In the latest statistics, it showed that the number of people who practice self-mutilation has increased. Health AtoZ reports that a source says that around 0.75 % of the American population are in the habit of either cutting, biting, bruising or even amputating themselves in severe cases. That percentage seem low but that is actually 75 mutilators in a thousand people and that doesn’t include those who are secretly doing the habit for fear of being discovered.

A high percentage of people who are into hurting themselves are teenage girls. There is no concrete reason as to why they do this but one of them is due to violence itself. Some of them where physically abused causing them to be disgusted with themselves. They may also direct their anger in form of self-mutilation at the person violating them since they do not have the power/strength to show their anger against the aggressor.

Self mutilation is starting to become common even for teenagers who are merely filled with teenage angst but there are other people who feels that they have deeper need for mutilation. HealthAtoZ enumerates them as:

• Self-mutilation relieves unbearable tension or anxiety Many self-mutilators do report feeling relief after an episode of self-cutting or other injury.

• Self-mutilation is a technique for triggering the body’s biochemical responses to pain. Stress and trauma release endorphins, which are the body’s natural pain-killing substances

• Self-mutilation is a way of stopping a dissociative episode. Dissociation is a process in which the mind splits off, or dissociates, certain memories and thoughts that are too painful to keep in conscious awareness. Some people report that they feel “numb” or “dead” when they dissociate, and self-injury allows them to feel “alive.”

• Self-mutilation is a symbolic acting-out of the larger culture’s mistreatment of women. This theory is sometimes offered to explain why the great majority (about 75%) of self-mutilators are girls and women

Self-injury, sometimes referred to as self-harm (SH), self-inflicted violence (SIV) or self-injurious behavior (SIB), refers to a spectrum of behaviors where demonstrable injury is self-inflicted. The term self-mutilation is also sometimes used, although this phrase evokes connotations that some find worrisome, inaccurate, or offensive.

A broader definition of self-injury might also include those who inflict harm on their bodies by means of eating disorder, as well as tattooing or body piercing that goes beyond the limits of culturally accepted body modification.

A common belief regarding self-injury is that it is an attention-seeking behavior; however, in most cases, this is untrue. Most self-injurers are very self-conscious of both their wounds and scars, and go to great lengths to conceal their behavior from others. They may offer alternative explanations for their injuries, or conceal their scars with clothing. Self-injury in such individuals is not associated with suicidal or para-suicidal behavior.

The person who self-injures is not usually seeking to end his or her own life; it has been suggested instead that he or she is using self-injury as a coping mechanism to relieve emotional pain or discomfort. However, studies of individuals with developmental disabilities (such as mental retardation) have shown self-injury being dependent on environmental factors such as obtaining attention or escape from demands.

Methods of Injury

A common form of self-injury involves making cuts in the skin of the arms, legs, abdomen, inner thighs, etc. This is colloquially referred to as “cutting”; a person who routinely does this may be colloquially called a “cutter”.

The number of self-injury methods are only limited to an individual’s creativity. The bodily locations of self-injury are often areas that are easily hidden and concealed from the detection of others.

Examples of self-injury other than cutting include:

* Punching, hitting and scratching
* Choking, constricting of the airway
* Self-biting of hands, limbs, tongue, lips, or arms
* Picking at or re-opening wounds (dermatillomania), ulceration, or sutures
* Hair-pulling (trichotillomania)
* Burning, including cigarette burns, and self-incendiarism (as well as eraser burns, chemical burns [example; salt and ice burns])
* Stabbing self with wire, pins, needles, nails, staples, pens, or hair accessories
* Pinching or clamping, as with clothes pins, paper clips, etc.
* Ingesting corrosive chemicals, batteries, or pins
* Self-poisoning; for example by over-dosing on medication and/or alcohol, without suicidal intent
* Self-injury among individuals with developmental disabilites often involves relatively simple actions, such as banging one’s head against a hard surface, punching hard surfaces, biting oneself (usually hands or arms), or picking wounds. It may also include pica, the swallowing of nonfood items, which can be extremely dangerous and sometimes fatal.

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An article worth sharing: “A Cut Above, The Practice of Self-Mutilation” by Carma Haley Shoemaker

A disturbing situation has emerged among teens: the practice of self-mutilation. Teenagers who self-mutilate – overwhelmingly girls – are inflicting pain and injuries on their own bodies. While it’s estimated that only one percent of the American population self-mutilates, the emotional issues that drive them – and the physical fall-out from such practices as cutting and burning – make self-mutilation a serious problem.

Types of Self-Mutilation
Cutting is but one of the self-mutilating behaviors adolescents may exhibit. Other common practices of self-mutilating behaviors include burning, bruising, breaking of bones (especially digits), picking at the skin or “wound interference” (the practice of producing a wound and not allowing it to heal).

What Causes Self-Mutilation?
There is no stereotypical person who will choose to mutilate his or her own body, but experts say it’s a process that stems from the inability to deal with stress or intense emotions.

“Self-mutilation is a desperate attempt to have some control over unbearable feelings of aloneness, loneliness and helplessness,” says Dr. Margaret Paul, therapist and co-author of Healing Your Aloneness, a book that examines self-mutilation. “When a teen or young adult has not learned healthy ways of managing these intense feelings, they turn to physical pain as a way to blot out the emotional pain or gain a sense of control over the pain they feel. In a strange way, they are really not trying to hurt themselves – they are trying to protect themselves from something even more painful than the physical pain.”
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