There are people who deliberately cut their skin, burn themselves, and break their own bones. They do it systematically for many years, and without help they can rarely stop. Many have lived through severe forms of emotional or physical childhood abues. The pain they feel is mute-- their only cry "a bright red scream."
Parents, school officials, friends and even many clinicians are most often horrified first, then mystified, when teenagers or young adults choose to cut themselves, self-inflicting pain, possible infection and permanent scarring. And today self-cutting is increasingly prevalent among youth, especially teen girls and young women, so much so that psychologist Lori Goldfarb Plante calls it an epidemic not unlike the rate of eating disorders for youths today. It is estimated that about 1 in every 100 adolescents self-cuts, some also self-burn. For some among those, cutting can be suicidal. For most, however, it is not an attempt to bring death, but instead to fulfill often unconscious needs, to ease and numb a point in development that can at once seem overwhelming, exciting, terrifying, thrilling, powerful and seemingly powerless. Cutting may be for these teens a means to vent despair and emotional pain, and to draw the attention and caring teenagers so deeply need. In this book featuring the stories of self-cutters that Goldfarb Plante has treated, she explains the rationale from a cutter's point of view, citing the many reasons that can be behind it. Read more »
Presentation of the author's theory on the acts of self-mutilation, for therapists. Discusses the relationship between the act of self-injury and self-healing.
Written by the directors of S.A.F.E. Alternatives, a self-injury treatment program, "Bodily Harm" is an authoritative examination of this alarming syndrome, offering a comprehensive treatment regimen.
You keep the scars hidden and tell yourself you can stop, but you cant. You think the pain of cutting will end the hurt inside, but it always comes back. Maybe you dont even want to admit that you engage in selfharm. Is there any hope for breaking free? Author Nancy Alcorn says yes, you can find hope and freedom if you apply the principles in this book. Nancy combines deep compassion with practical knowledge, insight and guidance from Gods Word. The lives of more than two thousand young women who have experienced the lifechanging program of Mercy Ministries which Nancy founded, are proof that these principles work. Cut will help you learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of selfharm, understand how and why these behaviors develop, and know how to break free and stay free. Read the stories of girls just like you, who once had no hope but now live with joy and freedom. Theres also a special section for parents and others who care. There is mercy for selfharm!
This is a candid look at a form of self-injury that is increasingly prevalent but rarely discussed. Cutting, a form of self-mutilation, is a growing problem in the United States, especially among adolescent females. It is regarded as self-destructive behavior, yet paradoxically, people who cut themselves generally do not wish to die but to find relief from unbearable psychological pain. "Cutting and the Pedagogy of Self-Disclosure" is the first book to explore how college students write about their experiences as cutters. The idea behind the book arose when Patricia Hatch Wallace, a high school English teacher, wrote a reader-response diary for a graduate course taught by Professor Jeffrey Berman in which she revealed for the first time that she had cut herself twenty years earlier. At Berman's suggestion, Wallace wrote her Master's thesis on cutting. Not long after she finished her thesis, two students in Berman's expository writing course revealed their own experiences as cutters. Their disclosures encouraged several students in another writing class to share their own cutting stories with classmates. Read more »
The author of the seminal and groundbreaking Treating and Overcoming Anorexia Nervosa now explains the phenomena of self-mutilation a disorder that affects as many as two million Americans. Cutting takes the reader through the psychological experience of the person who seeks relief from mental pain and anguish in self-inflicted physical pain. Steven Levenkron traces the components that predispose a personality to becoming a self-mutilator: genetics family experience childhood trauma and parental behavior. Written for the self-mutilator parents friends and therapists Levenkron explains why the disorder manifests in self-harming behaviors and most of all describes how the self-mutilator can be helped.
This informative resource provides guidance for professionals and parents caring for young people at risk of self-harm and suicide. The authors, who are well-known in the field, consider what research tells us about the increased prevalence of suicide and self-harm among adolescents, including what the possible risk factors may be.
My name is Gabrielle and I am twenty-eight years old. I began to self-injure at age fifteen -- so nearly thirteen years -- minus a two year period. This website was made to let self-injurers know that they are not alone and to help their friends and family learn more about self-injury and how it affects their loved one.
