Self Cutting is A Serious Behavior

I was recently at an IEP meeting at a local high school and the school staff said something that stopped me in my tracks. "Self cutting behaviors are common and are not a real red flag of serious mental health issues." I was amazed ! As I probed and protested that this statement could not be right, they dismissed my lack of credulity as being an inter-generational lapse. In effect self cutting was a fashion statement.  Since that meeting these statement have been on mind. My research reveals that, just as I suspected, self cutting is an indicator of serious mental health needs and should be taken very seriously; no fashion statement here.

According to the NASP, National Association of School Psychologists,  self cutting is often an effort to avoid suicide on the part of a teenager (overwhelmingly female although not exclusively) but needs to be taken very seriously by the school team:

"Incorporate RSM [Repetitive Self-Mutilation Syndrome] training into your crisis team responsibilities. Because RSM involves physical harm to a student and indicates a seriously troubled youth, responding to a student who self-mutilates should be done by members of your crisis team and handled initially as a suicide risk."

It is considered an impulse disorder but treatment for self cutting has not been well researched and there is no one established treatment protocol for this kind of behavior. 

There are some positive steps that are recommended to at least try to remediate the outward behaviors which should be coupled up with other treatment modalities. These include:

• rub an ice cube on your skin instead of cutting it;
• wear a rubber band around your wrist and snap it gently against your skin;
• draw on the skin with a soft-tipped red pen in the place you might usually cut.

School people when confronted with extreme behaviors either inward, as with self cutting, or outward with acting out behaviors, often do not seem to be able to marshall the resources to address the reality of the situation.  It is small comfort to learn that self cutting is not a fashion statement and in fact is, as I strongly believed, a symptom of significant mental health issues which can not be ignored.  Parents who often have not confronted such behaviors before and have a limited frame of reference, can be mislead at the assurances of school staff that self cutting is not a serious behavior.  According to the NASP, and other authorities, these assurances are not grounded in fact.  As with all advocacy when confronted with statements that make no sense-- probe, research and analyze. In this instance, your child's life could hang in the balance.

Comments

[Terri Mauro]

Wow, that's unbelievable that school staff would try to minimize this. I've generally seen cutting described as a pretty strong sign of depression and despair. I just finished reading "My Kind of Sad: What It's Like to Be Young and Depressed" by Kate Scowen, and there's a good section on cutting there. She describes it as the only way some kids can express the kind of pain they're feeling, and compares it to letting out a scream through the skin. "Will's Choice" by Gail Griffith also has some first-person accounts by a girl cutter on why she did it. Fashion doesn't figure in.

[George]

Amazing!

Wonder why it's a sure ticket to disability entitlement under SSA.

Because it's a SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESS called SIB!

Hello school districts! How deep can your head go in the sand! All the way to hades!

[Ron Hunter]

I agree that cutting is a serious problem; however, I did talk to a psychiatrist who confirms that "cutting" seems to be somewhat a vogue of late. This psychiatrist indicated that while it is a problem, they do factor in the peer influence issues.

[mike]

Hello. I have been a " cutter " since I was 12 years old. I'm 26 now, true there is skin art that is cutting pictures or designs in to the skin, that are perminent. Almost like tatooing, but its cut in insyead. So i see where the fasion part comes in on this thread.... I don't cut because its fasion, I cut because it is a release with out talking about it. Talking only works for a few people out there. As far as my self and MANY others out there talking about what's bugg'n us really does'nt help AT ALL !! We have been thought too much and have some how lived this long to use cutting as a means of coping. People that don't understand will of course write things like this instead of trying to understand us. We don't intend to hurt no one else. Just our selves, so at times groups of us will get together and cut our selves and some times eachother, after making sure we are all clean od blood born illnesses. That is the only time we ever do anything like that to another.
So in short, it's not a mental illness, its more of a way of helping our selves out of our hurt and problems !!

[Christy]

I was a self-mutulator as a teenager and no one knew. This was about 30 years ago and this disorder was not recognized at the time. I became a victim of violent crime 4 years ago and started it up again in ernest despite a crime victim therapist and pychiatrist and various meds. I ended up cutting myself bad enough for 29 stitches. Thankfully I had people to help me through this and the suicide tendencies that came after. I remember cutting - I didn't think I was stressed at the time. Actually I felt very good. It was a beautiful day and I was happy and suddenly thought that this would even make it better. I never felt any pain when I did it or after. I remember thinking at the time that it was odd, but because it didn't hurt I kept doing it. I had obsessed about seeing the blood for a long time. the blood represented the pressure, the pain, and seeing it flow gave me the feeling that the pain was flowing away with it. I was disappointed when it started to clot and when emergency people came and wouldn't let me do it again. I am a professional and highly successful middle-aged (47) woman and though it's been a couple years and I am, due to behavior modification, able to deal with the other symptoms, this one remains. I see it the same as alcoholism and other drug addictions. It makes you feel better, relieves pressure. I imagine even if you feel pain (which I never did - despite the amount of stitches needed), the relief felt is something you cannot, at the time, get elsewhere. Anyone doing this please understand. the people out there who know about this can save your life. Just give them a chance whether you believe them or not ( I didn't believe them either - I just ended up taking their word for it until I was better and able to see it for myself). You are not helping yourself but they can. Please, give them a chance. I still feel the compulsion, but like being addicted to alcohol (which is another problem of mine), it is something I can work with, with the help of others - professionals, counselors, therapists, doctors, who do not judge, but simply are there to help. Pick up the phone. Call a hotline. Please.

[Amanda]

I took my 13 year old niece to the arcade and there were 2 teenage girls there who had cuts all up and down there arms. My niece was wearing an arm band and my husband pulled it back to make sure she didn't have any cuts on her. Later I pointed out the cuts on the teens to see what her response was. She was like yeah so what their cutters. I asked why they did that and she said it was how some people got there anger out. It seems very scary to me that a 13 year old would see and know what this problem was and think it to be no big deal.

[Maria]

Hello,
I am a social work major and doing my Senior Thesis on self-cutting and intervention methods. I am looking for feedback from anyone who is an adolescent or cut during adolescents to share with me their experience with interventions. What worked? What didn't work? Also any comments about how you were treated by professionals helping you. Names will not be used in my study. Please repost to blog or email me at Ria903@aim.com. Make subject self-cutting please. Thank you!