“I think you should go and see a doctor, you should talk to someone about this and maybe they can do something to help you with the drinking” I told her. Gabby just nodded. I reached out to touch her hand. “Self-harming honestly isn’t going to help, I can tell you that from experience. It may help at the time but in the end it doesn’t make you feel any better, in fact it only ever made me feel worse afterwards”.

“I know that” Gabby finally spoke. “I just hate myself so much right now, you know? Hurting myself was the only thing I could think of”.

“Is this the first time you’ve done it” I asked.

“No, I did it as a teenager. I managed to stop but I never expected that I would be able to stop it completely” She explained.

“I know what you mean, but you’ve just gotta learn to fight the urges, it is possible”.

“Yeah, I know, I didn’t want to fight them this time though, I just wanted to hurt myself” Gabby looked down at her bandaged arm.

“Ok, do you want me to ring my doctor for you and book an appointment?” I asked her.

“That would be good, thanks Alice”. So I got up and went to ring my doctor, making an appointment for the next day. Then, Gabby and I went back to sit on the sofa together to watch TV. This time, I took my laptop in there so that I could keep an eye on her.

Dana

My anxiety about leaving Alice with Gabby alone had disappointed as soon as I got on the court and I had a good session with my trainer. As soon as we were done I headed straight home. I got in and went straight to the living room, where I found Alice and Gabby sitting together on the couch, Alice working on her laptop and Gabby focusing on the TV screen. I felt relieved to see them doing normal stuff and seeming fine. That was, until I saw the bandage wrapped around Gabby’s wrist. Alice looked up at me and followed my gaze that was resting on Gabby’s wrist.