I myself have never turned to cutting, so my thoughts on this important subject will necessarily be second-hand information I have gleaned from discussing it with young women I know who do cut.

The young women I know who cut have shared with me that they view it alternately as a form of self-punishment, as a way to 'feel' emotions that otherwise feel too strong (believing they couldn't bear it on an emotional level they channel their inner pain to a physical experience instead), or even as a 'proof' that they exist, because they have grown so numb that they have no real experience of themselves anymore outside of creating a physical wound and watching nature take its course. They tell me that the temporary physical pain is like a wake-up call where for a moment they, like the cursed soldiers in the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ film, can feel human sensation again.

I hope that this explanation makes sense.

There are skilled treatment professionals who can intervene and help the cutting to cease. I unfortunately am not one of them - I understand the drive to do it and the reasons why, but I do not know the techniques these particular treatment professionals are trained in.

One helpful suggestion I can make is something I do with those I work with who have eating disorders, and that is finding alternate means of expression to help them begin to 'rewire' the brain to disconnect the associative link that has been made between two unlike things - i.e., food and managing painful emotions, or cutting and managing painful emotions. I have seen therapeutic tools like painting or drawing on the area where a cut would have taken place that have had some success. Also, displacing the need to act out through cutting onto craft projects or service work sometimes helps. I believe that what is ultimately needed is a new set of coping skills to replace the cutting as the primary means of making it through difficult periods of life. So in this way it is like anything else we struggle with that is self-injuring....we just have to enter into a sincere effort and determination to do things a new way, and not stop till we get there.

I hope this helps. If you want to read about the subject of cutting by an expert in the field, I recommend this book - it is by Steven Levenkron, Cutting: Understanding and Overcoming Self-Mutilation.

Shannon

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