Cutting is a serious form of self-harm, often not suicidal, but can be accidentally. It is more common among women and those with emotional trauma, psychiatric illnesses, and eating disorders. Cutting becomes an addictive behavior that requires professional help to quit. Children can start cutting as early as their pre-teens, and it’s important to take this behavior seriously and seek therapeutic help. Ultimately, the individual must be helped to find positive ways to express their emotions.
Cutting is a serious form of self-harm that involves cutting yourself to the point of bleeding. This form of self-abuse tends to be more common among women, with approximately 1% of the US population practicing it. There are numerous explanations for why people harm themselves and often people believe this behavior is suicidal. In fact, cutting is often not suicidal, but it can be accidentally. Additionally, the underlying conditions that lead to it can predispose people to suicidal tendencies in addition to cutting.
People who cut themselves often suffer from significant emotional trauma, such as past or present child abuse, or psychiatric illnesses such as bipolar disorder, major depression, or major anxiety disorder. Some people with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) also practice ritualized cutting. People with schizophrenia may cut themselves off from a sense of altered reality or through delusions of grandeur that make them feel impervious to harm. Those with eating disorders may also engage in this behavior if they suffer from body dysmorphic disorder.
Not everyone with the aforementioned ailments cuts, but these risk factors are more likely to cause a person to do so. There are numerous explanations for why people cut, which may or may not apply to each individual. One explanation is that some people who are anxious, angry, or depressed may actually get a serotonin surge misdirected from this behavior. Just as the anorexic exercises control over her environment by controlling her food intake, cutting gives the illusion of controlling pain.
Others use it as a means of expressing inner feelings of pain that they are unable or afraid to express. Seeing blood flow tends to be momentarily satisfying, as it is a physical expression of emotional pain. Some individuals cut out because if they are drifting into states where they feel dissociated, the physical pain takes them back to the “real world”.
Those who use the cut are often consumed with guilt over their behavior, often within minutes of cutting. However, something about this behavior proves emotionally satisfying and temporarily eases emotional pain. Cutting becomes an addictive behavior this way. Even though it is dangerous, potentially life-threatening and a health risk, it is still practiced because a person gets momentary relief from the behavior.
A cut in a person may indicate a psychiatric illness or severe emotional turmoil that needs treatment. Normally a person who regularly engages in this behavior cannot stop without the help of qualified professionals. Depending on their underlying condition, people may require medications to treat overwhelming feelings of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or other mental conditions. Alternatively, they may require therapy for dealing with severe trauma in the past. Most people are able to quit through a combination of therapy and medication.
Children can start cutting, in some cases, as early as their pre-teens. It’s important to take this behavior extremely seriously, but it’s also crucial not to blame the child for a compulsion. Placing blame on the child initially may increase the behavior.
The first step is to intervene and get therapeutic help for the child. Psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and licensed clinical social workers who have experience in self-harm are the best places to start. You can also talk to a child’s pediatrician or doctor for recommendations on mental health professionals with experience in this matter.
Depending on the extent to which the individual cuts, some benefit from hospitalization where the behavior can be controlled. Ultimately, however, the individual must be helped in ways that convince him that he no longer needs to use cutting to control or express strong emotions. As with all forms of self-harm, something positive must replace the behavior for it to be eliminated. This can take time and work, but many who undergo treatment are able to stop, learn to express their emotions in more meaningful and less destructive ways, and are freed from the guilt that the constant cutting generates.
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