[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-140264-en":3,"doc-seo-140264-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},140264,7971461740909,"Levi","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d",7,"Healthcare","Distraction Techniques and Alternative Coping Strategies - Practical Matters","Distraction techniques and alternative coping strategies for people who struggle with self-injury, focusing on recognizing negative feelings and situational triggers before urges intensify. The guide explains how delaying an urge and substituting substitute behaviors can help urges fade and support recovery. It includes reflective questions, journaling prompts, and tailored example alternatives for anger, sadness or depression, cravings and emptiness, wanting focus, and guilt, encouraging safer expression of difficult emotions and consideration of professional support.","PRACTICAL MATTERS  \nDistraction Techniques  \nand Alternative Coping Strategies  \nby Ericka Kilburn & Janis Whitlock  \nWho is this for?  \nThose who struggle with self-injury  \nWhat is included?  \nIdentifying negative feelings and situations related to self-injury  \nDistraction and substitution techniques  \nSelf-injury is sometimes used as a way of coping with negative events and feelings. It is often used as a result of not having learned how to identify or express difficult feelings ina more healthy way. Finding new ways of coping with difficult feelings can help to suppress the urges that lead to self-injury and may help in the recovery process. Focusing on identifying feelings and challenging the thoughts that lead to self-injury can be helpful. Seeking outside professional assistance or engaging in individual therapy may be a good idea as well. Stopping is easier if you can find other ways of expressing or coping with your feelings.  \nYou can ask yourself the following questions which may help you to identify the negative feelings or situations that lead to self-injury:  \n• What was going on in my life when I first began to injure myself?  \n• How do I feel just before I want to injure myself?  \n• What are my habits and routines? Am I always in the same place or with a particular person when I get the urge to injure myself?  \n• Do I always feel the same emotion when I get the urge to injure myself?  \n• How can I better deal with the situations that trigger me?  \nYou may want to keep a diary in which you write down your feelings at different times so that you can better answer these questions.  \nI want to stop self-injuring but I still have urges. What do I do instead?  \nDistract yourself or use a substitution behavior. Many report that just delaying an urge to selfinjure by several minutes can be enough to make the urge fade away. One way to increase the chances of a distraction or substitution helping calm the urge to self-injure is to match what you do to how you are feeling at the moment. It may be helpful to keep a list on hand so that when you get the urge to self-injure you can go down the list and find something that feels right to you in the moment. See the following examples of alternatives.  \nFeeling angry:  \n• Slash an empty plastic soda bottle or a piece of heavy cardboard or an old shirt or sock.  \n• Squeeze ice.  \n• Do something that will give you a sharp sensation, like eating lemon.  \n• Make a soft cloth doll to represent the things you are angry at. Cut and tear it instead of yourself.  \n• Flatten aluminum cans for recycling, seeing how fast you can go.  \n• Hit a punching bag.  \n• Pick up a stick and hit a tree.  \n• Use a pillow to hit a wall, pillow-fight style.  \nPRACTICAL MATTERS  \nDistraction Techniques  \nand Alternative Coping Strategies  \ncontinued page 2 of 3  \n“… I made a mix of 10 happy songs I would listen to sometimes when I was rollerblading to put myself in a good mood… It was uplifting music. It was good. It was like‘Walking on Sunshine’and‘It’s Raining Men’and stuff like that. I was like,‘Maybe I shouldn’t listen to depressing, abusive music when I’m feeling like this. Maybe I should try to get in abetter mood.’”  \n—Interviewee  \n• Rip up an old newspaper or phone book.  \n• On a sketch or photo of yourself, mark in red ink what you want to do. Cut and tear the picture.  \n• Make clay models and cut or smash them.  \n• Throw ice into the bathtub or against a brick wall hard enough to shatter it.  \n• Dance.  \n• Clean.  \n• Exercise.  \n• Bang pots and pans.  \n• Stomp around in heavy shoes.  \n• Play handball or tennis.  \nFeeling sad or depressed:  \n• Do something slow and soothing.  \n• Take a hot bath with bath oil or bubbles.  \n• Curl up under a comforter with hot cocoa and a good book.  \n• Baby yourself somehow.  \n• Give yourself a present.  \n• Hug a loved one or stuffed animal.  \n• Play with a pet.  \n• Make a list of things that make you happy.  \n• Do something nice for someone else.  \n• Light swe","cbCaiv10la8Xnd4H","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiv10la8Xnd4H","pdf",835333,1,3,"English","en",105,"# Identifying triggers and negative feelings\n## Reflection questions and journaling\n# Distraction and substitution strategies\n## Matching alternatives to the moment\n# Alternative activities by emotional state\n## Anger\n## Sadness or depression\n## Craving sensation or emptiness\n## Wanting focus\n## Guilt or feeling like a bad person","[{\"question\":\"How can I identify what leads to my self-injury urges?\",\"answer\":\"Answer reflective questions about what was happening when you first began injuring yourself, how you feel right before urges start, your habits and routines, and whether you feel the same emotion each time. Keeping a diary can help you track feelings at different times to answer these questions.\"},{\"question\":\"What can I do instead when I feel an urge to self-injure?\",\"answer\":\"Distract yourself or use a substitution behavior. Many people find that delaying an urge for several minutes can reduce it, especially when you choose an activity that matches how you feel in the moment.\"},{\"question\":\"What are some alternative strategies for anger?\",\"answer\":\"Use safe outlets that create sharp or intense sensations (e.g., squeezing ice), tear or cut materials like cardboard or newspapers, shape or smash objects like clay models, or channel energy through actions such as dancing, cleaning, exercise, or hitting a punching bag.\"}]","Distraction Techniques and Alternative Coping Strategies - Practical Matters | PDF",1787572516,8,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"distraction-techniques-and-alternative-coping-strategies-practical-matters","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/distraction-techniques-and-alternative-coping-strategies-practical-matters/140264/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-08-29","2026-08-24",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"How can I identify what leads to my self-injury urges?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"Answer reflective questions about what was happening when you first began injuring yourself, how you feel right before urges start, your habits and routines, and whether you feel the same emotion each time. 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Many people find that delaying an urge for several minutes can reduce it, especially when you choose an activity that matches how you feel in the moment.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What are some alternative strategies for anger?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"Use safe outlets that create sharp or intense sensations (e.g., squeezing ice), tear or cut materials like cardboard or newspapers, shape or smash objects like clay models, or channel energy through actions such as dancing, cleaning, exercise, or hitting a punching bag.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,115,118,122,127,130,134],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":116,"slug":117},40,"healthcare",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":119,"show_sort_weight":120,"slug":121},"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":126},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":129},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":132,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":133},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":135,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":136,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":137},19,"General","general"]