Teen Self-Mutilation Volume 1, Issue 1
November 24, 2009
MICDS
By: Anjola Akande
‘Cutting’ Seen as a Relief for Teens Cutters tend to slice the same area time after time~{Dr. Jennifer Austin Leigh}
Inside this issue: ‘Cutting’ Seen as a Relief for teens
1
Why do Teens Cut Themselves?
2
How Should I Help?
2
Parents do Play a role in SelfMutilation
2
The Chain Between ‘Emo’ and SelfMutilation
3
What Can we learn From Society
3
Bibliography and Resources
4
Teens who cut themselves, often have a hard time coping with stress, feelings or emotions. To cope with their problems that perform self mutilation. Self- Mutilation is injury or disfigurement of oneself. {dicitonary.com} This occurs to 2-3 million Americans teens a year, some may not see it, but it is a serious problem. For 15 year old Nathalie, she has finally come down to her title, "cutter." She doesn’t have many friends in reality, but she has a few online. Her mother's boyfriend kicked her out of their house because they don’t want to live with her anymore. She now lives with her grandparents, and they don’t have much support for her at all. When Nathalie was 10 years old, she was know as an social outcast. She didn’t have many friends, because they all laughed at her, they would refer to her as the "Day dreamer" because she would spend all day in school looking out the window and never
pay any attention to class. Her teacher would yell at her because she would never
pay attention, causing her not to know the answers to her questions. Her teachers repeatedly asked her why she was always staring at the window. Her response was always "I'm trying to figure out why I'm such a horrible person." She said that she was trying to figure out why she was so horrible because she through that since her mother doesn't want her to live with her and her father doesn't want to see her again, then she must me a horrible person. She said that her mother and her father both abused her verbally and
physically. She would cut herself every single night because of these horrible thoughts that she had. She had nowhere to turn, her mother wasn't there for her neither was her grandparents. Love was muted out of her life, and the only way that she could cope with her pain was to cut herself to release all the anger and pain she had trapped in side. This story should teach parents how their role in their teens lives is very crucial, and their presence is greatly needed. Teens who perform self-mutilation often are abused by their parents causing them to feel hated by them. When they start cutting themselves, they have no one to turn to for help . What society, or anyone can lean about this is that the teens who cut themselves have the same emotional needs as all of us; and they feel pain of the unmet needs more than every other average person.
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Teen Self-Mutilation Why do Teens Cut themselves?
Self Mutilation occurs in teens, but mostly girls
Self Mutilation has not the most popular subject in the media in teens across America. This topic is very heartbreaking, confusing, and very interesting in general. Why do teens cut themselves? Well, most teens say that it is a way for them to get attention because they are a social outcast. Although this may be true, professionals say that teens who cut themselves aren't seeking any attention at all; instead they cover their scars because they feel guilty and
embarrassed for doing it. Most, or probably all teens cut themselves because they want to stop emotional pain. They mostly come from emotionally abusive homes and environments, which cause them to suffer emotional pain. In result of that they see selfmutilation as a temporary relief. In general selfmutilation happens a lot in teens because they have a hard time coping with emotions. For teens who cut
themselves their emotional pain much more intense than for an average person; they are literally starving emotionally. A teenager who cuts him/her self might be feeling abandoned, abnormal, afraid, alone, threatened, untrusting, or unsafe.
How Should I help?
Self Mutilation is a horrible way to cope with feelings
With teens who perform selfmutilation, it could be sometimes very hard to help them get through they emotions. Studying the list of their typical feelings is a very big factor to support a "cutter." Being aware of how they feel gives you the opportunity to help them get through situations that might lead to emotions like that. Usually teens who cut themselves are socially inapt, meaning that they are not very good socially.
A helpful way to change that is to facilitate them to make them feel more accepted, not judged or rejected. We all know that scars that appear on their arms are very distracting. Constantly staring at the cuts will make them feel even more insecure. Try to help them feel normal, don't star at them like they have an amputated arm. Try to help them feel trusted. If they tell you
something in confidence, keep their confidence. The most important aspect of helping teenagers who cut, is to help them feel understood. They sometimes come of as rude or angry because of what they might be going through; but professional say that people do not feel offended if you ask in a caring way. Teenagers who cut themselves have a need for understanding, acceptance, caring and connection.
