<p>"In what researchers call an “alarming new trend,” teens and young adults are creating and sharing YouTube videos about cutting, burning or otherwise harming themselves and even demonstrating techniques, a study says today in Pediatrics.</p>
<p>Previous research suggests that 14% to 21% of teens and young adults have deliberately injured themselves at least once using knives to cut their arms or legs, for example, says lead author Stephen Lewis of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Some go on to attempt suicide, the third-leading cause of death for ages 15 to 24."</p>
<p>The YouTube part is new. Cutting is not. My cousin did this 10+ years ago. I thought with all the very public and somewhat legal ways to mutilate one’s self that “cutting” was less common. Piercing including gauges. Tatoos. Having one’s tongue pieced has got to hurt like heck.</p>
<p>The youtube part isn’t new either. People did that sort of thing 10+ years ago, too. I was part of a message board back then that was directed at adolescent depression and you should have seen the stuff that was out there. </p>
<p>To quote Sherlock Holmes, “There is nothing new under the sun.”</p>
<p>In fact, I would be sort of surprised if the percentage of teens who had EVER done it werent actually a lot higher than 21%.</p>
<p>In any friendship, you look for common traits, right? Sharing this part of their life is their commonality. I suspect those who do this are seeking others who can relate to their (emotional) pain. But geez, I need to be sure my oldest son doesn’t see this.</p>
<p>A lot of kids do this stuff for attention. They don’t get enough at home, and they don’t fit in with the ‘cool’ kids at school, so they turn to the ‘emo’ kids. For every person doing this who has genuine emotional problems, I’d say there’s another one out there doing it for attention. Although I suppose the lack of attention could be considered an emotional problem, so maybe I’m way off base here.</p>
<p>Manarius, I do think that this behavior reflects genuine emotional problems – always. </p>
<p>The behavior might have different meaning for different children, and reflect a different set of problems and circumstances. But IMHO a healthy and well-balanced albeit attention deprived child (even with poor impulse control and iffy judgment) doesn’t go, hey, I think I’ll burn and cut myself and maybe then people will notice me and I’ll be cool. </p>
<p>This brings to mind all the weird hair-splitting that goes on when a teen intentionally does something to endanger his life. Was it a suicide attempt or a mere suicide gesture? Did the child who ingested the bottle of pills genuinely want to die or simply want to communicate something to family or friends/garner attention/etc.? And maybe it’s easier for us to deal with the notion that the child is just in (a somehow less troubling and less serious) attention-grabbing mode and for us not to deal with the painful and difficult issues that underlie the self-harming behavior. </p>
<p>To my mind, cutting and burning and jeopardizing one’s life “for attention” or any other reason reflect serious emotional problems.</p>
<p>For the most part, I agree, but I’ve known several people who did it just to fit in with the “emo” crowd, in the same way that other kids dress a certain way to fit in with the popular kids.</p>
<p>People have been doing stupid things to fit in for thousands of years.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard someone try to splice a suicide attempt in exactly that way. My sister attempted suicide when she was 15, and at the time the psychiatrists suggested that it wasn’t a legitimate attempt and just a cry for attention–but they didn’t mean that like she didn’t have VERY VERY VERY serious problems that needed immediate attention, quite the contrary. It didn’t mean she was safe, it was that she was threatening to genuinely kill herself if she didn’t get help-- unconsciously, I think, because if you saw what you did to herself you would think she meant it, but the doctors insisted she couldn’t have because there was no way she could have died doing what she was doing. It was all very weird. </p>
<p>Though I never did figure out why they drew that distinction to begin with, since they had to treat it like it was a legitimate attempt anyway. I really felt like all they accomplished was to help sugarcoat the problem for my parents and they clung to it as an excuse to feel less guilty-- which in our case was extremely unfortunate because then they took it a lot less seriously and refused to make the changes to our family that needed to be made, since obviously it can’t have been THAT bad if she wasn’t REALLY trying to kill herself!!! She is stable now three years later but nothing has changed in our house at all. My parents didn’t even keep her in regular therapy for very long at all once she came home from the ward.</p>
<p>One of the things that is interesting (from a clinical standpoint) about self-injury is how quickly the behavior spreads through a group of adolescents. I used to work in a partial hospitalization program for teens and we had to be very careful about who roomed with whom, knowing that someone elses self-injurious behavior can be very triggering for others. You also see a lot of the sharing with eating disorders, there are “pro-Ana” and “pro-Mia” websites that are specifically designed with photos and descriptions so that it triggers a persons ED and provides them with the “will power” to continue their dangerous behavior.</p>
<p>For people that already self-injure, I am aware that seeing it around is extremely triggering for them. I wasn’t aware it was likely to spread quickly among groups of kids who don’t already do it.</p>
<p>I don’t think it often does spread like that. Often, cutting and eating disorders are things that individuals hide for years, and the youtube/group thing makes it seem like a fad (which is what I think manarius is saying). I don’t think most people who SI do it for the image though. And pro-Ana sites are used by people who already have eating disorders; somebody who doesn’t have one is unlikely to find the site in the first place, I think. Though, as 3bm said, it’s definitely encouraging and doesn’t make the situation any better.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that everyone who does it is doing it just to fit in. In fact, I would say that the vast majority do have serious problems. I’m just saying that in a few people I’ve known, it has been like that. Admittedly, these people did have some other problems in their lives, but the self injury was less a result of that than it was a desire to fit in.</p>
<p>I have also known people who had serious problems. During the summer after sixth grade, one girl in my class committed suicide. Needless to say, it was devastating to our class of 30 kids. We all knew her personally, but no one ever knew that she had any of these problems. She seemed perfectly happy, then it happened.</p>
<p>It spreads as an alternate form of handling distress. I guess hospitalization can be like prison – not just literally, but you mix with people who teach you things. </p>
<p>But I’ve thought of it since the age of 7, the same time I also thought I was born wrong. But my phobia of sharps always prevented me up until recently. It’s just more validating when you see other people do it too.</p>
<p>But don’t think that cutting is some sort of “gateway drug” to suicide or something. It’s pretty anti-suicide, like an alternative. It’s like my second to last resort before I do something that’s more dangerous. Cutting is messy but my really brilliant neuroscientist labmate (who has bipolar) cuts and you can barely notice it on her arms so I don’t think it’s that harmful as an alternative to suicide. </p>
<p>Sometimes I try epilating my bikini and underarm area with a Braun Silk-epil, and when that’s done epilating the little tiny hairs on my arm and legs even though you don’t usually see them. But then you run out of hair to epilate :(</p>
<p>Linkin Park has a song called “Papercut” – when I was young I didn’t guess what that meant-- I mean, papercuts hurt so I thought it was a metaphor for pain. But now I get that it’s intentionally given. I’ve found papercuts give you pretty therapeutic cuts but without leaving scars that are too deep. You can usually apply waterproof foundation or concealer over the cut to hide it, and maybe some Retin-A to heal it. </p>
<p>My mom thinks that I’m depressed because I hang out with people with depression or those who cut … she doesn’t get I’m intrinsically depressed, I hang out with those people because they are the only people that “get” me.</p>