Cutting (1 Viewer)

[timschochet]

I have two close friends with daughters, one is 11, the other 12. I learned this week that both have been cutting themselves. Their parents had no idea. Both are apparently very depressed, seeking psychiatric care.

They’re both so young- middle school. I don’t understand why kids are doing this. Is it that so much more stressful when we were young? Or did this happen then too and I just missed it?

My friends are so distraught. I think they’re both good sets of parents but they blame themselves.

 

[xulf]

I have two close friends with daughters, one is 11, the other 12. I learned this week that both have been cutting themselves. Their parents had no idea. Both are apparently very depressed, seeking psychiatric care.

They’re both so young- middle school. I don’t understand why kids are doing this. Is it that so much more stressful when we were young? Or did this happen then too and I just missed it?

My friends are so distraught. I think they’re both good sets of parents but they blame themselves.

Life is just different. There is no way for anyone to know the real differences of pressures from one generation to the next.

As a Gen X / Millennial hybrid (born in 1980), I can say I was left to really do whatever I wanted. Left at home by myself all the time too. Now it is a much more protective environment for kids. Partially because people tend to do the opposite of their parents and partially because the world is more F'ed up (or perceived to be) with kidnappings, human trafficking, school shootings, etc.

Add in an extreme amount of scare tactics from media sources and social media putting out anything and everything, bullying, etc. and it's a lot to handle. I don't think anyone from older generations can fairly put themselves in the shoes of our kids or younger generations.

Stress, input overload, and fear are horrible things to try and handle. Especially for kids.

 

[ChiefD]

I would also add the stress of the Covid years and the isolation of kids is starting to manifest itself. Going to be rough for some of them for sure. Very sad.

 

[timschochet]

I would also add the stress of the Covid years and the isolation of kids is starting to manifest itself. Going to be rough for some of them for sure. Very sad.

This is an interesting point, which hadn’t occurred to me. We’re well over a year past schools being shut down but of course it must have had a powerful effect.

 

[ghostguy123]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

 

[jobarules]

I have two close friends with daughters, one is 11, the other 12. I learned this week that both have been cutting themselves. Their parents had no idea. Both are apparently very depressed, seeking psychiatric care.

They’re both so young- middle school. I don’t understand why kids are doing this. Is it that so much more stressful when we were young? Or did this happen then too and I just missed it?

My friends are so distraught. I think they’re both good sets of parents but they blame themselves.

Social media and the lockdowns really damaged kids. I've seen it happen to my 13 year old. He's in therapy now. It's so sad.

 

[gianmarco]

Cutting and other forms of self harm have always been around. Not that you "missed it", but it's not apparent to most. I think more data will need to come out, but I don't think the rates have increased. Unfortunately what has made it more difficult is a decreasing availability of resources to help those with mental health issues. Especially during the pandemic.

Interestingly enough, here's one study from one year ago that shows self harm actually decreased during the pandemic.

Best of luck to them and their parents.

 

[gianmarco]

Btw, here's something from 2018. Nearly 1 in 4 teenage girls self-harm.

That's pre-pandemic. It's a lot more common than most people realize.

 

[Andrew74]

My eldest daughter cut herself some in middle school; well before COVID. She also didn’t have social media access. She went to a counselor for a little while. Basically just seemed to be a phase. My middle daughter didn’t do it and she has been treated for depression (she’s always been a melancholy child). There just seems to be various reasons. Just have to talk to your kids and get them the help they need.

 

[timschochet]

Btw, here's something from 2018. Nearly 1 in 4 teenage girls self-harm.

That's pre-pandemic. It's a lot more common than most people realize.

Wow. Had no idea

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

Not really. Cutting existed before there was social media. It just hid in the shadows. But it was there.

 

[ghostguy123]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

Not really. Cutting existed before there was social media. It just hid in the shadows. But it was there.

Yeah, but nowhere near the extent

 

[ghostguy123]

Cutting and other forms of self harm have always been around. Not that you "missed it", but it's not apparent to most. I think more data will need to come out, but I don't think the rates have increased. Unfortunately what has made it more difficult is a decreasing availability of resources to help those with mental health issues. Especially during the pandemic.

