Self-Mutilation: Information About Teens and Cutting

Some young people today live in a world that goes "over the edge". The "edge" of pain doesn't stop them in their pursuit of eliminating boredom and creating excitement. Piercing, branding, cutting, tattoos, cosmetic surgery, reality shows (where fear isn't a factor), and "mule" movies are now a part of the culture. Some say they're daring....I say they're numb and dissatisfied...and pain is a way for some to remind themselves that they're still alive, a comment I hear from a number of cutters.

I used to think that cutting was always a symptom of a greater problem like mental illness, sexual abuse, or other crazy behaviors that sometimes fall into that category of "different" and only understood with an explanation of psychiatric jargon. Some cutting behaviors can be symptomatic of psychiatric or mental illness (e.g. borderline personality disorders, bi-polar or manic depressiveness, and anxiety disorders) but not all are. Finding a kid who cuts is pretty common today, sadly enough.

Not just "crazy people do crazy things." Kids that cut themselves come from all walks of life, from all backgrounds, and from every type of family you can think of. What was once confined to mental hospitals has for teens become a new way of coping and has entered the mainstream of discussion among our teens. It's here, and it doesn't look like it will disappear any time soon any more than any other inappropriate behavior.

What is Cutting?

Simply put, it's a cut or many cuts that are self-inflicted. The actual behavior is just the symptom of something else going on in your child's life. The fact that they "chose" cutting as the behavior to get somewhere else is because it is "available," "acceptable" (in their world), and it is "achievable."

All behavior is goal-oriented. Your child's goal with cutting is coping with whatever is causing stress in his or her life. Cutting is chosen because it has been talked about at school, something that others are doing. Cutting distracts a teen from whatever causes the negative feelings she's had, and she gets some temporary relief.