For any self-harmers reading this: TW. The video contains blades and other self-harm tools.

All I can say is, wow. Just, wow. When I first saw this video made as part of the Harm No More project, I was speechless. It sent shivers up my spine. Giving up blades is a big deal. To us, they’re very intimate objects. We turned to them on our darkest nights. We used them to relieve the pain. We used them to bleed out our emotions. We used them to feel alive. They were something we could always count on for comfort, and as part of human nature, we often form attachments to things that comfort us.

It sounds strange to say we form attachments to the things we use to harm ourselves, but it happens. We become dependent on them as a way to cope with daily life. To detach ourselves from our blades is like a food addict beginning to eat healthy amounts again; a drug addict no longer using; an alcoholic becoming sober. It’s a difficult thing for us to get rid of our crutch and stand on our own.

It’s so liberating though. I recently gave my blades to a few trusted individuals, and I’m so happy to have them gone. To hand them over and know that they’d no longer be within arms reach felt as if I’d lost a body part. I no longer want them near me though. I can’t really describe why I felt as if I needed them gone, but I just knew that it was the right thing for me at this point.

To think about the fact that my blades, and all of those given up as part of the project, will not be used again is mind blowing. These tools that were once used to physically injure people will never again do so. They’ll no longer be tools of destruction, but story tellers and recovery inspiration instead. These tools will harm no more, and that is a powerful thing.