Interestingly enough, here's one study from one year ago that shows self harm actually decreased during the pandemic.

Best of luck to them and their parents.

Not sure the accuracy there. A lot of things were simply reported less the first two years of Covid, and it wasn't because those things were happening less.

 

[-OZ-]

I have two close friends with daughters, one is 11, the other 12. I learned this week that both have been cutting themselves. Their parents had no idea. Both are apparently very depressed, seeking psychiatric care.

They’re both so young- middle school. I don’t understand why kids are doing this. Is it that so much more stressful when we were young? Or did this happen then too and I just missed it?

My friends are so distraught. I think they’re both good sets of parents but they blame themselves.

Social media and the lockdowns really damaged kids. I've seen it happen to my 13 year old. He's in therapy now. It's so sad.

My 14yo is too. Most days are okay but he’s struggling to find his / their identity.

 

[Dickies]

A girl I was friends with in middle school 30 years ago did this, so it's definitely been around. I'm guessing that social media and the internet in general have just made it more visible.

 

[Da Guru]

I have two close friends with daughters, one is 11, the other 12. I learned this week that both have been cutting themselves. Their parents had no idea. Both are apparently very depressed, seeking psychiatric care.

They’re both so young- middle school. I don’t understand why kids are doing this. Is it that so much more stressful when we were young? Or did this happen then too and I just missed it?

My friends are so distraught. I think they’re both good sets of parents but they blame themselves.

My daughter knows a few cutters, most are from wealthy families too. stress to keep up a successful lifestyle is one cause, but most of it is social media driven. Feeling left out or bullied. Social media is probably the worst thing that has ever happened for teenaged kids.

 

[FreeBaGeL]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

Not really. Cutting existed before there was social media. It just hid in the shadows. But it was there.

Yeah, but nowhere near the extent

I could be totally wrong but I bet it's less prevalent now. I don't have any data to support this and am talking out of my butt here but 93.7318% of the time (made-up number) people make these kind of statements if you can find the data it ends up being the opposite.

Just like the "I used to just ride my bike around anywhere when I was a kid, but now the world is way too dangerous!" crowd and then, whoops, it turns out child abductions/murders by strangers are actually down by some huge amount since they were kids.

I think @Dickies has a point. Whether social media causes certain things to happen more or not I don't know. But one thing it does is make us much more AWARE of them. So we hear about a lot more awful stuff than before, even if there's less of that awful stuff happening than before. Just like those folks didn't hear about all the kids that went out on their bike and never came home because it wasn't their neighbor's kid who disappeared.

 

[Zow]

I have two close friends with daughters, one is 11, the other 12. I learned this week that both have been cutting themselves. Their parents had no idea. Both are apparently very depressed, seeking psychiatric care.

They’re both so young- middle school. I don’t understand why kids are doing this. Is it that so much more stressful when we were young? Or did this happen then too and I just missed it?

My friends are so distraught. I think they’re both good sets of parents but they blame themselves.

This phenomenon has been around for decades and it unfortunately quite prevalent.

 

[Zow]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

Not really. Cutting existed before there was social media. It just hid in the shadows. But it was there.

Yeah, but nowhere near the extent

I could be totally wrong but I bet it's less prevalent now. I don't have any data to support this and am talking out of my butt here but 93.7318% of the time (made-up number) people make these kind of statements if you can find the data it ends up being the opposite.

Just like the "I used to just ride my bike around anywhere when I was a kid, but now the world is way too dangerous!" crowd and then, whoops, it turns out child abductions/murders by strangers are actually down by some huge amount since they were kids.

I think @Dickies has a point. Whether social media causes certain things to happen more or not I don't know. But one thing it does is make us much more AWARE of them. So we hear about a lot more awful stuff than before, even if there's less of that awful stuff happening than before. Just like those folks didn't hear about all the kids that went out on their bike and never came home because it wasn't their neighbor's kid who disappeared.

Love, love, love this post.

 

[Zow]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

Not really. Cutting existed before there was social media. It just hid in the shadows. But it was there.

Yeah, but nowhere near the extent

What do you base this claim on?

