The FirstSigns ‘Tell Someone Project’ runs every March and September, and today we launch our September 2008 Tell Someone Month.

Wedge says: “We’re very excited to help people help themselves, and the ‘Tell Someone’ project may well help you break through your fears and actually tell someone about your self-injury, and the emotional reasons behind it.”

We understand that coming out about self-injury can be daunting, but isn’t the secrecy overwhelming too? It can be incredibly lonely when you feel that you’re the only person who could be hurting themselves and are struggling with the accompanied emotional distress alone.

But you’re not alone and at FirstSigns we’ve been working since 2002 to raise awareness, banish the stigma and empower people to help themselves.

So, how do you tell someone and who do you tell?

It’s entirely up to you, but we have some tips on coming out on our website, and we urge you to take some to reflect on who you might tell and how you’ll do it.

We’ll be by your side throughout the month of September in our special ‘Tell Someone Forum‘ within our Message Board. There you will find hints, tips, guidance and ideas on telling people, and you share your stories with others who are taking the same step.

We’re hoping to have our new ‘I Told Someone’ stickers ready for the end of the month, so if you email Jules@firstsigns.org.uk with your I Told Someone stories, we’ll send you a sticker sometime next month by snail mail (UK only).

For our non UK members or anyone who doesn’t wish to receive post from us, you can request an avatar or web banner to be emailed instead. Again, we hope to have these ready by the end of the month, but we’re really busy right now so please be patient if it takes us a while longer.

So, please do let us know who you’ve told, how it went and how you felt about it both at the time and now, and we may even publish some of your stories later in the year.

Will this be the month you finally come out and tell someone?

Small Print

The ‘Tell Someone Month’ and ‘Tell Someone Project’ is a FirstSigns initiative, run solely by FirstSigns.