Strange comment today... opinions? *poss. trig SI/ED*
 

I had an appointment with my therapist today, and she was talking about purging. Clearly it's been written in my notes somewhere that I have a history of self harm, and she asked me which was less damaging to my body - cutting or purging. I said cutting, because for me the effects of purging are more serious.
She then basically said that if that's the case, that when I feel like I need to be sick maybe I should self harm instead.. :indifferent:
I can kind of see where she's coming from, but it still really confused me. I told her that, and she said that she 'wasn't advocating it, but if it's less harmful then maybe it's the better option.'

I don't really know what to think. It seems like simply replacing one very negative behaviour with a different but still very negative behaviour.

I don't plan on doing it, because for me eating is pretty much unrelated to self harm, and secondly because I really don't want to go back to something which took a long time to stop.
I was just wondering what people's opinions are on this... is it just me, or is a kind of inappropriate thing to recommend?

That's very irresponsible of her to say that. =s

i understand where your coming from as ive been faced with the same thing before.. my dad said he would rather me cut than make myself sick..
but like cutting,, for me purging is an urge its like the only way to make me feel better about myself after a binge is to be sick..
if i were to cut first,, i would still purge,, and i'd be doing twice as much damage..
i'm glad you've been able to stop self harming.. it takes a lot to stop such an addiciton and i admire that..
take care x

Can i cook her brains and feed them to Porky the Shepard..?

all the above comments.

she shouldnt have said that. is she crazy?

i have had this about od'ing and purging.
i think they think the risk of doing serious, even fatal damage by cutting is less than the fore mentioned.
i didnt really know how to take it either and i didnt replace anything with cutting.
cutting can be just as dangerous.
hope you're ok xxxx

hey hun,
when I was seeing her (year ago), I have had my counsellor pretty much say this to me. She didn't ask me but it was when we were about to break up for holidays and she said to me that the cutting seems the safer option so I should do that instead.
I felt really strange about it too and wondered all of the above, but then I suppose I realised where she was coming from.
What yours is saying is that although cutting is not a good behaviour, it is less harmful than the purging - so overall, you are safer. You can see where she's coming from right?
Though I'm still not sure how to feel about it, sorry for the ramble!
Take care <3 xxx

I remember once a psych told my friend to SI instead of overdosing!

Take care lovely xx

I dont think it was entirely all that bad a thing to say, if she made it clear neither was healthy,,, but the thing is, damage limitations, I assume her intention was for you to cope in the least damaging way. Personally, its a really fine line to walk to suggest any harming behaviour, but in the end sometimes its the best idea in terms of reality. If you are definatly going to do something, out of cutting and purging, she was saying, it would be better to cut than purge.

Sorry for waffling, but I personally dont see what she said as being that bad if she made it clear neither was better, its just about being realistic.

xxx