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Behavior Not Suicidal or to Get Attention

But that was before studies in the late 1990s suggested that adolescents who cut themselves are not trying to kill themselves. Instead, experts concluded, cutters are teens caught up in a habit that to them is alternately a crutch and a curse.

"I've been seeing these self-injuring kids for 30 years," Zaslaw said. "It wasn't until 18 months ago that someone sat me down and identified to me this is a specific type of behavior that needs specific treatment. It's not suicidal, it's not an attention-getting gesture."

Vista del Mar residential counselor Andrew Levander agrees. He has spent 41/2 years working with the home's 30 teenage girls. The private, nonprofit center, with 114 beds, also serves troubled boys elsewhere on its 17-acre campus.

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