How I overcame self harm by radical skin care.

A little bit of an unusual post, but as I haven't written in so long I felt I should write something a little personal to ease back in to blogging as I seem to have the brain of a startled chicken. Many people struggle in their life with not being able to open up about how they are feeling or if they are struggling. I was one of those people. I went through years and years of therapy to cope with childhood abuse and bullying throughout my school years. I turned to extreme self mutilation in order to deal with the pain I was dealing with inside. Unfortunately this has left me with life long scars that remind me every day that I was once in a very dark place but they also remind me that I have become a strong, resilient adult full of love and compassion for my current and past self. In recent years I have had difficulty dealing with the progression of my illness and the continuous arguing, travelling, stress that comes with my career and my illness/es. Grievances and loss within my family/friend circle lately have driven self destructive, negative thoughts in to my mind. In order to face these thoughts head on and turn them in to positive, loving actions; I decided to practice radical skin care (which sounds a lot more awesome and/or social justice-y than it actually is). I took up twice daily or 'whenever my mind was eating me alive' dry brushing over my entire body, moisturising, extracting blemishes on my face with a comedone extractor (which also hurts a little but doesn't leave marks) in order to clear my complexion and deal with my urges to harm myself which I of course don't want to listen to, so this is a somewhat positive way. Using sheet masks, hand masks, moisturising my face and finding what works for my skin not only makes me feel relaxed and good about myself, but takes my mind off of the destructive thoughts until I can get them under control and out of my life.

I hope this suggestion can improve the way some of you are feeling and also improve your confidence and quality of skin.
 

~Amaris~