Parents do Play a Role in Self-Mutilation "All the way back in 496-406 BCE, in Sophocles' famous play "Oedipus," the title character blinds himself as punishment for (unknowingly) killing his father and marrying his mother. Selfinjury has existed for all of known history. But it wasn't until 1938 that Karl Menninger proposed that self-injury was a way of trying to soothe oneself. He suggested that "local selfdestruction is a form of partial suicide to avert total suicide." {www.girl.com}
The one thing that every child regardless if he/she performs self mutilation is attention, love, and support. In situations like when a teen feeling confused, socially rejected, emotionally scared; and their only way to cope with their feeling is injuring themselves, they need their parents. Parents are encouraged to talk with their children about respecting their bodies. Parents shouldn’t ignore their children, repeatedly telling them "things will get better‌but it will take time," because it won't with out their parents support. Parents should also serve as role models for models for their teenagers by
not engaging in acts of self-harm. Parents should accept reality and find ways to make the present moment more tolerable. They should identify feelings and talk then out rather then acting on them, also practice positive stress management and help them develop better social skills. Evaluation by a mental health professional may assist in identifying and treating the cause of self-harm.
Parents need to be good remodels so that teens could have someone to go to for support during their hard times.
Volume 1, Issue 1
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The Chain Between ‘Emo’ and Self-Mutilation Taken to extremes, the ‘emo’ fad would definitely lead to self -mutilation and suicidal thought. The Definition of ‘emo’ is one who has little confidence in oneself. In comparison to Teenagers who cut themselves, they also have very little confidence in themselves which causes them to do such terrible harm to themselves. According to an experience ‘emo’ teen, they are defined as "tortured souls unable to face the world."People say that 'emo' is a disease or an illness, but it "is a mood that makes the victim develop a strong detest to himself or the world." {Celestine Lim} Recent reports on the increasing number of teenagers that slit their
wrist would prove that the loose confidence in themselves, they start to detest themselves for who they really are. When 'emo' teenagers perform selfmutilation, they feel like they have release the tension and hatred that they have always bottled in the heart. "They enemy of these ‘emo’ teens are themselves. They have to fight and win themselves before they can gain back their confidence" {Celestine Lim} Parents play a huge role for the reason that these teenagers are feeling this way. In our society parents font have the time for their own children. In result of that. As their children grow,
they drift apart from their parents; they begin to think that their parents no longer care fro them at all. Then they slowly evolve into this 'emo' mode, wondering why they are treaded so badly and feel like they are always being thrown on the ground. They perform self-mutilation repetitively. A report on the Straits Times reports a teenager who had been cutting her wrist just so that their parents could shower more attention. From this, we can see the links between self harm and ‘emo’. With support from family and friends, it is possible to save teenagers from the trap of this ‘emo’ trend before it leads to unnecessary mutilation.
Self Mutilation occurs in the majority of ‘Emo’ teen girl
""They enemy of these ‘emo’ teens are themselves. They have to fight and win themselves before they can gain back their confidence" {Celes tine Lim}
What We Can Learn From Society The teens who cut and selfinjure themselves have the same emotional needs as we all do. The difference is, that their emotions are more sensitive than average; in comparison to a person with sensitive hearing who feels pain from louder noises. One aspect that society is lacking is that ability to listen to others. When teens tell us about their personal feeling and why they are self-injuring themselves, we should listen; not just tell them things will get better
in time. No one in our society enjoys being controlled by anybody, but for teens who selfmutilate who's feelings are more painful, so they just think that in every situation they are being over controlled. There are many ways we could learn about society from sensitive people. In many countries we have an abundance of material things. Our physical needs are much needs; but our emotional needs are not. Many of us have unmet emotional needs. We
become unaware of them unless we become severely depressed. We often turn to medication, rather to addressing the shortcoming in society. By listening to those who are in intense emotional pain, instead of telling them they have a disorder, such as the "Borderline Personality Disorder," we can see what changes are needed in the homes, the schools, and the workplaces.
