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Kids Who Cut
Recognizing the Signs of Self-Injury By Jacqueline Bodnar
Most of us squirm at the thought of deliberately cutting our bodies, yet each day across this country there are many teenagers who do just that. They secretly put cuts on various parts of their bodies and for a variety of reasons. For families affected by this illness, it is important to understand why teenagers do it, how to identify the behavior and what to do if you suspect a child may be engaging in self-injury.
The Common Cutter
Cutting is a form of self-injury or self-abuse whereby many adolescents will use anything sharp enough to cut their skin. Although some use knives, other cutting tools may include thumbtacks, staples, pens, fingernails and barrettes. The majority of them hide the markings, which makes it difficult for parents to identify that a child is engaging in such behavior.
Dr. Lisa Boesky, a child and adolescent psychologist in San Diego, Calif., and author of Juvenile Offenders With Mental Health Disorders (American Correctional Association, 2002), explains that no one type of person is immune to self-injury, but there tends to be a common profile. Most often, people who self-mutilate are Caucasian females in their teenage or young adult years who generally come from middle- to upper-class families. However, self-injury can begin as early as middle school.
Most people who cut themselves have experienced problems in their backgrounds that may include low self-esteem, eating disorders, drug or alcohol abuse, impulsivity, neglectful parenting and other traumatic experiences. Many people who cut themselves also have a history of sexual or physical abuse.
Self-mutilation also is sometimes associated with other psychological maladies, such as posttraumatic stress symptoms, delinquency, depression and anxiety. "However, it may be strongly influenced by peers and could occur in the absence of psychopathology," adds Dr. Mitch Prinstein, an associate professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.