Quote:
Originally posted by James
If she only does it after she has a bad scene with a boy . . it might not be that serious.
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Uhhh . . . no.
What is important here is not what triggers her to cut (boys, fights with her parents, grades, whatever) but why she turns to cutting rather than a more appropriate response. Once again, you are trivializing a very serious issue that you have little to no experience dealing with. In most cases the reason why people cut is two-fold:
1) They are unable to talk about their problems to people. Cutting is a subconscious way of making it obvious that they're hurting even if they can't express it in words.
2) They think that their problems are entirely their own fault and that they deserve to be "punished" for it -- thus they take out their negative feelings on their bodies.
Whether it happens only once every couple months or three times a day, either way it is a serious problem in need of addressing.
(Eating disorders are just another form of self-injury and the reasons behind them are often the same, fyi.)
And Phildo is right -- while cutters are more likely to attempt suicide than non-cutters, that's just because cutters often have problems with depression and anxiety, which lead to suicide attempts. But cutting in and of itself is NOT an indication of suicidal intentions (it is a coping mechanism intended to prevent dealing with suicidal feelings/depression/rage/anxiety), and the majority of cutters are not suicidal. I would hesitate in making that jump because it can make the cutter feel isolated and like you don't understand her problem if she is, indeed, not suicidal and you assume she is -- and from the situation described here, it doesn't sound like DGQueen's friend is suicidal, although, of course, that's definitely something you want to check up on.