 

[belljr]

Sorry there are plenty of studies that show cutting increased with social media. Yes it was around before, yes it actually decreased during COVID but here are the numbers

Types of Mental Illness

Learn more from WebMD about the different types of mental illness.

www.webmd.com

For example, one recent study indicated that self-harm among college freshmen shot up from less than 3% in 2008 to more than 19% by 2015.





Could that mean more people were then online, sure. Kids deal with stress differently, my daughter went through therapy for other issues but not cutting This is one thing I don't think is similar to the overstating of things Freebagel mentioned

 

[facook]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

Not really. Cutting existed before there was social media. It just hid in the shadows. But it was there.

Yeah, but nowhere near the extent

I could be totally wrong but I bet it's less prevalent now. I don't have any data to support this and am talking out of my butt here but 93.7318% of the time (made-up number) people make these kind of statements if you can find the data it ends up being the opposite.

Just like the "I used to just ride my bike around anywhere when I was a kid, but now the world is way too dangerous!" crowd and then, whoops, it turns out child abductions/murders by strangers are actually down by some huge amount since they were kids.

I think @Dickies has a point. Whether social media causes certain things to happen more or not I don't know. But one thing it does is make us much more AWARE of them. So we hear about a lot more awful stuff than before, even if there's less of that awful stuff happening than before. Just like those folks didn't hear about all the kids that went out on their bike and never came home because it wasn't their neighbor's kid who disappeared.

Totally anecdotal, but my wife and I have talked with our closest friends about this regarding our kids. Our town has grown from 6000 when I was in elementary school to around 35,000 now. Just more traffic, more people, more chances for crap to happen. I think overall you are probably right that nation-wide the really terrible stuff doesn't happen more often. But in certain locales it certainly can and does.

 

[Manster]

I have a 13 yo daughter, and we've dealt with self esteem stuff, bullying, etc.....not cutting....but I feel for any parent who has to endure theor child in emotional pain. We all want our kids to be confident, and successful.

Our children, especially girls, are subjected to constant stimulation on screens.....beautiful, interesting people. Their little minds are not equipped to handle it. It think adolescent girls many times dont feel like they measure up. Add in the daily struggle to fit in at school where, imo, the priorities for our kids are messed up....but that's a whole issue unto itself.
On the plus side, there is more help available for mental health than ever before.....we as parents must be as involved as we can...know who they are hanging out with....

 

[Courtjester]

I will agree that social media helped bring it more to the forefront, but cutting has been around for a very long time.

I know a lot will disagree with me, but I have read a lot about this subject and have experienced it first hand. Cutting is self-harm and is a reflection of something deeper for sure, but in most cases it cannot be confused with a suicide attempt. It is a control issue for some.

This is hard to post but here goes:

My wife and I have been together since HS and both our daughters cut. They are now 18-23–very intelligent, driven kids. Our oldest hid it (top of her foot) and when we found out about it junior year we were shocked, but because she was so successful and top of her class we didn't pursue intervention because we didn't want her to lose everything SHE worked so hard for. We talked and talked to her. She said she did it to cope with the stress she was feeling and it was the "one" thing she could control. She has said over and over she didn't want to die. She has anxiety and sees a therapist now, but she is very thankful we didn't overreact. She is a very successful bio/chemist now.

Our 2nd daughter we discovered was cutting (top of the shoulder and inner leg) four years ago. She was a good student, but she just wasn't as secretive about it as our older one. She was very open about it, but again persisted she didn't want to die. She to this day "feels" things. She is the kid every one of her friends come to when they have problems and is going to college to be a therapist. I can replay that day years ago in my head with me taking her to the hospital to get the superficial cuts looked at. The social worker there M-1'd her, but said it was a tough call. I can remember standing in the ER mental health ward with my foot against the door to her room as outside the main ward was full of psychotic adults just fighting with guards, trying to get in our room and the place going off. It took 8 hours of me standing like that before they strapped her in a bed and took her to a local facility. She got there and she quickly realized I don't belong here--I am not anywhere near as severe as these kids. Released 72 hrs later and then we got her a psychologist.Two weeks later, she told the psychologist she had some urges to cut (but didn't), but this supposed professional told us we had to send her back. New (better facility) but a new, terrible psychiatrist put her on six absolutely heavy duty anti-psychotics meds--think anti-homicidal med level. She got home and was a zombie and was completely a different person and unrecognizable. She is sent back into another facility. The new psychiatrist was shocked she was on any of these meds and took her off all of them. She gets out and put on a simple anxiety med and to this day has had few self harm ideas since then. She graduated with honors from HS, but she lost a ton of her life. We all wonder what would have happened if we just would have treated her like our first child.

