Articles: 'Cutters' Learn How to Heal Their Scars
By Bob Pool
The teenager tugs at the sleeves of her oversized sweatshirt and pulls them over her hands. She wants to make certain that the scars on her arms do not show.
"You don't want people to know," said 14-year-old Danielle Opremcak. "People who cut themselves feel really guilty and ashamed afterward. You're not proud of it."
Danielle knows. For three years, she has repeatedly sliced her arms and legs with razor blades and pieces of glass.
The ritual of self-injury began as an attempt to gain the attention of her parents, Danielle said. Later it became an addiction. Now, however, she is sitting in the dimly lighted office of a therapist, learning all over again how to live.
She doesn't realize it, but she is a pioneer in a crash-course effort to help teens overcome a habit that for decades has puzzled parents and experts alike.
Danielle is participating in the nation's first residential self-injury treatment program--a year-and-a-half-old effort to assist emotionally disturbed youngsters at the Vista del Mar children's home in West Los Angeles.
Physically injuring oneself is emotionally satisfying to some youngsters--most often girls--who say they feel cleansed and in
control when they cut their skin and bleed. Many liken the euphoria they feel to that created by drugs.
The self-injurer is often left feeling worthless and ashamed when that feeling wears off, however. So the cutter repeatedly reaches for a knife or shard of glass. Short-term psychological counseling for adolescent "cutters" has been offered for years at psychiatric hospitals and clinics.
But treatment has not been available at children's homes that cater over a period of months to troubled youngsters sent by court order--or by frantic parents who no longer can handle their teenagers.
"In the past, we've thought these kids were self-destructive, suicidal. As soon as a kid experienced self-mutilation, we would hospitalize them. It would be interpreted as a suicide attempt," said Gerald Zaslaw, president of Vista del Mar Child and Family Services.
"You don't want people to know," said 14-year-old Danielle Opremcak. "People who cut themselves feel really guilty and ashamed afterward. You're not proud of it."
Danielle knows. For three years, she has repeatedly sliced her arms and legs with razor blades and pieces of glass.
The ritual of self-injury began as an attempt to gain the attention of her parents, Danielle said. Later it became an addiction. Now, however, she is sitting in the dimly lighted office of a therapist, learning all over again how to live.
She doesn't realize it, but she is a pioneer in a crash-course effort to help teens overcome a habit that for decades has puzzled parents and experts alike.
Danielle is participating in the nation's first residential self-injury treatment program--a year-and-a-half-old effort to assist emotionally disturbed youngsters at the Vista del Mar children's home in West Los Angeles.
Physically injuring oneself is emotionally satisfying to some youngsters--most often girls--who say they feel cleansed and in
control when they cut their skin and bleed. Many liken the euphoria they feel to that created by drugs.
The self-injurer is often left feeling worthless and ashamed when that feeling wears off, however. So the cutter repeatedly reaches for a knife or shard of glass. Short-term psychological counseling for adolescent "cutters" has been offered for years at psychiatric hospitals and clinics.
But treatment has not been available at children's homes that cater over a period of months to troubled youngsters sent by court order--or by frantic parents who no longer can handle their teenagers.
"In the past, we've thought these kids were self-destructive, suicidal. As soon as a kid experienced self-mutilation, we would hospitalize them. It would be interpreted as a suicide attempt," said Gerald Zaslaw, president of Vista del Mar Child and Family Services.
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