Self Mutilation
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Main Entry: selfÐ-muÐ*tiÐ*laÐ*tion
Pronunciation: -“myДјt-&-lA-sh&n
Function: noun
: injury or disfigurement of oneself
Psychological characteristics of self-injurers
Hate themselves, feel inadequate
Tend to suppress rage
Are usually angry , most of the time at themselves
Are very sensitive to rejection
Have aggressive feelings which usually get turned inward
Are anxious and irritable
Tend to be depressed suicidal and self destructive
Are bad at controlling impulses, and do things for how they feel at the time
Tend not to plan for the future, and do not put effort into excelling at work or school
Tend to be avoidant
Feel as if they have no control
97% are women
57% overdose on drugs along with the injuring
Self mutilation is a subject that we are all aware of, but dont usually try to learn more about. When you think of self mutilation you think of cutters and suicide attempts right? Well that is right to some extent; Yes Cutting is the most common self injuring method , but other severe forms of self mutation includeÐburning , self hitting , interference with wound healing hair pulling and bone breaking. In the following Paragraphs I will elaborate on each of these subjects more, as well as esthetic self mutilation, while focusing on cutting.
Cutting is a very touchy subject, people dont like to talk about it and because of that people tend to feel that they are the only one in the world who does it. Now because of the internet and such people can become more aware of others all around that world who do it too. They can become more aware about why they feel the need to cut and by identifying the problem help to find a way to stop. I have conducted two personal interviews of females between the ages of 13-18 who wish to remain anonymous. They went as followsÐ…
Why cut? “Many reasons, depression mental unstableness, boredom.”
Is it addictive? “Yes Very. Actually I started by accident, found a knife and wanted to see it was sharp, turns out its was, lolÐ… It actually felt really good and I just started doing it more and more.”
Is it dangerous? “Well sure it is a bit. But I guess thats kind of what draws people to it. But its not really bad if you use the proper precautions and such. You dont just go out to the shed and grab a rusty blade and start going at it, unless youre suicidal and want to get tetanus. Lol”
So youre not suicidal? “Hell No! I dont want to die! You know that expression whatever doesnt kill you, only makes you stronger? Its kind of like that, because with me, its like when something goes wrong its my fault and Im not good enough, and cutting makes me a better, stronger.”
Nature or Nurture? “In general I think it depends. For some people this type of behavior comes when they are bornÐ… and in their minds they arent good enough and whatnot. But for some people its a bad situation or a trauma or something. For me it was nature Ive always been kind of messed up , Its just when I found cutting as an outlet it made me feel