The Body Cutting Nature of Adolescents and Possible Reasons for this Behavior - Research Paper Example

Introduction: With the intensifying competition and high levels of stress that adolescents are faced with on a daily basis, one of the growing issues that has been found among adolescents includes Self – mutilating behavior. Almost 70% of this behavior is found to be in adolescent girls and the behavior tends to stay on with the individuals for at least fifteen to twenty years. Adolescent body cutting has been an everlasting issue and has been a growing concern for both parents as well as the scientific groups like doctors. With the increase in the self injuring nature of the people, the increased need to find an adequate solution has also been on a rise. Purpose of this Research: The underlying purpose of this paper is to try and study the main cause for this behavior among the youth and also research the main reasons that lead to such extreme behavior. With the growing levels of youth using self mutilating as a form of stress relief and a mode of coping with high levels of emotional distress, and the little literature that is available on this issue, this paper aims at contributing as much as possible to assist people with this disorder. The main purpose of the paper is to bring out the causes for this issue and to recommend ways to get over the self mutilating and self cutting behavior. Aims and Objectives of Research: The specific issues that will be discussed in the paper will include the reasons why adolescents go on to become self destructive and prefer to die than to live. Self Destructive here refers to a behavior where the individual tries to hurt themselves in an attempt to take control of their lives. The objective is to understand this behavior and to recommend a solution for the issue. The objective also includes attempting to assist people with the issue and to providing a path to help them realize their problems and find suitable solutions for the issues. The study will aim at highlighting the possible reasons why an individual moves into this stance in life and start to hurt themselves. This will be based on a complete secondary research and an attempt will be made to highlight the various thoughts that have been put forth in the past. Overview of Problem: The issue of self mutilating and self destructive behavior is one of the least understood and recognized issues. This however has been noted to increase at a staggering rate and the most affected by this fall into the adolescent groups. It has been studied that almost 750 to 1800 adolescents of every 100,000 exhibit this behavior (Suyemoto & Kountz, 2000). This contributes to almost 150,000 to 360,000 students of which 70% of them are female (Lieberman, 2004). Most of the self mutilators tend to participate actively in behaviors like, biting, cutting, burning, scaring, tattooing, piercing, nail and cuticle biting, preventing wounds from healing, poking and other such behavior. This is mostly not suicidal in nature however this can also lead to accidental death. The main issue occurs because a few adolescents do not have good coping skills and have troubles facing the emotional distress. The individuals who turn to this form of self injuring and mutilating often come from families where the parenting is not strong and, or the families do not have a strong togetherness or bond. Most adolescents turn to use a self injuring behavior to assist them cope with the pain and feel in total control of them. The cutting assist them feel the pain which helps reduce the emotional distress that they face (Whitlock, Powers, & Eckenrode, 2006). The following section will provide a detailed literature review of this topic and will assist the subject to be better understood. Literature Review: Self Mutilating: Self Mutilation has been classified into several different categories and the most common among these include a Repetitive Self Mutilation Syndrome (RSM) (Lieberman, 2004). There are several different behaviors like self injurious behavior, parasuicidal behavior, head banging, preventing wounds from healing, picking, poking, hair pulling, cutting and many more, which classify as RSMs. Cutting is one of the most common and although this is not a suicidal attempt, cutting classifies as a self hurting behavior. The self destructive nature in humans is very similar to that portrayed by the animal kingdom. One of the best examples of this is scorpions, who are willing to sting themselves than to be stuck in a fire. Humans however have various reasons for the self destructive nature and behaviors like self cutting. The Self Mutilating behavior is also referred to as a Self Injuring behavior and has been defined as: ‘a deliberate, intentional injury to one’s own body that causes tissue damage or leaves marks for more than a few minutes which is done to cope with an overwhelming or distressing situation’ (Cutter, Jaffe, & Segal, 2008).  