………I am 17 years old and I have been SI for 5 years now……. I will be going into the safe program in texas very soon. is there anyone on here who has been through the program? what is it like? do you beileve it has help you then you got out? has anyone been able to not SI? Do you beileve it really help you? if you knew what you knew going into the program would you do it again? How long was it after your screening call you got in? Did you feel comforable t here? were the people kind and caring? I am just a little nervous. It seems like my SI has gotten out of control lately. ANd I really need help……if anyone could answer my questions about the program I would defentely apprecite it…..
I was in SAFE inpatient when it was in Illinois. I was 15 when I went, and although I did relapse after I was discharged I am self-injury free and haven’t self-injured in several years. It was hard though, and I would be lying to say it isn’t. SAFE is really the jumping off point, the chance you have to learn new ways of coping. It won’t cure you, and if you don’t commit to the program you won’t benefit from it and may even be sent home. I’m not saying that you have to be 100% committed to the program when you go in, you don’t, but you do have to be willing to follow the program. And when you go home you will have to commit to staying safe and utilizing every resource at your disposal in order to recover and heal from both self-injury and from the issues that caused you to choose self-injury as a way of coping
I attended safe in 2001,therefore some things have probably changed. At the time the program mixed 12 to 18 year olds with adults, which was both good and bad at the same time. I waited a few weeks to get in, but it really depends on how busy the program is. When I was at SAFE we spent most of the day in group therapy. The topics varied, the centerpiece was a group where we learned how to use impulse control logs, alternative coping strategies, and to manage our urges to harm ourselves. Some of the therapy was very, very difficult, uncomfortable, and would put you in a place where you wanted to self-injure, but had to use other ways of coping. That said, it was also a very safe environment, it was a place where I could talk to anybody at any time about what was going on inside. It was a place where I could experience any emotion and it would be OK. We also had individual therapy and had a primary counselor who worked through the writing assignments with us (there are a minimum of 16 writing assignments you have to complete while there).
Good luck! Oh, and if you didn’t realize it already, I am glad that I went. I wish I could have recovered without needing that level of care, but I am glad that I did get that level of care when I need it.