After yesterday’s post, I guess it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out this subject is now on my mind. I did some digging around on the internet and learned a few things.
Cutting falls under the catagory of Self Injury or SI, which also includes such behaviors as punching yourself or other objects to bring pain, pulling your hair, poking objects through body openings, and breaking your bones or bruising yourself. It afflicts more females than males.
It is not a new disorder, but is getting a lot of media attention lately that may make it seem like it. Adding to the confusion is that the experts apparently don’t even agree on the frequency of occurance. One article I read said cutting is rare. Another said about 1 in 100 people hurts themselves. The numbers are probably skewed somewhat by teens who engage in the practice without truely having the disorder….there are apparently those who cut themselves seeking to be seen as "edgy" and therefore gaining a measure of acceptance/popularity. I don’t know how rare it is. Matt’s girlfriend is the third girl I’ve known that deals with cutting.
True cutters engage in the practice as a way to cope with emotional pain. A majority of them are the type that hold their emotions in. For whatever reason, they don’t have a better method of coping. Some describe the pain as building and building pressure and the cutting releases the pressure. Whatever the reason behind it, relief is the goal. My mind will just not wrap around that kind of pain.
Yet another study found that teens who cut are more likely to engage in unprotected sex. It also found that self-cutters are significantly more likely to be white, female….and to have histories of sexual abuse.
I just want to cry thinking about a child sitting alone, sighing in relief as they mutilate their precious body. What on earth are we as a society doing to our children that they have so much pain inside that they see this as the only path to relief?
To find out more:
I’ve known a few teens who did this. My heart just breaks for them…
Comment by Rachel — August 24, 2006 @ 9:44 am
Ever seen Secretary? Great movie. But I think it brings things like cutting or S&M into a light that other people can understand.
Here’s a quote:
E. Edward Grey: Why do you cut yourself, Lee?
Lee: I don’t know.
E. Edward Grey: Is it that sometimes the pain inside has to come to the surface, and when you see evidence of the pain inside you finally know you’re really here? Then, when you watch the wound heal, it’s comforting… isn’t it?
Lee: I… That’s a way to put it.
Anyway… it is sad that anyone has to go through anything that puts them in such emotional pain that they have to bring it into the physical.
Comment by Meredith — August 24, 2006 @ 1:26 pm
I’ve never seen Secretary. I’m not sure I’ve even heard of it. I’ll have to try and find it. Who is in it?
Comment by Stacy — August 24, 2006 @ 5:41 pm
the girlfriends alcoholic mother may be linked to her cutting???
Comment by chesneygirl — August 24, 2006 @ 9:47 pm
I guess because I am only 28 I knew exactly what cutting is and the emotional turmoil that goes along with it. It wasn’t exactly prevalent when I was in school but was very prevelant when my brother was in highschool (he is four years younger than me). For my generation eating disorders were the way most teenage girls copted with self-image and abuse it gave them a way to have control over their own body and what they put in their own mouth. For Matt’s friend her cutting is a way for her to have control over her own body, she is in pain and she wants to have control over her pain by inflicting it on herself versus letting others have control over her pain. I would also take a guess and say the stomach acid problem she has is a result of bulimia. I hope she can get some professional help and doesn’t lean too much on Matt. It could be very unhealthy for both of them.
Comment by Sarah Forhan — August 25, 2006 @ 1:07 pm
it was an independent film with maggie gyllenhaal and james spader
Comment by Meredith — August 25, 2006 @ 3:15 pm
Sarah, thanks for the insight…more to chew on.
Meredith, I’ll keep an eye out for that. Thanks for getting back to me.
Comment by Stacy — August 26, 2006 @ 9:08 am
i am doing a paper on teens and young adults who cut and i would like to use some of the things you talked about as another persons point of view instead of just mine…
Comment by serena — September 26, 2006 @ 11:01 am