Self Mutilation

Main Entry: selfÐ'-muÐ'*tiÐ'*laÐ'*tion

Pronunciation: -"myÐ"јt-&-'lA-sh&n

Function: noun

: injury or disfigurement of oneself

Psychological characteristics of self-injurers

Hate themselves, feel inadequate

Tend to suppress rage

Are usually angry , most of the time at themselves

Are very sensitive to rejection

Have aggressive feelings which usually get turned inward

Are anxious and irritable

Tend to be depressed suicidal and self destructive

Are bad at controlling impulses, and do things for how they feel at the time

Tend not to plan for the future, and do not put effort into excelling at work or school

Tend to be avoidant

Feel as if they have no control

97% are women

57% overdose on drugs along with the injuring

Self mutilation is a subject that we are all aware of, but don't usually try to learn more about. When you think of self mutilation you think of cutters and suicide attempts right? Well that is right to some extent; Yes Cutting is the most common self injuring method , but other severe forms of self mutation includeÐ'...burning , self hitting , interference with wound healing hair pulling and bone breaking. In the following Paragraphs I will elaborate on each of these subjects more, as well as esthetic self mutilation, while focusing on cutting.

Cutting is a very touchy subject, people don't like to talk about it and because of that people tend to feel that they are the only one in the world who does it. Now because of the internet and such people can become more aware of others all around that world who do it too. They can become more aware about why they feel the need to cut and by identifying the problem help to find a way to stop. I have conducted two personal interviews of females between the ages of 13-18 who wish to remain anonymous. They went as followsÐ'...

Why cut? "Many reasons, depression mental unstableness, boredom."

Is it addictive? "Yes Very. Actually I started by accident, found a knife and wanted to see it was sharp, turns out its was, lolÐ'... It actually felt really good and I just started doing it more and more."

Is it dangerous? "Well sure it is a bit. But I guess that's kind of what draws people to it. But it's not really bad if you use the proper precautions and such. You don't just go out to the shed and grab a rusty blade and start going at it, unless you're suicidal and want to get tetanus. Lol"

So you're not suicidal? "Hell No! I don't want to die! You know that expression whatever doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger? It's kind of like that, because with me, it's like when something goes wrong it's my fault and I'm not good enough, and cutting makes me a better, stronger."

Nature or Nurture? "In general I think it depends. For some people this type of behavior comes when they are bornÐ'... and in their minds they aren't good enough and whatnot. But for some people it's a bad situation or a trauma or something. For me it was nature I've always been kind of messed up , Its just when I found cutting as an outlet it made me feel