Calm Harm is an app designed to help people resist or manage the urge to self-harm. It’s private and password protected.
Calm Harm is based on the principles of dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT). DBT is a type of talking therapy that’s often effective in people with mood disorders. It’s recommended by the NHS in their Apps Library.
The app provides tasks that encourage users to distract themselves from urges to self-harm and help manage their “emotional mind” in a more positive way.
You can personalise it if you wish, by choosing the background colour theme and deciding on whether you would like some company using a variety of friendly characters.
The app then provides you with four categories of tasks to help you surf the urge. ‘Distract’ helps in learning self-control; ‘Comfort’ helps you care rather than harm; ‘Express yourself’ gets those feelings out in a different way and ‘Release’ provides safe alternatives to self-injury.
There is also a ‘Breathe’ category to help calm and get back in control.
You can do the activities for either blocks of five minutes or fifteen minutes with a countdown for each minute. You will be able to track your progress and notice change*.
(*Please note the app should not replace any it.)
