness for mobiles. Anyway I've had bad experiences with councilling in the past which makes me rather reluctent to go back but I know that I need to get some sort of help before its too late. So has anyone got any sugestions of where else I can go??

[DontLookUp]

Hmmm i know you've had bad experiences with counselling before, but often its about finding the right person and making sure you have specific goals for what you want to get out of it so its not just vague.
Is there anyway you could give it another go?
If you in uni they will have a counselling service there which you could self refer to. Also are you part of a GP near your uni? Usually wherever you move to for uni you can join a new GP in your area (and sometimes uni have them too), so i would suggest making an appointment and talking it through with a GP or nurse who can signpost you and consider what is best to help you.
Take care xxx

[Patent Pending]

It can be hard when you've had bad experiences in the past - I was reluctant to get help because when I had previously I'd been referred to counselling but didn't get on with it and quit after two sessions. However, this time has been so much more helpful.

I'd suggest seeing a GP first and maybe speaking to the counsellor at Uni, both of whom can be helpful in directing you or referring you to services in your area. It might also be helpful to think beforehand about what type of care you think might help you the most.

x x x

[PassedExpectations]

pretty much what others have said... counseling experiences can vary greatly by who you see, and what your attitude/expectations are...

in the mean time, do you want to work on decreasing your harming on your own, without professional support? professional support is very helpful, but it isn't absolutely essential in starting to recover...

[OhMyGundam]

As I said this is more for my girlfriend then for me. I can see how stoping harming will be a good thing in the long run but its just been a constant for awhile that's caused breakdowns on relationships for me before and I really do love my girlfriend and I want us to last. Ideally I don't want my university involved because honestly I don't know how well they would respond as they aren't exactly the greatest in response to me finding out I'm dyslexic. I'm not 100% sure if I'm in the right place to stop but I don't want to trigger anything in my girlfriend as she's gone through similar things herself which makes her more scared to lose me.

[stumpy]

Well I tend to prefer self-help groups like Mind, where you can meet like minded people who won't force you to have counselling and where we generally support one another with our difficulties, wether harming or just becoming unstable thoughts wise, I also like to go see my Psych, although their not there generally for counselling but more for assessing medication needs, if I'm feeling really bad & just want to offload if it'll help me to minimise/avoid harming then they let me offload, but not all are the same, hope you find something helpful that suits you :)

[OhMyGundam]

I just don't know who to approach because I'm just socially awkward that way honestly I was away this weekend and kept running off to the room I was staying in to avoid people. I have booked coach tickets to go see my girlfriend because it's like a goal. However this case study that I need to do is getting me so stressed out that I can see my harming soon. I have a fear of doctors which means I avoid going so I don't think that I could go about this when I can't go when I have a infection looming. Well I ended up at the doctors and when she asked me if I was feeling down I stupidly replied yes!!! Meaning that now along with blood tests I also have to do some stupid surveys

[stumpy]

I'm glad you went to your GP, those stupid surveys are there to help you, their a way for the GP to assess your needs further

For self help groups like Mind & Rethink, you can approach the group it's self, if your nervous about face to face maybe you could give the co-ordinator of the group a ring first, to see if you can either meet with them on a one to one basis first before being introduced to the group or just generally to get some information to put your mind at ease about going to a self help group.

You should be really proud of your self for getting coach tickets to go see your girlfriend, that's a really big achievement, well done on achieving that goal *hugs* xx

[OhMyGundam]

yeah have to go back in two weeks but I think somehow I managed to get into see the doctor who deals with Mental health without even trying and it was quite informal but there checking to see if anythings not particually working cos a)vegi b)poor uni student c)I look like crap