Rights and Affirmations for Self-Injurers

• 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 judgements 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 in 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 - althought I realise 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.

Copyright Deb Martinson © 1996-2004   Secret Shame