Dr. Paul Schwartz
Cutting has increased by 99% during the pandemic. According to Forbes overdoses, intentional self-harm claims, substance use disorders and claims for depression and anxiety disorders all increased substantially in 2020 compared to the prior year.
Self-harming
behavior by one’s child is usually a frightening and confusing area of concern
for parents. This behavior can range from the usually benign head-banging
encountered in infancy, to the attention-getting injuries of middle childhood,
to the severe and even life-threatening forms of self-mutilation found in
adolescence.
This column will
shed some light on an increasing problem in adolescence: “cutting.”
All the
concomitant changes of adolescence create an environmental perfect storm for
such problems as substance abuse, peer-related aggression, eating and mood
disorders.
These
problems have some direct or indirect aspect of self-abusive or self-destructive
behavior. A direct form of adolescent self-destructive behavior, self-mutilation
or “cutting” appears to be the most prevalent form of non-suicidal, self-injurious
behavior.
Before she
died, Princess Diana demonstrated the scope of this disorder when she
publically admitted that she cut herself during her unhappy marriage. Johnny
Depp also revealed that his arms bear scars from self-inflicted wounds.
Dr. Armando
Farazzo, a professor of psychiatry and author of Bodies Under Siege, estimates that possibly 2 million or more
Americans, mostly adolescents, engage in this behavior.
Because kids
are growing up faster today, the trend has even established itself among middle
schoolers. This deliberate destruction or alteration of one’s body, is what
Marilee Strong, author of A Bright Red
Scream, calls the current adolescent addiction.
Some
adolescent cutters say that when they are overwhelmed with emotional distress,
cutting temporally relieves their anguish. The use of physical pain to obscure
the deeper more unbearable psychic pain seems to be a common pattern. For some,
it is like a shot of adrenaline taking them out of their emptiness and making
them feel alive. Frequently, the feelings produced by cutting take on addictive
qualities and become habit forming.
READ MORE: Places you can contact if you think your child needs professional help
Many
adolescents who begin cutting report that they need to hurt themselves more
severely and frequently to feel the same mood altering effect.
Because they
haven’t learned or mastered adaptive mature coping skills, cutting is often used
as a mechanism to regulate emotions and cope with difficult issues. The most
frequently cited reasons that adolescents say they cut are to stop bad
feelings, to feel something and reduce the numbness even if it is painful. For
some kids it can be a need for attention or a cry for help. Others report the
act of cutting makes them feel in control, if only for those brief moments.
For both
parents of adolescents and professionals who work with adolescents daily, it is
important to detect this behavior early before it escalates, despite that fact
that the adolescent might attempt to keep it concealed. The most important goal
of intervention for this problem is to help the child identify the events or thoughts
which precipitate the impulse to engage in cutting, be it stress or unpleasant
events in their lives. Once they can identify the impulses to self-mutilate,
they can use newly-learned alternatives and more adaptive mechanisms to cope.
Cutting for
many kids can be a benign transitory rite of passage to fit into their peer
group, or as a means to share “drama.” Whatever the reason, it is not something
to ignore.
Paul Schwartz, PhD., is a professor of
psychology and education at Mount Saint Mary College.
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