Posted on 04/19/2005 8:06:12 AM PDT by SmithL
Her parents wondered why she was always so cold. Their daughter insisted on wearing a sweatshirt, even on the sunniest of afternoons. It was strange.
Probably another one of those teen fashion things, they figured. That would explain why she pulled the sleeves down over her hand and stuck her thumb through a loop she'd cut in the cuff. Just another offbeat style trend.
But the girl, whose identity was withheld by her counselor for obvious reasons, was a textbook example of a bloody epidemic among American teenage girls.
When these girls are identified, often by concerned friends, their parents are horrified to find their arms slashed with parallel gashes, each 2 to 3 inches long, cut into their flesh with razors or knives.
It's called "cutting,'' the practice of self-injury and self-mutilation, and it is a scary trend among troubled teenage girls. If you have a daughter and this surprises you, it only confirms that you are out of the loop.
"I get a lot of calls from parents who are shocked,'' says Kirsten Beuthin, a marriage and family therapist who practices in Oakland and San Francisco. "But it hasn't shocked me in a long time.''
The number of girls who engage in cutting -- and they are, overwhelmingly, girls -- ranges from as many as 2 million nationwide, to, as one 1986 study by the University of Missouri suggested, 750 of every 100,000 Americans engaging in self-mutilation.
Based upon her 19 years as a therapist and school counselor at King Middle School in Berkeley, Jan Sells has a reply to those statistics.
"I would say the issues we are hearing about are the tip of the iceberg, '' she says. "It has definitely become an epidemic.''
The first reaction, of course, is disbelief.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Stupidity.
That's .75% (their highest estimate). It is sad and unfortunate, but at the current state of the research, "epidemic" is an overblown term to use, I think.
Sad, and quite common. Just watch teenagers somewhere. The ones with long sleeves all the time may well be cutters. It's a very difficult problem to fix, too. As near as I can tell, it's closely related to the whole eating disorder thing.
Are you saying these teenagers are mutilating themselves because they are stupid? How does "stupidity" come into to play here?
Later in the article, it degenerates into an attack on American values. My BS-sense is starting to tingle.
They want attention, nothing more. I don't buy into psychobabble BS.
Why are folks putting plugs in thier ears, rings in their noses, pins in their belly buttons, and tattoing the hell out of their bodies? Inquiring minds want to know.
Exactly the "cutter" I know, a best friend of my niece. They live in a very nice neighborhood, upper middle class where the houses are cookie cutter perfect.
The article goes on to add the old saw about girls being socialized to be quiet, PUHLEEZE.
"They want attention, nothing more. I don't buy into psychobabble BS."
Actually, they don't want attention. They hide their cutting. A lot of cutters have a background of sexual abuse, often in the family.
Whether you believe that this problem exists or not is really immaterial. It does exist, and for parents of a kid who is doing this, it's not just a psychobabble problem.
So they can be unique, just like everybody else.
Being discussed by Laura Ingraham now.
Laura Ingraham is discussing this story right now. I wonder if she reads FR.
Yes, it is a terrible tragedy for each girl and her family. (But the 2 million figure is an estimate, too.)
I also think that the signs are there for the parents if they would plug into their family as much as they do their jobs, yards, social lives and their appearance of being the all american family. I always wonder why some people have kids because it is apparent they don't want to be bothered by them.
Boy am I out of the loop. I have 2 daughters and never even heard of this practice. 'Course my girls are grown women now and maybe this is a new fad for the younger generation.
Thank you.
My step-daughter (I'm now divorced) was a cutter. She got help, and she's far from stupid. She's a freshman at the University of Tennessee, has several different scholarships, and is working towards becoming a forensic pathologist. She's already working with the founder of the "Body Farm," a program that has never accepted freshmen before.
She's far from stupid. She was troubled over issues with her real father and her mother.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.