This illness can be common among teens and can cause shame when it feels impossible to keep from hurting oneself. Feeling a need to cut your arms, or other parts of your body, is a definite sign of emotional distress. This article gives an overview of self-harm and talks about the different treatment options available. It's important to know that feelings of wanting to cut yourself is a separate condition from feeling suicidal.
Self-injury/Cutting by Mayo Clinic
Some teens feel compelled to harm themselves to ease tension and anxiety, but it doesn't bring relief in the end. The need to self-harm usually leads to terrible feelings of shame and painful emotions. This article lists the symptoms and causes of this mental illness and how teens can get help. There is also information provided for concerned family and friends of those who hurt themselves.
Plante, L. G. (2007). Bleeding to ease the pain : cutting, self-injury, and the adolescent search for self. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Written by a psychologist, this book gives the reader a glimpse into the lives of her teen patients who suffer from the inability to stop themselves from inflicting self-harm. She feels the three I's of being a teen which are independence, identity, and intimacy present challenges which may lead to cutting in certain people. But there is hope for these teens and anyone who struggles with this problem.
