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A Cut Above
The Practice of Self-Mutilation
By Carma Haley Shoemaker
"Cutting is physically painful – it hurts," says Paul. "But to a mutilator it's absorbing. It's doing something. It's controlling something. It's causing something. It's making it happen and not being at the effect of outside forces over which they feel like they have no control."
When parents learn a child is hurting herself, they often feel helpless. "My daughter was in her late teens when I first began noticing the mutilation," says Judy Smith*, a medical specialist. "It's been going on for a long time. She is now in her early 20s, and what my daughter does is disfiguring. She is terribly scarred on her breasts, her arms, face and on her hands. I noticed it again when she was in college. I asked her what it was, and she would say that she was breaking pimples. It went far beyond that, and I realized that pretty quickly."
According to SAFE-Alternatives, most adolescents who self-mutilate tend to be perfectionists. They feel they must live up to or exceed the standards set for them by their parents and peers. When they are unable to do this, their emotions become confusing, and they tend to result to what they know – causing harm to their own bodies.
"Children are put under a huge pressure to perform," Paul says. "They have to perform in all aspects of their lives. They have to d well in school; they have to get good grades; they have to have enough friends; they have to look a certain way. There are these huge pressures on them to look and perform in certain ways, and they are often not seen for who they are."