Depression sometimes leads to Self Mutilation
Teen Self-Mutilation
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Bibliography and Resources
Websites "Cutting & self-mutilation basic facts for teens and girls - gURL." GURL.com gURL.com a teen site and community for teenage girls . Web. 24 Nov. 2009. http://www.gurl.com/findout/fastfacts/ arti cles/0,,674982,00.html "Cutting." KidsHealth - the Web's most visited site about children's health. Web. 24 Nov. 2009. http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/feeling_sad/ cutting.html Intelligence. Web. 24 Nov. 2009. http://eqi.org/cutting1.htm#Why%20People% 20Cut "Self-injury/cutting." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertain ment & Video News. Web. 24 Nov. 2009. http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/ library/self-injury/DS00775.html "Self Injury Factsheet." About Depression - Information and Support for Depres sion. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. http://depression.about.com/cs/selfinjury/a/ selfinjuryfacts.htm "Self-Injury - Why Do I Keep Cutting Myself?" Essortment Articles: Free Online Articles on Health, Science,Education & More.. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. http://www.essortment.com/articles/selfinjury_100006.htm "Signs of a Bruised Body Image - Well Blog - NYTimes.com." Health and Wellness Well Blog – NYTimes.com. Web. 24 Nov. 2009. http:// well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/signs-of-a-bruised-body-image/? scp=3&sq=%20self-mutilation&st=cse "The link between self harm and emo - by Celestine Lim - Helium." Helium - Where Knowledge Rules. Web. 24 Nov. 2009. http://www.helium.com/items/690200-thelink-between-self-harm-and-emo "What Is Self-Injury and What Can Parents Do About It?" Welcome to Healthy Place.com. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. http://www.healthyplace.com/parenting/ self-injury/what-is-self-injury-what-can-parents-do-about-it/menu-id-61/
Resources
Images
Local: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alissa_r/2691297170/ http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http:// trouble.philadelphiaweekly.com/archives/ Self_Mutilation_by_Granas85.jpg&imgrefurl=http:// www.wellsphere.com/wellpage/mental-healthaustralia&usg=__n5WmLqGCJGEBmIHvO814IbxxnhY=&h=750&w=600&sz=16 3&hl=en&start=9&um=1&tbnid=m40BgGFQe27nM:&tbnh=141&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dself% 2Bmutilation%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1C1GGLS_enUS354US354%26sa% 3DN%26um%3D1 http://www.scottcounseling.com/wordpress/wp-content/ uploads/2009/02/self-injury.jpg http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.deviantart.com/ download/109513321/ Stop_cutting_yourself_by_Tatsumi67.jpg&imgrefurl=http:// tatsumi67.deviantart.com/art/Stop-cutting-yourself-109513321&usg=__ZXPzQCxtS_E7qLlgcdSFPmULp4=&h=600&w=750&sz=61&hl=en&start =1&um=1&tbnid=oFe6DW4HTu47sM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=141&prev=/ images%3Fq%3DStop%2Bcutting%2Byourself%26hl%3Den%26rlz% 3D1C1GGLS_enUS354US354%26um%3D1 http://www.honeysquad.com/index.php/teenage-depression-causecardiac-problems/ http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://img32.picoodle.com/ img/img32/9/9/26/f_EmoGirl1byKm_6002af7.jpg&imgrefurl=http:// mar2dar2.blogspot.com/2009/06/emoscene.html&usg=__0IjBpL7ro62HfYSdsYxBP7dRj0M=&h=500&w=375&s z=77&hl=en&start=7&um=1&tbnid=5t3dfVs2pLHFJM:&tbnh=130&tbn w=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3Demo%2Bgirl%26hl%3Den%26rlz% 3D1C1GGLS_enUS354US354%26um%3D1 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://tollieschmidt.com/wpcontent/gallery/tollies-ana-teen-anorexia-eating-disorders-depressionimages/ teen_self_mutilation_cutting_tollie_international.jpg&imgrefurl=http:/ /tollieschmidt.com/gallery/tollies-concept-art-and-photo-passion/tollies -ana-teen-anorexia-eating-disorders-depression-images/ &usg=__Vtd21qaUSkrjx2sCbG6TVRgO7G0=&h=2272&w=1636&sz=853& hl=en&start=21&um=1&tbnid=BkU_ezAyS0xDQM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=1 08&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dteen%2Bcutting%26hl%3Den%26rlz% 3D1C1GGLS_enUS354US354%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1 http://www.scottcounseling.com/wordpress/wp-content/ uploads/2009/02/teeecutting-300x292.jpg
School: Mrs. Clark is the school counselor and she would be a great source if any questions come to mind. Or any school specialist. In Self-Mutilation, the person who is usually performing it has a hard time coping with their feeling, so if you were to have a friend who was injuring him/herself a school counselor would be a great source. National: Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Head of National Institute of Child Heath and Human Development. Her email is NICHDInformationResourceCenter@mail.nih.gov. She can be contacted either one. This was a great resource because they specialize in child health specifically. Mark Utterback, Executive Director Email: MarkUtterbackMHA@aol.com. He is very helpful to lead u to the right places to ask for help.