Cutting: Youth Inflict Self-Injury
By Froilan Landeros
The National Runaway Switchboard (NRS) has become increasingly aware of the growing issue of "cutting." Cutting is the intentional infliction of self-injury by making scratches or cuts on the body. Cutting is performed with sharp objects on the skin to result in bleeding and is more common with youth.
Safe Alternatives, a nationally recognized resource, states that, "self-injurers represent nearly one percent of the population, with a higher proportion of females than males. The typical onset of self-harming acts is at puberty. The behaviors often last for five to ten years, but can persist much longer without appropriate treatment."
An increasing number of NRS’ youth callers are reporting cutting as part of their issues. André Matlock, former NRS board member and volunteer on NRS’ frontline team for more than 25 years, is a psychiatric rehabilitation director at a residential home on Chicago’s northeast side. He provides NRS callers with his extensive experiential knowledge of cutters. Matlock describes cutting as "an emotional release that is not a suicidal behavior." The residential home, where he works, has 216 residents and 1/3 of them are women. He has noted that about 90% of the women residents are self-injurers.
Many people still consider cutting to be part of a personality disorder indicating violent or suicidal behavior. Others consider it a problem that needs to be ended and discouraged. Parents that detect and discourage this act in their son or daughter without providing an alternative outlet may be causing more harm than help to the mental health of their child. Cutting is a coping mechanism. Taking it away doesn’t resolve the underlying issue.
NRS’ training and education staff have been working diligently to enhance training and available resources to provide frontline team members with the tools to assist callers that self report being a cutter. NRS is approaching the issue with information and role playing examples on dealing with this delicate topic.
The training manual was recently revised for the inclusion of cutting information. In addition, the training and education staff have attended several conferences and workshops, including: The National Association of School Psychologists’ "Assessment of Individuals Who Self-Injure"; and Womencare Counseling Center of Evanston’s "Cutting and Other Self-Injury: A Discussion for Professionals". NRS incorporates information gathered at workshops into on-going training for frontline team members.
To learn more about self-injury please, visit Safe Alternatives.
Alicia's Story
By Scott Spiegler
Sean was winding down his four-hour shift as a frontline team member at the National Runaway Switchboard when the phone rang.
"National Runaway Switchboard," he answered.
"Hi. My name is Stephanie and I am a school therapist in San Francisco, CA. I have a nine year old girl with me who was found cutting herself with broken glass," Stephanie stated. "I told her that 1-800-RUNAWAY was a hotline she could always call if she wanted to talk to someone. I have her with me right now. I am going to put her on the phone, ok? She asked.
"Of course, I would be happy to speak with her," Sean said.
"She is very shy at first," Stephanie warned.
"Not a problem, it sounds like a tough situation, so that is completely understandable" Sean responded.
Sean heard breathing on the other end of the phone, but no words were ejected.
"Hi there, my name is Sean… how are you doing?"
"I’m ok… my name is Alicia" the little girl responded, her voice shaky and nervous.
"Hi Alicia, I am so glad you called. Do you want to tell me a little bit about what’s going on?" Sean said.
"Um, well I got frustrated with my teacher when she yelled at me for running around. I was so upset that I found a piece of glass and started to cut myself with it…" she said, a little less timidly than before.
"I am so sorry that you felt that way. It can be hard when our teachers are angry with us. Have you ever cut yourself before?" Sean inquired.
"No, usually when I am upset, I just run around and try to go away" said Alicia.
"What made you cut yourself this time?" Sean asked.
"I don’t know…I guess I was just so mad, and I saw the glass," Alicia stated.
"Why do you think that cutting yourself would help?" Sean asked.
"I don’t know. I just started crying." Alicia said.
"Well, do you think that maybe we could come up with some ideas together for what you can do when you get upset next time?" he asked.
"Yes, that would be nice," at this, her voice perked up.
Over then next 40 minutes, Sean and Alicia spoke about different ideas for what she could do whenever she was angry or frustrated. Alicia told Sean of her love for art, reading, and writing. Sean also learned that Alicia was very fond of her schools’ therapist, Stephanie. Sean asked Alicia if she thought it was a good idea for her to write, draw, or read whenever she was upset. He also asked if she thought it was a good idea for her to go and speak with Stephanie whenever a situation like this occurred in the future. Stephanie also told Alicia that any time she needed, she could call her mom from school to talk. Alicia liked these ideas and at the end of their conversation, she was lively, animated, and quite funny.
"Thank you Sean! You are a cool guy," Alicia said.
"Why, thank you Alicia. I have really enjoyed speaking with you," he said.
"Remember, if you EVER need to speak with anyone, you can call us any time, day or night, 24/7."
"I will. Thanks again, Sean. You have really helped me out."
*The names, photo, and location have been changed to protect anonymity of the caller.