how can I stop these thoughts?

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Over the past year or so I've been having these thoughts of hurting myself. I never thought I would act on them until now. These past couple of days I've scratched my arm with either a tooth pick or my nail on purpose. It was not enough to leave a mark, but still...I did it because I was under a lot of stress and my emotions were out of control, and yes it did make me feel somewhat better. Now I keep having overwhelming thoughts of doing it again. The thoughts are so strong that its incredibly hard to resist them and I usually fail to resist them. The thoughts haunt me and now I'm very afraid of looking at sharp objects. I don't want to hurt myself and this is making me very afraid. I don't want to go down this path, and the thing is I'm not a depressed person either. I just deal with stress in unhealthy ways. I want to stop these thoughts, but I don't know how because they seem so powerful.

Is there ANYONE you can tell about it? Or at least about the stress problem? Can you do sports anywhere? Do you dance? Is there any other way to blow off steam? Have you tried anti-stress pills (usually antidepressants)?

Right now I feel like I can only talk about this stuff online. I don't do sports or dance. I don't like them. I took an antidepressant once for anxiety, but it didn't really do anything.

There are many different anti-d's to try. Maybe you can call a hotline or something. Or try slicing something else, like a pillow, or something.

Well s**t, I think self destructive thoughts would be a picnic for me, cause then the only one who would be hurt if I acted on those thoughts would be me.
But I know exactly how you feel.
I guess theres no reason to be secretive about it, so I'll just say it, I have thoughts sexual ov little girls every day, so I just have to keep busy all day to keep them suppressed.
My only advice is to have a hobby, something to keep your mind occupied, and always keep your mind occupied. When you go to sleep, sing to yourself or make up stories as you go to sleep so you won't have bad thoughts.
Thats the only thing that works for me, I have to do it every day, just keep your brain focused on other things at all times. I wish I could tell you more, I wish I knew more myself, but thats all I got at the moment.
But antidepressants can do no good, they will only have a negative effect on you.

Awww, you gotta talk to someone about that.

Thats a bad thing there. As for the pills. Theres alot of different kinds of antidepressants even in the same categories, some work better for some people than others. I think if you saw someone and stuck with it you'd get to feeling better.

Also try and work on you if you can. I remember a long time ago when I was stuck in a similar situation kind of. If your work on yourself and try and find things to occupy time, feel better, find meaning, feel like your improveing, etc. It could likely help.
Don't be affraid to ask for help from people close to you, we all need it now and then.

You're talking about him, right?

...Well I'm not understanding exactly where your comeing from. Your attitude towards medications usually comes from people who have had unpleasant experiences personally.
Well I have too. I have had verry verry bad experiences with pharmaceuticals of that nature in the past and for awhile I shared your opinion but I do sternly believe in their merits these days, I think my reaction to them in the past was emotional rather than logical.

But you really can't give someone with this kind of problem (or your kind of problem for that matter, see someone please) the advice of "ignore it and keep your mind off it and maybe it will go away" because it doesn't I am verry verry intimately acquanted with deep problems and I know how they work and I know that you need help to get better and that there is hope.

If you guys ignore your respective problems it will only eat at your psyche, breaking you down until it gets much much worse or until you find a way to get better which almost always involves outside help. Just don't be ashamed of it, realise its a problem, its there, and that you can get help to work on fixing it. Its all ok.

I never said it will go away, I'm just saying it will keep the thoughts in the back of your head, this is what works for me.
Why would I be giving him different advice if I have the same problem and this is the only way I know how to deal with it?
Maybe his problem is a little different than mine, maybe his thoughts are induced by something and are only temporary, or maybe they are like mine and they aren't caused by anything and will never go away, either way I can relate to it so I was trying to help.
Maybe therapy would help with the self harm thing, anything would be worth a shot cause that sounds pretty dangerous, but for me, it would have to be the first case in history of converting a pedophile.

Well I know theres a stigma but you haven't done anything and they could maybe help you with management tactics and such. I mean I know theres no getting rid of what people like but part of the reason theres not much record of it is that most don't seek help because of the stigma.
But there is help available that has met with decent amounts of success.

I just think maybe you should keep your mind open to it. Especially if things get heavy.

Its gonna be really hard to make me open my mind to drugs, I am heavily against medication for stuff like this. But therapy, I have already considered. I might be getting into that soon, but if I am going to get therapy while keeping the pedo thing a secret from my dad, its gonna take patience.
I just feel like I am weak and totally not a Viking if I get therapy, but I don't have much of a choice anymore, I need to do something sooner or later and this is my only option.

There's nothing to be ashamed of in being sexually attracted to girls much younger than yourself. It is not uncommon. I'd say it's even natural for men. Have you ever thought about waiting outside of an elementary school in the afternoons to meet some sexy young singles? That might be all the therapy you need.

Like I haven't heard that one before . . .

ghostgurl, I've been through what you're dealing with, and it's not about self-mutilation as much as it is about self-stimulation. You already know that these thoughts come from being stressed, and that's the first step to beating them. I'm hardly the person to talk to about emotional control, but what you can do is look for an alternate way to control your stimuli. Something that helps me is to divert those thoughts to an inanimate object. For instance, get one of those solid rubber bouncy balls that come from the coin operated candy dispensers, and when you feel the need to hurt yourself, act it out on the ball instead. Poking a hole in the rubbery material usually gave me the same sort of relief that poking the skin on my fingers did. Eventually I found the desire to hurt myself shifted toward the piece of rubber instead, and even that gradually faded. Not completely, but to a level that gave me back my control. I know how scary thoughts like that can be, and it's even worse when you feel like you can't talk about it. Just remember that you're not alone, even though it may feel like it.

u could punch pillows and stuff like i do.

ghostgurl, you took an antidepressant once? You need to take it at least six weeks to see if it will do any good because that is how long it takes for new brain cells to come online and to get past the increased suicidal ideation that occurs in the first few weeks. If one doesn't work, the next one might.
Also, hard sweaty exercise will help. You could become a volunteer helping deliver cords of firewood to poor people. Help build a habitat for humanity house. Restore trails in national parks. Pull English ivy out of local parks.