girls cutting

mamacita
Thu, 21 Apr 2005 14:00:17 +0000

When a cutter surfaces at a school, more will appear. It has an artificial “contagious” quality. A grial (or boy) might copycat cut once out of curiosity, but those who repeat, who become habitual, need as much help as the first cutter.

My students who cut both look extreme – orange and purple hair, piercings, gender ambiguous clothing – and extremely conservative – too pressed, too buttoned… What they share is a disconnet from the mainstream that is causing emotional pain. Some are bipolar, some are depressed, some have social anxiety.

In each case, over a period of many years, they have told us some version of :
“I cut because it’s a pain I can control.”

The other pain cannot be controlled by the child. It is the pain and not the behavior that must be addressed.

Most cutters hide the evidence, i.e., others, particularly adults, do not see the cuts.