Teen Cutting Research Paper

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Pages: 7

Teen Cutting: 8 Different Solutions To End Self-Injury

Teen cutting is a behavior that allows an individual to temporarily replace emotional pain with physical pain. Cutting, also known as self-injury, is misused to relieve pain and is not a good way to solve an emotional problem. Although, many cutters share that they want to stop and know that this behavior is not helpful, most do not know how to replacement cutting with a more solution solving behavior. Below are some great cutting replacement steps that one can use, or share with a cutting individual, to end the cutting behavior and begin to heal emotional pain.

Steps To End Teen & Adult Cutting and Self-Injury

1. Talk with someone you trust. This is often the hardest steps. If
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Remove all cutting objects from your immediate reach. If you have time to search for something to cut yourself with, you may just be able to crush the urge. If you do not yet feel able to throw out your tools, try to delay getting to them by keeping them wrapped up tightly and high up on hard-to-reach shelves (see tips).

4. Identify the “triggers” or the “thing” that makes you feel the need to cut. The moment you have the urge to cut, tell yourself to stop, assess/think and change your current thought pattern through the use of distractors (watch TV, read, go for a walk). Remember what you were thinking or doing at the time the trigger developed and try to avoid these situations. For example, if you’ve just had an argument with somebody and are having the urge to cut, stop and ask yourself what’s making you feel this way. Go talk to somebody different, share your feelings or, again, use a distracting technique.

5. Express your emotions. For example, when you feel like cutting, try doing one or more of the following:

Painting, on white paper Get a punch bag or somesort, relieve your anger on
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Screaming works. Screaming into a pillow or finding a quiet place to let rip really helps. If others are around, you might want to fill them in on this technique before you implement it so that they know you are safe.

7. Begin to recognize that cutting is a symptom of a another problem or concern. Cutting is not the root problem. A counselor or a doctor that is trained to help cutting patients can help you get to the real issue(s) that bring on the urges to cut. Never feel ashamed to seek help.

8. Love yourself. If you hate yourself there’s a good chance you want to hurt yourself when you feel bad. No matter what anyone says or thinks about you, you need to learn to love and accept yourself for who you are.

Tips To End Cutting

•Snap a rubber band on your wrist, take a really hot/cold shower, run until you can no longer breathe, close your eyes and name 5 people you cant live without, take a deep breath put down the tools and take control.As soon as you get the scissors or other similar tool in your hand and are slowly bringing it closer to your skin, move it abrubtly to a paper or other item and cut that instead. Instead of using thekitchen knife to cut yourself, make yourself useful and use that knife to cut vegetables for tonight’s dinner and help your mother