Rights and Affirmations

for

Women Who Self Harm

 

 

 

 

  • I have the right to feel safe and to have a secure home life.
       
  • I have every right to be respected and not be hurt or abused.
       
  • I do not have to punish myself because other people have hurt me.
       
  • I have the right to be angry or upset and to have those feelings heard.
       
  • I do not have to justify my self harm to others.
       
  • Other people's judgments of my behaviour are based on their own fears and limitations.  I am coping the best way I know how.
       
  • Others do not have to like what I do to myself, nor do they have to be around when I hurt myself.  Each of us have our own needs and ways of coping.
       
  • I have the right to own my body and be in control of what happens to it.  I also own my feelings and am responsible for how I deal  with them.
       
  • I am not responsible for how other people deal with their feelings.
       
  • I have the right to express my distress and given the things that have happened in my life, I should be congratulated for having found a way of surviving.
       
  • I am in charge of my life.  I have the right to say what I do and do not want for myself, now and in the future.  I also have the right to change my mind.
        
  • I am the expert of my own life - no one else really knows my reality and what I feel and need for myself.
       
  • I have the right to want attention and to ask for support from people who could help - Although I realize that people cannot always give me the support I need, I do not have to see this as a rejection of me as a person.
       
  • I have the right to want a lot of support during difficult times.  I am not at fault if existing resources do not meet my needs.
       
  • I have the right to have helpful information made available to me.

 

 

 

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Material from the Bristol Crisis Service for Women