Teens Who Cut
This blog entry was inspired by this video. (music by Plumb)
The number of teenage girls who have been admitted to hospitals for intentionally hurting themselves has risen by a third over the last decade.
"While some kids are ‘cutting’ as a result of peer pressure, others are experiencing extreme and raging pain and are using ‘cutting’ as an outlet for those emotions. "
Emma's friends had noticed something strange as well. Even when the weather was hot, Emma wore long-sleeved shirts. She had become secretive, too, like something was bothering her. But Emma couldn't seem to find the words to tell her mom or her friends that the marks on her arms were from something that she had done. She was cutting herself with a razor when she felt sad or upset.
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Cutting often begins on an impulse. It's not something the person thinks about ahead of time. Shauna says, "It starts when something's really upsetting and you don't know how to talk about it or what to do. But you can't get your mind off feeling upset, and your body has this knot of emotional pain. Before you know it, you're cutting yourself. And then somehow, you're in another place. Then, the next time you feel awful about something, you try it again — and slowly it becomes a habit."
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Natalie, a high-school junior who started cutting in middle school, explains that it was a way to distract herself from feelings of rejection and helplessness she felt she couldn't bear. "I never looked at it as anything that bad at first — just my way of getting my mind off something I felt really awful about. I guess part of me must have known it was a bad thing to do, though, because I always hid it. Once a friend asked me if I was cutting myself and I even lied and said 'no.' I was embarrassed."
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Sometimes self-injury affects a person's body image. Jen says, "I actually liked how the cuts looked. I felt kind of bad when they started to heal — and so I would 'freshen them up' by cutting again. Now I can see how crazy that sounds, but at the time, it seemed perfectly reasonable to me. I was all about those cuts — like they were something about me that only I knew. They were like my own way of controlling things. I don't cut myself anymore, but now I have to deal with the scars."
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It has been said that people who cut, do so to see if they can still feel. They have become numb because of all the mental and emotional pain they have endured in their young life.
My hope is that this blog reminds us of the very serious issue of cutting that many teens face today. Let us work to help our students find relief from their pain through Jesus Christ, the only One who truly loves us unconditionally and understands us even more than we understand ourselves.
This is a great resource for Student Pastors who wish to address the issue of cutting with their students.
You may have noticed them; the kids who are hiding their pain under long sleeves or wristbands. Or you might never notice them the ones who seem to have life together except for the deep secret that they keep hidden beneath their clothes. This is no longer a fringe issue that occurs only in the most extreme cases. The truth is that many teens today are dealing with their emotional pain by inflicting physical pain upon themselves, whether we can see it on the surface or not.While we may never fully understand the motives behind self-mutilation and cutting, we can begin to understand why some teens cut, and more importantly, we can learn how to help. Marv Penner, author ofHope and Healing for Kids Who Cut, will take you into the world of self-injury, defining what it is, and what it is not. You'll hear stories from teens and young adults who struggle with the urge to hurt themselves, and you'll learn to recognize the signs of self-injury.
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