Articles: A quiet addiction - to pain
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SANDY'S flirtation with pain started in 1998, while she was doing her N levels.
When her friends started carving names of people they liked on their wrists, she went along just for fun.
'I was looking for some excitement because I was bored. I also thought that this was quite romantic,' said the 19-year-old, who is currently unemployed.
But Sandy became addicted to the habit. When she felt angry, tense or frustrated, she locked herself in her bedroom or toilet and cut her wrists, arms and thighs with kitchen knives, razor blades, or glass.
'The pain helped me to relax. When the blood came out, I felt much better,' she said, adding that she would sometimes run the fresh wound under tap water. At times, she would even scratch herself using her fingernails or burn herself with cigarette butts.
Sandy is the youngest of three daughters. Her eldest sister, aged 25, is a university graduate who is a civil servant. Her second sister, who is 24, is a polytechnic diploma holder who is a secretary.
Sandy did not complete her O levels and dropped out of school in 1999. Her second sister was her confidante until their relationship became strained when Sandy got into bad company and started taking drugs.
When her parents, both hawkers, saw her scars, they told her to stop hurting herself. Finally, in July 2000, they decided to send her to a psychiatrist at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre for help.
Through medication and intensive counselling, her condition slowly improved. In the past six months, she has not had the urge to mutilate herself, her scars are fading, and she has weaned herself off her drug habit. She's now seeking a temporary job to earn money, to study design.
'What's past is in the past. The important thing is to move on and look ahead.'
CELEBRITIES: They do it too
ACTRESSES Angelina Jolie and Christina Ricci, and singer Shirley Manson are among celebrities who have admitted publicly that they've been victims of self-injury. EVEN the late Princess Diana was not spared. In a 1995 British Broadcasting Corporation television interview, she revealed she had cut her arms and legs. Her reason: 'You have so much pain inside yourself that you try and hurt yourself on the outside because you want help.'
When her friends started carving names of people they liked on their wrists, she went along just for fun.
'I was looking for some excitement because I was bored. I also thought that this was quite romantic,' said the 19-year-old, who is currently unemployed.
But Sandy became addicted to the habit. When she felt angry, tense or frustrated, she locked herself in her bedroom or toilet and cut her wrists, arms and thighs with kitchen knives, razor blades, or glass.
'The pain helped me to relax. When the blood came out, I felt much better,' she said, adding that she would sometimes run the fresh wound under tap water. At times, she would even scratch herself using her fingernails or burn herself with cigarette butts.
Sandy is the youngest of three daughters. Her eldest sister, aged 25, is a university graduate who is a civil servant. Her second sister, who is 24, is a polytechnic diploma holder who is a secretary.
Sandy did not complete her O levels and dropped out of school in 1999. Her second sister was her confidante until their relationship became strained when Sandy got into bad company and started taking drugs.
When her parents, both hawkers, saw her scars, they told her to stop hurting herself. Finally, in July 2000, they decided to send her to a psychiatrist at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre for help.
Through medication and intensive counselling, her condition slowly improved. In the past six months, she has not had the urge to mutilate herself, her scars are fading, and she has weaned herself off her drug habit. She's now seeking a temporary job to earn money, to study design.
'What's past is in the past. The important thing is to move on and look ahead.'
CELEBRITIES: They do it too
ACTRESSES Angelina Jolie and Christina Ricci, and singer Shirley Manson are among celebrities who have admitted publicly that they've been victims of self-injury. EVEN the late Princess Diana was not spared. In a 1995 British Broadcasting Corporation television interview, she revealed she had cut her arms and legs. Her reason: 'You have so much pain inside yourself that you try and hurt yourself on the outside because you want help.'
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