[Jayda]

I guess it depends on how you look at it. Having supervised self-injury, instead of being locked up in a room and on 24 hour watch for intent to self-injure, can be helpful as long as it's not given freely.

The nurses/doctors should make every effort to release the tension in a healthy way before letting self-injury take place. If done wrong, it will seem as though the people in charge of helping them have given up on them. If done right, it may help in recovery, showing the self-injurer that the nurses acknowledge that it is a coping mechanism and not attention-seeking.

It's close to the reward/punishment border. Do you punish a self-injurer by restraining, drugging, or 24 babysitting for feeling the urge to do what they've grown accustomed to? Or do you risk encouraging the injury by handing over a blade?

Personally, if I feel the need to cut, and nothing else works, it's better to just do it. The longer I try and put it off, the worse the injury ends up being. Not the greatest, but it's not a bad idea. At least they're trying to understand what it means to us.