Oh, thank god I have good insurance because these stays were over 200k combined.

Now before people flame me, we know at least two or three families that have lost kids to suicide so please don’t perceive I am downplaying this. I just believe there is a fine line between suicide and somebody just doing superficial cuts, but today’s world doesn’t see it that way.

Sorry so long

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Now before people flame me

Anyone who does that is likely to find my foot in their a#@.

I'm so sorry you all had to go through this. I hope the other side of this is a much better place.

 

[BassNBrew]

I have two close friends with daughters, one is 11, the other 12. I learned this week that both have been cutting themselves. Their parents had no idea. Both are apparently very depressed, seeking psychiatric care.

They’re both so young- middle school. I don’t understand why kids are doing this. Is it that so much more stressful when we were young? Or did this happen then too and I just missed it?

My friends are so distraught. I think they’re both good sets of parents but they blame themselves.

Life is just different. There is no way for anyone to know the real differences of pressures from one generation to the next.

As a Gen X / Millennial hybrid (born in 1980), I can say I was left to really do whatever I wanted. Left at home by myself all the time too. Now it is a much more protective environment for kids. Partially because people tend to do the opposite of their parents and partially because the world is more F'ed up (or perceived to be) with kidnappings, human trafficking, school shootings, etc.

Add in an extreme amount of scare tactics from media sources and social media putting out anything and everything, bullying, etc. and it's a lot to handle. I don't think anyone from older generations can fairly put themselves in the shoes of our kids or younger generations.

Stress, input overload, and fear are horrible things to try and handle. Especially for kids.

I have two close friends with daughters, one is 11, the other 12. I learned this week that both have been cutting themselves. Their parents had no idea. Both are apparently very depressed, seeking psychiatric care.

They’re both so young- middle school. I don’t understand why kids are doing this. Is it that so much more stressful when we were young? Or did this happen then too and I just missed it?

My friends are so distraught. I think they’re both good sets of parents but they blame themselves.

My daughter knows a few cutters, most are from wealthy families too. stress to keep up a successful lifestyle is one cause, but most of it is social media driven. Feeling left out or bullied. Social media is probably the worst thing that has ever happened for teenaged kids.

Same as it ever was???

As a 3rd grader walking home from school I got punched and hit by 6th graders until I found another route home.
As a 7th-8th grader in a different state the high school kids would shoot at us with pellet guns on the walk home.
As a high schooler I witnessed fights on a regular basis. Fat kids and gays were bullied. Bus rides were dreaded by most of the younger kids. The senior football players would gang up on underclassmen and rub Bengay on their balls. Others were anally raped with a broomstick.
Even in college the hazing was just expected and not something that made the news.

Most every kid I know these days is tolerant and friendly with others who are different from them and they don't seem to take pride in harassing younger kids.

 

[timschochet]

I will agree that social media helped bring it more to the forefront, but cutting has been around for a very long time.

I know a lot will disagree with me, but I have read a lot about this subject and have experienced it first hand. Cutting is self-harm and is a reflection of something deeper for sure, but in most cases it cannot be confused with a suicide attempt. It is a control issue for some.

This is hard to post but here goes:

My wife and I have been together since HS and both our daughters cut. They are now 18-23–very intelligent, driven kids. Our oldest hid it (top of her foot) and when we found out about it junior year we were shocked, but because she was so successful and top of her class we didn't pursue intervention because we didn't want her to lose everything SHE worked so hard for. We talked and talked to her. She said she did it to cope with the stress she was feeling and it was the "one" thing she could control. She has said over and over she didn't want to die. She has anxiety and sees a therapist now, but she is very thankful we didn't overreact. She is a very successful bio/chemist now.

