Over time, he identified 19 episodes of self-embedding injury in 10 girls, ages 15 to 18. The girls had inserted such things as metal staples, unfolded paper clips, glass shards, wood slivers, pencil lead, crayons and stones into their arms or legs. Ninety percent of those girls said they'd had thoughts of suicide or had attempted suicide previously. Forty percent said they were victims of sexual abuse.
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Turning the hurt toward the self
Self-inflicted injuries appear to be on the rise, with some young people actually embedding objects in their skin. Stress may be a factor.
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Effect of stress?
But many self-injurers are not suicidal and may not even have an underlying psychiatric disorder, Whitlock says. They're simply under too much stress.
"We're starting to see that self-injurers can be different from each other," Klonsky says. "Most self-injurers don't have incredibly severe psychiatric symptoms; they have some." In a study published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology's self-injury issue, Klonsky found that about 80% of the self-injurers engage in less severe behavior; they don't do it often and have few or no other symptoms of mental illness. A small group self-injures to seek attention or as a cry for help. Another group self-injures excessively and is at high risk for suicide.
The high rates found among young people seem to go hand in hand with other studies suggesting today's youth may suffer from more mental health problems than previous generations.
"We see more young people who don't cope very well," Whitlock says. "Colleges around the country are saying they have kids who expect a lot more but lack the skills to deal with adversity."
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shari.roan@latimes.com
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latimes.com/health
Who's at risk, treatment options What mental health experts know about self-injury -- and how to treat it -- is limited. But they're learning.
