Why Do Teens Cut Themselves?
Posted: Monday, April 20, 2009
by Ryan Stroud
Unfortunately, a new trend has hit in schools. It's called "cutting" and it is affecting more and more teens each day.
To be honest, I don't really understand why teens would desire to cut themselves, and all the information I have looked up doesn't have a clear answer either. But the one thing I can think of, and many of these sites agree, it is a way for a person to inflict harm upon themselves that they can control.
This is an extremely scary thought process which can lead to more self-inflicted harm, infections, abuse of other items like drugs, or further more, death.
Now, not every case of someone who cuts themselves wants to die. In fact, it's quite the opposite. They want to control their pain. But cutting can lead to further harming yourself which in turn could cause death.
It has also been said on many of the sites I have checked into that cutting, if not properly controlled now, can carry into the teen's adult life. Further self-inflicted abuse can lead to depression and abuse of drugs or alcohol.
Today's cutters mostly consist of females in the ages of 11 to 18. Most cut themselves as a way of expressing anger, hate, and frustration, and is associated with eating disorders, bipolar disorder, and other compulsive disorders.
Signs of cutters could be distancing oneself from family and friends, wearing of long sleeves in hot weather, depression, and constant lying about marks on the body.
Since cutting is sometimes seen as a form of expression, to help prevent future cutting, first seek help from your doctor. Also, look into exercise, poetry/writing, drawing/painting, music, or any other of self-expressing activity.
As a parent, I am concerned over what's happening to today's teens. I only hope with constant support, we can put an end to this terrible self-inflicting disorder.
Ryan Stroud is a military trained journalist who has served in Iraq with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, US Army. Prior to his military experiences, Stroud grew up playing, coaching, and refereeing soccer. Also, Stroud focused many years of his life playing, touring, and recording/producing local music acts. He has a wonderful wife of 4 years, a 2 year old son and a newborn daughter.
Stroud's biggest writing influences are Jim Butcher, Chuck Palahniuk, Edward Lee, Jack Ketchum, Christopher Moore and Ben Fox.
He currently resides in Huntsville, Al, with the 59th Ordnance Brigade at Redstone Arsenal.
Stroud would also like to take a moment to thank his friends who are currently in battle over in Iraq. God bless all of you.
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Top-level comments on this article: (6 total)We'll I no what it is like to cut yourself becase i did it for a long time yeah i no i may be stupid for it but i did it because i felt left out like nobody cared about me but i no i shouldnt have done it but i didnt no what to turn to everything was always going wrong i was depressed all the time I just wanted to get the pain out so i inflicted it in myself i dont do it no more because i found out people cared and they helped me get threw my ruff times in my life and if i didnt stoip i was going to loose all the people who love me and care about me like my brothers and my mom and expecially my boyfriend they all stuck by me while i stopped cutting myself well i just want to be a inspiration to others and to tell others that cutting yourselfis never gonna get you no weres i no from exsperience i didnt get nothing out of it except watching the blood run down and feeling the pain of the cut and feeling the pain that i was already hurting dont cut yourself if you need to talk about doing that
how did affect people around you. Did uwant to stop cutting yourself ? did u want 2 die? i wonder how it feels or felt to have rough ties in your life nd hope you feel better.
OK i just wanted to let people know that there are people out here who cut for other reasons. We don't cut for attention we cut to feel the pain, to feel in control of some of the pain we have. It helps to calm us down. I am one of them and i tell everyone who says it to not cut. Because it is really addicting and it leaves scars that never go away.... its a miserable thing to do.... Depend on something you have to lie and hide.Yes, there are girls and boys out there that do it to seem "cool" and as a cry for attention but i thought i would let some of you ignorant people know that some of us do it for real reasons... not fake attention seekers.
i am a teenager and have had a past of cutting.so much hard problems come along ing my life.but i would like tomake a point.i am a teenager and i am a average B student.play sport.everything seems normal about me untill you take a look at my sides and legs and arms.if i had to put into one sentence of why i use to cut is becasue of everything that was going on in my life.cutting was the one thing that i could control.the oe and only thing and it felt good to finally have control about something in my life.i hope this was helpful.i hope i could have helped someone.
Laugh,love,peacethanks for putting tht on here it is helpfull.. wat would you tell someone who is considering cutting them selves?
this information prorvided was helpfull to me.... im am 14 years of age... and has considered to start cutting myself.... not to kill myself... i have been through alot in my 14 years of life.... i hate parts of my life but like the rest.... everytime i think about cutting myself i think of how my dad would feel.... then reconsider.... i know to most people its wrong.... but what about how people like me feel?
I am a young teen with a history of cutting. I lived with my aunt and uncle most of my life till one day they didn't want me. So i had to re-met my dad and live with my mom. My parents and I aren't close at all, we never were. I didn't get into cutting until the Febuary before i tuned 14. I got sick of my dad's verbal abuse when he was drunk. My mom didn't care what he called me. Just as long as he wasn't yelling at her, she was fine with it. They have actually tried for months to send me to a YDC but i wasn't a bad child. I've cut for 10 months now. My friend's are going through pretty much the same, with the cutting and all, but even thought i do it a lot worse and go through a lot more, i manage to put a smile on my face and help my friend's out when they're down.So i encourage ya'll to smile even though its hard.
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