Our 2nd daughter we discovered was cutting (top of the shoulder and inner leg) four years ago. She was a good student, but she just wasn't as secretive about it as our older one. She was very open about it, but again persisted she didn't want to die. She to this day "feels" things. She is the kid every one of her friends come to when they have problems and is going to college to be a therapist. I can replay that day years ago in my head with me taking her to the hospital to get the superficial cuts looked at. The social worker there M-1'd her, but said it was a tough call. I can remember standing in the ER mental health ward with my foot against the door to her room as outside the main ward was full of psychotic adults just fighting with guards, trying to get in our room and the place going off. It took 8 hours of me standing like that before they strapped her in a bed and took her to a local facility. She got there and she quickly realized I don't belong here--I am not anywhere near as severe as these kids. Released 72 hrs later and then we got her a psychologist.Two weeks later, she told the psychologist she had some urges to cut (but didn't), but this supposed professional told us we had to send her back. New (better facility) but a new, terrible psychiatrist put her on six absolutely heavy duty anti-psychotics meds--think anti-homicidal med level. She got home and was a zombie and was completely a different person and unrecognizable. She is sent back into another facility. The new psychiatrist was shocked she was on any of these meds and took her off all of them. She gets out and put on a simple anxiety med and to this day has had few self harm ideas since then. She graduated with honors from HS, but she lost a ton of her life. We all wonder what would have happened if we just would have treated her like our first child.

Oh, thank god I have good insurance because these stays were over 200k combined.

Now before people flame me, we know at least two or three families that have lost kids to suicide so please don’t perceive I am downplaying this. I just believe there is a fine line between suicide and somebody just doing superficial cuts, but today’s world doesn’t see it that way.

Sorry so long

What a powerful post CJ. Thank you.

 

[ghostguy123]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

Not really. Cutting existed before there was social media. It just hid in the shadows. But it was there.

Yeah, but nowhere near the extent

What do you base this claim on?

20 years as a psych nurse

 

[IvanKaramazov]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

Not really. Cutting existed before there was social media. It just hid in the shadows. But it was there.

Yeah, but nowhere near the extent

I could be totally wrong but I bet it's less prevalent now. I don't have any data to support this and am talking out of my butt here but 93.7318% of the time (made-up number) people make these kind of statements if you can find the data it ends up being the opposite.

Just like the "I used to just ride my bike around anywhere when I was a kid, but now the world is way too dangerous!" crowd and then, whoops, it turns out child abductions/murders by strangers are actually down by some huge amount since they were kids.

I think @Dickies has a point. Whether social media causes certain things to happen more or not I don't know. But one thing it does is make us much more AWARE of them. So we hear about a lot more awful stuff than before, even if there's less of that awful stuff happening than before. Just like those folks didn't hear about all the kids that went out on their bike and never came home because it wasn't their neighbor's kid who disappeared.

Normally I would agree with this, but I can't turn around without encountering somebody going on about some kind of mental health crisis affecting young people. I haven't seen much evidence of such a crisis personally, but if there was one, I would assume it would manifest itself in anxious activities like cutting.

"Stranger danger" was always a lie. Even when we were growing up, nobody was actually driving around in a van snatching kids off the street. It's wild that people still think that's a thing.

 

[Joe Bryant]

On the social media topic, I think it's two areas.

One, we hear more about EVERYTHING now way more than we used to. From good things to bad things, we have the ability to share so much more now than we did pre social media.

Secondly, I think there's a significant element of pressure from social media that factors into this. Mostly comparison where kids (and adults) can suffer when it looks like everyone but them is thriving.

 

[belljr]

My daughter was never on social media - she has an account to post her sports stuff but she went through and still does pulling of her hair. She doesn't eve realize she does it. Its her coping mechanism..... she has gotten better with it of therapy and time but its still there

 

[Dr. Octopus]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

It’s been going on longer than social media has been around.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

It’s been going on longer than social media has been around.

Yep. Teenage girls have high rates of specific types of self-harm. Cutting, eating disorders, hair pulling, etc. Glad we never had to deal with any of this with our own daughter.

 

[Zow]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

Not really. Cutting existed before there was social media. It just hid in the shadows. But it was there.

