Cutting and other self-harm- part 1

In the 1990s an epidemic spread throughout many American homes as a new fad erupted. With the emergence of the “Goth” scene, it was suddenly popular to be miserable. (How many of you can remember back to SNL’s famous “Goth Talk” skit?) You weren’t “cool” unless you had some kind of abuse at home to deal with…and one of the most popular ways to show-boat this was self-mutilation.

Unlike most fads, this one piggy-backed on a real problem, and while the fad may have faded, the problem still exists. Teens are still mutilating themselves, only now-a-days they are doing it in secret.

The most common reason, one that this writer cannot disclaim, is that the physical pain the mutilation provides masks the emotional pain the teenager cannot deal with. Even deeper, the teen has no control over the deliverance and intensity of the emotional pain, but is in control over the extent to which they inflict the physical pain on themselves.

Unfortunately, to what extent the emotional pain would have to be in order to cause this reaction can not be measured. There are too many factors to be able to give parents of this issue a clean-cut answer:

Whatever the initial emotional trigger, the Cutting is a tell-tale sign of what your teen needs in order to recover from whatever ails them.

1. Cutting and self-mutilation is a cry for help. Whatever it is that is plaguing your adolescent is too much for him or her to handle on their own. It is time for you to step in and go against their wishes of “leaving them alone”.
2. Cutting and self-mutilation can also be a method of attention seeking. While closely related to a cry for help, this is the one that many people ignore. You’ve heard the advice when your children were younger and threw a temper tantrum: “ignore them, when they realize you are not paying attention, they’ll stop”.

While cutting and self-mutilation may be a grandiose “temper-tantrum”, this one will not stop when ignored. If ignored, what may have started out as an attention-seeking tactic, will grow into a deep despair, and could transform into suicidal thoughts and tendencies.

To be continued…
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August 3, 9:35 AMHouston Teen Issues ExaminerJennifer Korenek