Club Name : CuttersUnitedAndStandingStrong Description : A College Paper I Wrote One in ten people, either self injure or know someone who does, it is becoming a growing epidemic. “Self injury is any deliberate, non suicidal behavior that inflicts physical harm on your body and is aimed at relieving emotional distress (Life).” Physical pain is often easier to deal with than emotional pain, because it causes real feelings. Injuries can prove to an individual that their emotional pain is real and valid. Self injurious behavior may calm or awaken a person. “Yet self injury only provides temporary relief, it does not deal with the underlying issues. Self injury can become a natural response to the stresses of day to day life and can escalate in frequency and severity (Life).” Self injury becomes a way to express feelings, wishes, desires, and needs. There are three types of self injury. The first type is major self injury, which is the most extreme, where they feel no pain or regret. The second type is stereotypical self injurer, this is repetitive behavior, associated with organic brain disease. The third type of injury is moderate, this is controlled and relatively shallow cuts, which usually do not scar. The injurer feels preoccupied by thoughts of cutting and may feel addicted. A common question arises, why would someone take this kind of action toward themselves? Most self injurers have been a victim of traumatic experiences. Forty-one percent of those who self-injure have been physically, emotionally, or sexually abused. Self injury has become a way to turn emotional pain that they are feeling into physical pain, which is more acceptable by our society. Sufferers are unable to put into words their feelings of anger and maltreatment. They self injure to show how much they hurt. “Research has found that when a child is exposed to a severe trauma in early childhood, they learn to dissociate; to make their mind and body separate. Although dissociation is useful to survive an actual traumatic experience, it can become a chronic, automatic response to minor stressors reminiscent of the past trauma. The sensation of pain and the sight of blood breaks the depersonalization and proves to a self-injurer that they are still human (Strong).” Self injurers believe feeling pain is better than feeling nothing. Some say that self injury allows them to mark their boundaries, so the abuser will not desire them. As a victim of abuse and self injury, I find that self injury allows me to break free from what I suffered from as a child and brings me back to life. Another cause for self injury is it punishes for any failures or inadequacy you may feel; often related to relationship difficulties. The self injurer may feel at fault for events in their life that they had little or no control over. Some survivors of childhood abuse take on the beliefs of those that perpetrated the abuse against them, that they deserved the abuse they received. Anger then becomes directed toward themselves. Blood is used to represent healing and salvation. “Cutting during adolescent initiation rites are tests of strength, courage, and endurance that help mark the transition into adulthood (Strong).” Blood, despite what many think, is calming. Self-injury represents a sacrifice of one part of the body for the sake of the whole. There are many connections of self injure and the bible. People sometimes self injure to “identify with religious sufferings; to atone for sins; obey a heavenly command; rid themselves of demons; or to make a sacrifice to god (Life).” It is stated in the bible that if that if the right eye offends, pluck it out, and if they right hand offends then cut if off. Cutting is symbolic to me of the pain Jesus paid for me, when he was hit with switches until he bled. More girls than boys will engage in self injury. It is believed that a contributing factor is that “girls have to pull away from their mothers to become an individual when their bodies start to resemble their mothers, boys learn at a younger age to do so, and therefore have more time (Cox).” Self injury usually begin at puberty, as many can recall what a nightmarish event it was. Self injurers feel like they can’t control what their body is going through, especially women going through menstruation. Feeling at loss for control, they use cutting to gain some control over their body. Self injury for me did began at puberty, and self injury was a way for me to gain self control over my body, which I couldn‘t control because of puberty. Self injury could lead to unintentional suicide if not treated, because the cuts become deeper and deeper. One in four people are self injurers, although it may be inevitable for a person to begin, “society must have an overall desire to help people who self injure, and not isolate or look down upon them (Cox).” People must come to realize that self injure is a coping mechanism just like alcoholism, and “dispel all the myths about it, or sufferers will continue to keep quiet and refuse help from others (Strong).” Self injury affects all races, backgrounds, and ages. It is becoming a growing epidemic, because more people are becoming exposed to self injury and mock their behavior. Works Cited 1 Life Signs. 19 October 2006. UK Registered Charity. http://www.lifesigns.org.uk/ 2 Strong, Marilee. (1998). A Bright Red Scream. 3 Cox, Dee, Saradjia, Jacqui, and Smith, Gerrilyn. (1998). Women and Self Harm. New York: Routledge. CREATED BY JON