Yeah, but nowhere near the extent

I could be totally wrong but I bet it's less prevalent now. I don't have any data to support this and am talking out of my butt here but 93.7318% of the time (made-up number) people make these kind of statements if you can find the data it ends up being the opposite.

Just like the "I used to just ride my bike around anywhere when I was a kid, but now the world is way too dangerous!" crowd and then, whoops, it turns out child abductions/murders by strangers are actually down by some huge amount since they were kids.

I think @Dickies has a point. Whether social media causes certain things to happen more or not I don't know. But one thing it does is make us much more AWARE of them. So we hear about a lot more awful stuff than before, even if there's less of that awful stuff happening than before. Just like those folks didn't hear about all the kids that went out on their bike and never came home because it wasn't their neighbor's kid who disappeared.

Normally I would agree with this, but I can't turn around without encountering somebody going on about some kind of mental health crisis affecting young people. I haven't seen much evidence of such a crisis personally, but if there was one, I would assume it would manifest itself in anxious activities like cutting.

"Stranger danger" was always a lie. Even when we were growing up, nobody was actually driving around in a van snatching kids off the street. It's wild that people still think that's a thing.

I can say firsthand this isn't entirely accurate and does happen (though rarely).

But, I agree with your point that it happened so rarely that it was notable when it happened and irrationally scared the heck out of parents.

 

[belljr]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

It’s been going on longer than social media has been around.

It definitely has been - i posted an study that showed it has increased with sm

 

[Jayrod]

"Stranger danger" was always a lie. Even when we were growing up, nobody was actually driving around in a van snatching kids off the street. It's wild that people still think that's a thing.

I can say firsthand this isn't entirely accurate and does happen (though rarely).

But, I agree with your point that it happened so rarely that it was notable when it happened and irrationally scared the heck out of parents.

I once got into a Facebook argument with women who refused to return their cart to the bin because of the fear of someone kidnapping their child in the 5 seconds it would take to walk away from their car and back. Fear over safety of children is often very irrational.

 

[Zow]

My daughter was never on social media - she has an account to post her sports stuff but she went through and still does pulling of her hair. She doesn't eve realize she does it. Its her coping mechanism..... she has gotten better with it of therapy and time but its still there

My eight year old daughter (substance exposed in utero) does this bizarre thing where she absent-mindedly pulls out her eyebrows and eyelashes. We're working on it with her (she's also in therapy), and it very well may be an unfortunate side effect from a prescription medication, but it's definitely concerning and we're afraid she will continue the behavior middle school on and will encounter some bullying or being picked on because of it.

 

[Zow]

"Stranger danger" was always a lie. Even when we were growing up, nobody was actually driving around in a van snatching kids off the street. It's wild that people still think that's a thing.

I can say firsthand this isn't entirely accurate and does happen (though rarely).

But, I agree with your point that it happened so rarely that it was notable when it happened and irrationally scared the heck out of parents.

I once got into a Facebook argument with women who refused to return their cart to the bin because of the fear of someone kidnapping their child in the 5 seconds it would take to walk away from their car and back. Fear over safety of children is often very irrational.

Oh for sure.

Similarly, my mother-in-law used to demand that my wife look under her car before ever getting into it because some guy, somewhere, one time, hid under a girl's car and cut her Achilles so as to incapacitate and kidnap her. So, naturally, the fear is that there are men hiding under cars everywhere...

 

[belljr]

In all seriousness - i walk around my car when getting in a parking lot..... not because of some dude but i have had **** end up behind my tires on more than one occasion

 

[Buck Bradcanon]

My youngest cut about 2 years ago. Just the once as far as we know. Variety of things going on. But she is in counseling and sees a psychiatrist as well. In a much better place now as a high school sophomore. I tear up a bit just typing this.

I love you Becca.

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

Btw, here's something from 2018. Nearly 1 in 4 teenage girls self-harm.

That's pre-pandemic. It's a lot more common than most people realize.

This.

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

My youngest cut about 2 years ago. Just the once as far as we know. Variety of things going on. But she is in counseling and sees a psychiatrist as well. In a much better place now as a high school sophomore. I tear up a bit just typing this.

I love you Becca.

