self-injury epidemic
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/06/05/injury
Self-Injury Epidemic
In the latest incarnation of MTV’s The Real World still one of the
most popular shows for the college-age population a woman on the
cast has some serious scabs on her arms. Throughout the season, she’s
had violent arguments with cast mates, often after raucous nights of
drinking.
When she awakens on many a morning after, usually oblivious to her
previous night’s travails, the camera frequently catches her picking
the unsightly scabs until they bleed. During these injury sessions,
she sometimes quietly rocks herself, in a sort of fetal position.
Soon after the picking, her eyes seem to spell relief. She’s admitted
that she hasn’t let her wounds heal for over three years.
According to a new study, published today in the June issue of
Pediatrics, the Real World alum is just one of thousands of college-
aged individuals both males and females who are engaging in self-
injurious behavior, including cutting, biting, bruising, breaking
one’s own bones, and ripping off one’s skin or hair. Clinicians and
researchers say that there’s a need to promote awareness about this
seemingly growing problem, and to treat the underlying causes.
In the survey of 2,875 students at 2 Northeastern universities the
largest U.S. study to date on how common self-injury is among college
students researchers found that about 17 percent of undergraduates
and graduate students report that they have cut, burned, punched or
harmed themselves in other ways. This number includes 20 percent of
women and 14 percent of men. Over 41 percent of of students who
reported such behavior said that they began hurting themselves
between ages of 17 and 22.
“I wasn’t expecting the percentages to be quite so high,” says Janis
Whitlock, lead author of the study and director of Cornell
University’s Research Program on Self-Injurious Behavior. “There’s a
whole lot of anecdotal evidence and studies that focused on smaller
numbers of subjects that indicate this is a growing problem.”
Whitlock is especially concerned that three-quarters of the students
engaged in self-injurious behaviors more than once. Those with repeat
self-injurious behavior incidents were more likely to have considered
or attempted suicide and to report a history of emotional or sexual
abuse.
Many are hurting themselves seriously, with 21 percent indicating
that they had injured themselves more severely than they expected
more than once. And over one-quarter of all repeat self-injurers said
that they had hurt themselves so badly that a medical professional
should have treated them.
Jaquie Resnick, director of the Counseling Center at the University
of Florida, says that the research is on target with her
approximately 30 years of observing and treating college students.
“More people are presenting with this,” she says. “I’m surprised at
how few are actually seeking help.”
Just over 3 percent of the students in the study indicated that a
physician knew about their self-injurious behaviors. Over half of
repeat self-injurers had ever been to therapy for any reason, and one-
quarter reported disclosing or discussing self injuries with a mental
health professional.
Whitlock says that two types of mutilators are common: those who feel
very numb as a result of some emotional or physical abuse, who want
to harm themselves to feel the “pain of being alive”; or those who
are feeling an overwhelming amount of negative pressure, who hurt
themselves to release the pain. Over time, Whitlock says that the
hurting behavior may release addictive endorphins in the brain that
help an individual feel that they are coping with his or her
problems, when they are really just masking their underlying feelings.
Resnick says that going to a counselor and learning the underlying
causes for their behaviors can often help self-injurers. “They’re
using it as a way to cope,” she says. “And they can learn how to
prevent itto cope differently.”
Some have argued that Hollywood has helped bring a behavior out of
the closet that’s always existed, says Whitlock. In the 2003 film,
13, a teenager is shown sneaking into a bathroom to cut her arms, and
Angelina Jolie’s flirtations with blood-letting have been detailed on
many an entertainment show. The singer Plumb also offers a song about
cutting on her latest album.
“People who are over the age of 35 sometimes can’t wrap their minds
around this phenomenon,” says Whitlock. “This is nothing that anyone
used to talk about when I was growing up in the 70’s and 80’s. I
don’t know of any young people who aren’t aware of it today. In my
mind, the cat’s out of the bag.”
Resnick hopes that as more research shows that college-age
individuals are not alone that more students, especially males, will
feel empowered to seek counseling. “The more that we’re talking and
aware about this, the more likely it is that students will seek
help,” says Resnick.
Resnick recalls that when she started as a counselor, eating
disorders were much less well known than they are today, and students
tended to keep them much more hidden from counselors than they do
today. “I certainly hope will see the same progression with self
injury.”
Rob Capriccioso