By Charlotte Winkelmann.
One way students sometimes handle emotional issues or try to fit into a group of students with emotional issues is self-injury. Injuring yourself on purpose by making scratches or cuts on your body with a sharp object, enough to break the skin and make it bleed, is called cutting. Some students “copy” cutting by scratching, but not breaking the skin. Students may cut themselves on their wrists, arms, legs, or bellies. When cuts or burns heal, they often leave scars or marks and sometimes no one else knows they are cutting.
Cutting is a way some people or teens try to cope with the pain of strong emotions, intense pressure, or upsetting relationship problems. They may be dealing with feelings that seem too difficult to bear or bad situations they think can’t change. Excessive piercing or tattooing is not self-injury if the primary purpose is body decoration or to fit in with peers. However, a serious concern is that cutters or “copy cutters” risk danger each time they injure themselves. They may misjudge the depth of a cut or the wound may become infected. Cutting or self-injury is not a fad. The student may see it as a means to control feelings or issues they think they cannot control.
People who cut sometimes say they feel they don’t fit in or that no one understands them. A person might cut because of losing someone close or to escape a sense of emptiness. Cutting might seem like the only way to fit in. A reason for this may be that males tend to display their aggression towards others or inanimate objects. Girls, on the other hand, tend to turn that hurt and pain inward toward themselves.
Self-injurers often lack social skills. In order to distract themselves from painful emotions, they inflict physical harm upon themselves. Self-injurers may begin with only scratching an insect bite or accidentally cutting their skin, but due to the sense of relief it brings, they continue to injure themselves. Some researchers theorize that the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers, can contribute to continued self-injury. What young children have in common with older children and adolescents who hurt themselves is an inability to verbally express their feelings and needs. Sometimes adolescents or children cut to regain control since turning mental and emotional pain into physical pain is easier for them to handle or to punish themselves for real or perceived offenses like being bad, feeling fat, ugly, stupid, or guilty.
If individuals who self-harm do not receive professional help, they may develop an addiction. Cutting or other self-injuries can be stopped, but the process usually takes time. A referral to a therapist who has expertise in this area typically needs to be made. Through therapy the self-injurers learn that is it okay to feel a variety of emotions and how to express them openly. They learn alternative behaviors so that they can release their tension in harmless ways which may include relaxation and breathing techniques, meditation, exercise, art, writing, or singing. The self-injurer needs to understand the underlying motives for their behavior and take responsibility for, and control over, their actions.
What can parents do if they suspect their child is cutting? Parents are encouraged to talk to their school counselor and to:
Respond to the child without judgment.
Get him or her professional help with a counselor or therapist.
Model appropriate coping skills when stressed.
Be a positive role model, avoiding violent and unhealthy behaviors.