It is essential to note that adolescents with self mutilating and self injuring nature have a strong issue of deficits and problems of controlling their emotions. In most cases the issue is to cope with the stress and to reduce the tension that they face. Also, in most cases the behavior is due to the feeling of anxiety, anger and depression which do not have proper outlet. The underlying cause of this issue is the inability to express oneself and their emotions especially in terms of interpersonal conflicts and expression of thoughts. It is also essential to realize that the individuals with this form of issues, require to be treated with the same level of respect, love, and care and also receive the same level of education as any other normal adolescent (Austin & Kortum, 2009). It is also essential to understand that a person suffering from the self destructive behavior, also face issues like aggression, defensive idealization, self evaluation and less or no ego boundaries. They usually also suffer fro low self esteem, and no clear self identity, and are often faced with very instable relationships. Also there are several cases where the individuals also suffer from borderline depression and a strong inability to express their feeling and desires. Case Study: Self inflicting pain is a symptom of issues that the child has gone through since childhood and can include: “Step One: The children are abandoned, Step Two: The abandonment results in loss of structure, Step Three: Emotional and physical abuse occurs, Step Four: The children turn against themselves, Step Five: The children fear loss of control, Step Six: The children learn that gaining control is vital to survival, Step Seven: The children no longer value life. Death seems better” (Bond, 2004) The above mentioned seven steps highlight the possible reasons for individuals to become self mutilating and also self inuring in nature. Kam – Shing Yip has in his article: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective of Adolescents’ Self-Cutting, taken on a very essential aspect which has very less coverage in the literature. The author deals with the six perspectives of adolescent behavior and the multidimensional model for self – cutting behavior. Parental influence, peer influence, and the social environment for the adolescents are the main factors that urge the individual to take such drastic steps (Yip, 2005). Implications of these factors are directly related to the self – cutting behavior among adolescents (Yip, 2005). Hence this study is extremely essential and requires a great deal of attention, in the current world where competition is given most importance (Dorer, 1998). A case of a young girl has also been presented in an article YIP, where he takes into account a young girl Carol (name changed) and provides a clear description of the girl. He explains: ‘Carol was a 14-year-old Chinese girl studying in year 8 in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Her father was an officer in the Fire Brigade. He tried hard to discipline Carol and required her to obey him strictly. Whenever Carol failed to follow his orders, he would beat her hard, or punish her severely by not allowing her to have dinner, or by locking her in her room for several hours. Sometimes, when the father was drunk, he would physically abuse both Carol and her mother. At first Carol was very afraid of her father. However, as she grew older, she tried to fight back. She would yell at her father or fight with him when he tried to hit her. Her mother was kind and tried to resolve the conflict between Carol and her father. Under her father’s rigid discipline and punitive control, Carol was angry and tried every means to rebel. She would do everything to provoke her father and anger him’ (YIP, 2006). The case of Carol has highlighted several facts about the need of adolescents with the issue of self mutilating and self injuring behavior (Nock & Mendes, 2008). The reasons for self injuring behavior will be discussed in detail below. Reasons for self Mutilating Behavior: Most individuals who tend to opt for a self destructive behavior and a self mutilating behavior have also been noted to suffer from a sexual, emotional or even physical abuse at early stages of their lives and from people who mean a lot in life, i.e. like a parent, or sibling or other relatives. Most individuals with this issue mainly attempt to use this as a coping mechanism to deal with strong and intolerable feelings or even to overcome the trauma of abuse. Most of the people who use this as a coping mechanism mostly have an issue of expressing their anxiety, sadness, or anger and also use this to dissociate the immediate tension and find solace with their surroundings (Matsumoto, Yamaguchi, Chiba, Asami, Iseki, & Hirayasu, 2004). It is important to note that the cases of these students is normally not suicidal or with any intent to kill oneself. It is simply a mode of expressing the heart felt feelings and to inexpressible rage, high sense of powerlessness and also the need to be able to take control over life. This issue is mostly seen in women and they form the highest affected group of individuals. Most people with this form of self mutilating and self injuring nature tend to also