by Ayushree
Note from Anne Moss: A self-harm safety box is a kit that a person puts together as a self-help strategy. This was sent to me by Ayushree and she details the contents of her safety box which she has so far found helpful in breaking her self-harm habit.
To make my own self-harm safety kit, I took a shoebox, covered it in white paper and made doodles all over it. I didn’t write anything on it because otherwise, my mom would know.
Doodles are one of my hobbies and it helps me to relieve stress. I am sharing several of them here. I will try to make doodles whenever I am stressed out from now on because it calms me and distracts me from self-harming. (My wardrobe is like a canvas of doodles, too.)
So here’s what’s in mine:
- Some pictures of my dog and me
- A few of my doodles
- Rubber bands
- Markers (a red one as suggested), sketch pens, and micro-pens I use for doodling
- Cut-outs of traveling and clothes from magazines and newspapers
- Birthday cards I got over the years
- My headphones I use to listen to music
- My list of alternatives to self-harm (doodle, write in my diary, play with my dog, help with the cooking, take a paper and destroy it)
