Teens Doing Self-Mutilation to Deal With Stress

WTLV ^

[esryle]

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- It's a disturbing new trend in teens. One in four young girls do something to their bodies called self-mutilation.

In 19-year-old Esther Maassen's case, a razor blade, basically anything sharp is what she would use on her feet.

"Anything sharp so I could see myself bleed," she says.

Why she does it may surprise you.

"A lot of people don't get it. They drink when they get upset or something. We cut."

It's not a suicide attempt but an addiction. Those who do it say it helps to relieve stress.

"It wasn't the children you would suspect," says mom and Jacksonville school teacher, Kathi Wedner. She has seen first hand kids who cut. Wedner saw her own students doing it, but she says she never suspected her own daughter.

"She cut a design into her wrist. It was sadness. It was guilt. It was shock. I wanted very desperately to help her."

Girls are more likely than boys to self-mutilate. Middle to high school aged girls are the most at risk. Duval County school psychologist, Dr. David Chesire, says he's heard of a child as young as six-years-old cutting their body. "It's very secretive and these kids do anything they can to hide the fact they have been engaged in these behaviors and those close to them have no idea it's happening."

It's an addiction that leaves kids with scars from their arms to their chests. It's an addiction Esther Maassen is still fighting. "It's the only thing that sometimes can calm me down and it becomes really addictive and I'm still trapped into it."

Signs parents need to look for: unexplained cuts and scratches that never seem to heal; cuts and scratches paired with signs of depression or low self-esteem; kids who wear long, baggy clothing in the summer to cover up their bodies.

[PISANO]

It is an attention getter huh. Sparing the rod and timeouts alone in the corner have helped the attentionless, fatherless, motherless children of America to seek an audience with anyone that will pay attention.

No love, No God only TV, Nintendo and Hollywood. Stress use to be caused by a Nationwide depression or a World War or a mother with 10 kids losing her husband with NO GOVERNMNET benefits, it was something that the strong survived today it is punch line for a bad hair day.

I say don't cut your arm.......cut your throat!!

[fatima]

I see friend:)In the 14 year old girl's cases it was peer pressure and I know they all stopped.The 16 year old girl was a hot-line call for teens and I put a trained phyciologist on with her.She was being abused by her father and going into the basement to cut afterward.She never gave her name but was suicidal when she called.She told me she was a witch and I made her promise to email me that she called a number that we gave her so we would know she was alright.She sent us a website that was dripping with blood showing tools for cutting.We all prayed-what can you do.I wear a ring from Al-non-don't know who it belongs too.I was asked to pray for them everytime I looked at it.I do.

[sweetliberty]

"The ones who cut themselves are doing it, many times, just to feel something, anything at all. "

Bingo!

[HankReardon]

Every stupid behavior can easily be defended as a mental disorder.

[broken_will_crimson_tears]

Cutting is a coping mechanism. A release. People who cut do it for the same reason people keep journals or cry. Cutting is the only way for us to keep our sanity. You see, cutters learned in their childhood that negative emotions are 'bad' and should not be express, and yet they can not keep these emotions inside. They express their negative emotions through self-harm. Others were mistreated as a child, and associate pain with a negative behavior, and self-injury is a sort of punishment in place of the abuse they received as a child. Cutters often refer to cutting, burning, bruising, etc as SI (self-injury) and some cutters refer to themselves as "Cookie Cutters".

[Xenalyte]

I am all about AVOIDING mutilation.

[CompSciGuy]

But of course, as our next great president to be wrote,

"It takes a village to raise a child." Isn't socialism wonderful? /sarcasm

Cheers,
CSG

[CompSciGuy]

You forgot Surveying and Mapping out the land. ;-) A really quick way to gain good math and science skills.

Cheers,
CSG

[broken_will_crimson_tears]

Self Injury is deliberately haming oneself as a coping mechanism. It is caused by the emotional stress that the person is incapable, for whatever reason, of dealing with. For these people, Self Injury is an escape, a way to relieve numbness, and an expression of pain. Self Injury is not a suicide attempt.

Types of Self Injury:
Cutting, burning, bone breaking, head banging, small over doses, excesive nail biting, excessive lip biting, wrist banging, hitting oneself, trichotillomania (hair pulling), excessive skin picking, scratching, interference with wound healing, biting.

In rare cases, usually associated with psychosis is castration and amputation.

Some Autistics repeatedly bang their heads or bite their lips.

Reaons for Self Injury:

Feel real, escape emotions, escape reality, make emotional pain more real, feel in charge / have control, release, coping, self hate, stress and anger release.

Warning Signs:

Dysphoria- Experiencing depression, irritability, tension, and sensitivity to rejection
Self hate
Chronic anger or anxiety
Impulsiveness
Unexplainable bruises, cuts, or burns
~www.recoveryourlife.com~

[HankReardon]

Self mutalation is a telling sign and often a symptom of STUPIDITY!

[broken_will_crimson_tears]

I perceive you as one that contains no compassion. I ask you, why not try to understand the people who do this to themselves? You obviously jump to a conclusion as say that self-harm is a symptom of stupidity.

[KoRn]

"Self mutalation is a telling sign and often a symptom of STUPIDITY!"

I'd say its more of a symptom of mental illness. Do you think all mentally ill people are stupid? lol

Looking at it from your level, saying they were DUMB would be a better description I suppose. Stupid tends to mean that someone knows its wrong, knowing the consequences, and doing it anyway. If someone is sick, they can't help it. That would fit more with being DUMB. Of course both of these aren't the case with self mutilation, these people are obviously sick. Just trying to view it all from your perspective..../shrug

[Lizavetta]

BOARD APPROVES IN-SCHOOL PSYCHIATRY SERVICES Coming your way at taxpayer expense, if they haven't already.

I type Special Education hearings. The number of in-school psychologists, counselors, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, inclusion specialists, and behavior therapists currently employed in school districts - presumably for all the truly f****d up students and also the pseudo f****d up kids who are in reality just brats - would astound you.

If you ever wondered why per pupil spending has skyrocketed, the mental health staff the schools now "need" is why.

My own take on kids who cut themselves is that it's the final phase of a childhood in which the parents were too damn busy to pay attention to their children.

[kittymyrib]

Well, thank goodness we don't have prayer in public schools....