Went through this as well. My heart goes out to parents who’s kids don’t stop or worse.

My girls essentially said almost every girl does it. Something about not being able to control their anger or rage and the cutting suppresses it.

I have no idea. My unscientific option is that we as humans need to struggle or have always struggled. When there is not “real” struggle we invent one. Mix that in with a culture that glorifies people who’ve come from nothing and you have this. Just my guess. :struggle:

 

[timschochet]

Obviously not every girl does it. But the study posted said 1 in 4. That’s a lot.

My own daughters never cut but apparently they had friends in middle school and high school who did (I didn’t know this until very recently when the situation I described in the OP came about. I had no idea.) However both my girls have and continue to suffer from stress which has manifested itself in stomach issues, IBS etc. They are both seeing therapists. I wish I could help them more but I’m at a loss about what to do for them.

 

[eoMMan]

Is that Slender Man still a thing?

 

[-fish-]

Have a friend that struggled with this into her mid-20's. Getting involved with this group helped her.

 

[Van Dyman]

My daughter was never on social media - she has an account to post her sports stuff but she went through and still does pulling of her hair. She doesn't eve realize she does it. Its her coping mechanism..... she has gotten better with it of therapy and time but its still there

My eight year old daughter (substance exposed in utero) does this bizarre thing where she absent-mindedly pulls out her eyebrows and eyelashes. We're working on it with her (she's also in therapy), and it very well may be an unfortunate side effect from a prescription medication, but it's definitely concerning and we're afraid she will continue the behavior middle school on and will encounter some bullying or being picked on because of it.

Hang in there, Zow. My neice went through the eybrows & eyelashes thing for about a year, but not anymore.

 

[ghostguy123]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

It’s been going on longer than social media has been around.

Well, yeah.
Again, talking about recent technology that has made that issue wayyyyyy more prevalent for a number of reasons.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

"Stranger danger" was always a lie. Even when we were growing up, nobody was actually driving around in a van snatching kids off the street. It's wild that people still think that's a thing.

Sure it is. Just because it isn't that common, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

 

[gianmarco]

"Stranger danger" was always a lie. Even when we were growing up, nobody was actually driving around in a van snatching kids off the street. It's wild that people still think that's a thing.

Sure it is. Just because it isn't that common, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Yeah, it definitely happens

Luckily, it's exceedingly rare, but it is a thing.

 

[Chris B.]

Thank social media. Direct correlation.

Not really. Cutting existed before there was social media. It just hid in the shadows. But it was there.

Yeah, but nowhere near the extent

I could be totally wrong but I bet it's less prevalent now. I don't have any data to support this and am talking out of my butt here but 93.7318% of the time (made-up number) people make these kind of statements if you can find the data it ends up being the opposite.

Just like the "I used to just ride my bike around anywhere when I was a kid, but now the world is way too dangerous!" crowd and then, whoops, it turns out child abductions/murders by strangers are actually down by some huge amount since they were kids.

I think @Dickies has a point. Whether social media causes certain things to happen more or not I don't know. But one thing it does is make us much more AWARE of them. So we hear about a lot more awful stuff than before, even if there's less of that awful stuff happening than before. Just like those folks didn't hear about all the kids that went out on their bike and never came home because it wasn't their neighbor's kid who disappeared.

Normally I would agree with this, but I can't turn around without encountering somebody going on about some kind of mental health crisis affecting young people. I haven't seen much evidence of such a crisis personally, but if there was one, I would assume it would manifest itself in anxious activities like cutting.

"Stranger danger" was always a lie. Even when we were growing up, nobody was actually driving around in a van snatching kids off the street. It's wild that people still think that's a thing.

WRONG. Last month a 9 year old girl that I know was playing in the front fenced in yard with 2 of her friends. A man literally drove up to the house, waited until one of the girls wandered close to the fence, then grabbed her to pull her into his van. The girl fought out of his grasp, and the all of them screamed for help. The mother who was inside ran out to see the guy drive off. It's not a lie and it sucks that people like you telling others that it doesn't happen. The resulting trauma is also real for all the families and it would be even worse if the abductor had been successful.
So because it didn't happen to you - it doesn't happen? Kindly GTFOH with that S.