be unable to express themselves well and have issues with verbal expression of their feelings (Matsumoto, Yamaguchi, Chiba, Asami, Iseki, & Hirayasu, 2005). It is also essential to note that people who tattoo themselves or pierce themselves are not necessarily self mutilators and it depends on the social context of why this is done. However self mutilators are people who tend to inflect pain upon themselves by cutting or damaging their skin and to escape from the intolerable emotional distress that they go through. Counselors and the Issue: Counselors and adults play a vey important role in the resolution of this issue and they form major contributors to the assistance of the adolescents in distress. Counselors need to recognize that a few people try to use Anorexia, which is a method where people tend to use to gain control of their lives and to cope with various feelings. However the main focus of the study will be to discuss the behavior of self cutting and the self injuring kind of behavior. It has also been noted that children who are raised in a family with no medium to communicate. Other reasons for teenagers to use self – infliction of pain is to let out strong emotions like, perfectionist tendencies, dislike of self body or shape of body, inability to control emotions or intense feelings, and also inability to express emotional needs. It is hence essential for the counselors to be patient and empathize with the distressed individual rather than trying to tell the person that they understand what they are going through. The level of stress and difficulty that they go through is very high and hence it is essential that the counselors try to make the individual comfortable and safe. Treatment can only be done if the patient feels safe around you and hence need to develop a strong relationship with the person is needed. Hence it is essential that the counselors and the Conclusions: The person suffering from the pain self inflicting problem requires to be given complete care and support to enable the person develop and move out of the issue of self inflicting cuts and pain. Need for the parents, peers and friends to be cooperative and understanding is essential. It is important to realize that a person who uses this form of manner to express their feeling have a serious issue of communication and have seriously built up emotions which require to vented out so that they do not move into a stage of attempting suicide. Attention, care, love and freedom of expression are the main aspects that the adolescents look for and is something which should be given to them to enable lesser people using this form of solution to vent out their feelings. In order to reduce this issue, the parents, peers, family, friends, teachers and counselors play a very important role. References Austin, L., & Kortum, J. (2009). Self Injury: The Secret Language of Pain for Teenagers. Education . Bond, A. B. (2004, October 1). 7 Steps To Slay Self-Destructive Behavior. Retrieved November 11, 2009, from Care: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/slay-self-destructiveness-7-steps.html Cutter, D., Jaffe, J., & Segal, J. (2008, February). Cutting and Self-Injury. Retrieved November 10, 2009, from HelpGuide: http://helpguide.org/mental/self_injury.htm Dorer, C. (1998). An Evalution of Protocols for Child and Adolescent Deliberate Self - harm. Child Psychology & Psychiatry Review , 156 - 160. Lieberman, R. (2004, March). Understanding and Responding to Students Who Self-Mutilate. Retrieved November 8, 2009, from NASP Resources: http://www.naspweb.org/resources/principals/nassp_cutting.aspx Matsumoto, T., Yamaguchi, A., Chiba, Y., Asami, T., Iseki, E., & Hirayasu, Y. (2004). Patterns of self-cutting: A preliminary study on differences in clinical implications between wrist- and arm-cutting using a Japanese juvenile detention center sample. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences , 377–382. Matsumoto, T., Yamaguchi, A., Chiba, Y., Asami, T., Iseki, E., & Hirayasu, Y. (2005). Self-burning versus self-cutting: Patterns and implications of self-mutilation; a preliminary study of differences between self-cutting and self-burning in a Japanese juvenile detention center. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences , 59 62 - 69. Nock, M. K., & Mendes, W. B. (2008). Physiological Arousal, Distress Tolerance, and Social Problem–Solving Deficits Among Adolescent Self-Injurers. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology , 28 - 38. Suyemoto, K., & Kountz. (2000). Self-mutilation. The Prevention Researcher , 7(4). Whitlock, J. L., Powers, J. L., & Eckenrode, J. (2006). The Virtual Cutting Edge: The Internet and Adolescent Self-Injury. Developmental Psychology , 407–417. Yip, K.-s. (2005). A Multi-Dimensional Perspective of Adolescents’ Self-Cutting. Child and Adolescent Mental Health , 80 - 86. YIP, K.-s. (2006). A Strengths Perspective in Working with an Adolescent with Self-cutting Behaviors. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, Vol. 23, No. 2 , 134 - 146. 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