When the stress is too much

It usually begins with a small cut. Overwhelming feelings of pain and stress melt as blood meets air. The sensation is often described as euphoric. It is a paradoxical moment when the infliction of pain brings relief.
What once was minimal eventually becomes uncontrollable, and the sparse scratches evolve into countless scars, some bound by stitches.
It is called Self-Injurious Behavior and is a growing trend among adolescents and young adults. According to a 2006 Cornell University study, 17 percent of college students report harming themselves by cutting, burning or carving. Based on the research, college campuses have seen a significant increase over the past five years in psychological disorders, one of them being SIB.
Adolescents generally injure themselves for one of three reasons. The first is to escape powerful emotions of rage or pain. Drawing blood and inflicting pain distracts them from these feelings. Second, some adolescents feel numb and void of emotion because of prolonged feelings of sadness. The physical pain of cutting stimulates them to feel something. The third reason teenagers injure themselves is for release. For them, their trickling blood symbolizes the release of anger, frustration and pain.

A Local Example

For one GCSU sophomore, cutting herself allowed her to cope with her painful circumstances. Much of her life was out of her control and caused her emotional distress, but by cutting herself, she was able to have control of when and where she felt pain.
“It made me feel better to be able to see why I was hurting as opposed to it just being something that happened with my family or a fight,” she said.
This fine arts major said another reason she injured herself was to release adrenaline.
“When I would get upset, my blood would start to flow and I could practically hear it in my ears,” she said. “Cutting myself released all of that and kind of allowed me to calm down.”
The cutting started when she was 14. She recalled visiting with some of her friends from her hometown that day and having fun with them. She said she should have been happy that day, but she wasn’t.
“I think on some level I knew that it was going to end and I was going to have to go back home and leave them all,” she said. “I wasn’t even focusing on it, I just looked down and realized I had cut open my knee.”
This began a three-year period of cutting. At the most frequent time, she was cutting herself several times a week.
“Whenever anything would upset me, I would use it to make myself feel better,” she said.
The GCSU sophomore realizes now that although she felt in control by cutting, she wasn’t.
“It becomes addictive and it is very dangerous,” she said. “You aren’t only harming your body, but you are also harming yourself psychologically.”
Looking back on her experiences, she appreciates the trying circumstances she trudged through.
“Honestly, I don’t regret it,” she said. “I know that I could have handled everything a lot better if I would have gone to therapy, but it was a life experience and I am just lucky that I could learn from it and that I didn’t hurt myself any worse than what I did.”

A Professional Word

Dr. Mary Jane Phillips, director of the GCSU counseling center, affirmed the self-injury trend in college students. In her experience, the last five years have shown a significant rise in the amount of students struggling with it.
Phillips said cutting is a means of relieving tension and is not an immediate threat of suicide. Teenagers who do it are not necessarily trying to hurt themselves.
“The people who use this strategy don’t have other effective ways of managing stress and tension,” Phillips said.
Phillips gave several other methods that release endorphins and relieve stress:
 Exercise
 Social support (talking to friends)
 Spiritual practice (prayer/meditation)
 Eating
 Shopping
 Alone time
Phillips has specific strategies for dealing with students dealing with self-injury. She never forces decisions on anyone; rather, she helps them realize where they are and where they want to be.
“It would be foolish to try to impose change,” Phillips said. “I’m not able to make people do what they don’t want to do. If they do want change, we explore other methods over time to deal with stress.”
Phillips noticed some similarities with students who cut themselves. The first is that the issue is frequently about control. She also said many students have past issues with their families that translate into their need to harm themselves. For example, a teenager might have been raised in a family where displaying anger was not tolerated. As a result, they had no healthy way to express anger. This led them to cutting as a secret method of getting it out in the way they chose.
“They would figure out something else to do – an outlet to express feelings,” Phillips said.
According to Phillips, cutting is not an effective measure of managing stress. The human body responds to stress physically with a buildup of chemicals and adrenaline. A healthy way of dealing with this reaction is release, and cutting actually does not achieve this effect.
“If all you do is cut, you are not using up stress chemicals, you are just masking them,” Phillips said. “It’s not good stress management.”
She compared it to having a drinking problem-using alcohol to “escape” problems and pain.
“It is habitual, and it keeps you from using effective approaches,” Phillips said.
Self-injury is a trend on the rise, a new method of dealing with negative feelings. The initial cut is done in desperation to mend the pain, but the true wound is to the soul, much deeper than a band-aid can fix.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 16 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry