What Parents Need to Know About Cutters

A cutter is a child, usually a girl (but boys can develop it too) who cannot stop injuring herself. They harm their own bodies by creating a wound so they do not have to feel other feelings. It helps them get out of experiencing a mood or emotional state that feels painful. Many people who do this will cut themselves but hitting one, burning, scratching and biting is also quite common. Banging the head compulsively is also related to cutting.

The reason children practice self-industry is because they need to release physiological and psychological pain quickly. They go from a state of panic to a state of calm very quickly. The most common denominator in kids who cut themselves is being unable to express their feelings. Usually these kids have had something abusive happen and re unable to handle it. Cutting gives the child a sense of self-control. Rarer is the child that cuts herself as a form of self punishment. Many use it to feel a sense of control when they are being controlled. They use it ritualistically to express feelings that they otherwise have no feelings for.

Sometimes this is part of a larger distressing disorder. Some kids may be more aggressive and impulsive than other then more likely to mutilate themselves. It is rarely done to fit in with other kids or because everyone is doing it.

Although parents may not be able to prevent this disturbing compulsive disorder you need to talk about it with your teen. You should make sure you are not doing all of the talking and listen to the child. Often a frustration with communication is at the root of this and the kid needs to express him or herself.

Like with other addictions, a kid cannot be forced not to cut herself. She will like sneak away and keep doing it if you try to control it. Do not issue ultimatums or punish the self-destructive behavior. Threatening to hospitalize or institutionalize a self-injurer can make feelings of lack of control and make the situation even worse.
You need to ease the kid into therapy for the problem if you are to get rid of it forever. There many therapeutic techniques employed by mental health professionals to help him. It’s best to consult a professional with specific experience working with kids who mutilate themselves. There may be underlying serious mental conditions that need to be diagnosed.

How to Identify a Teen at Risk

Are you living with a teen at risk? The teenage years are the ones where people tend to want to test your boundaries the most. Most teens make mistakes during this phase of growth but you want to help them prevent making the type of mistake that can cause them years of emotional or physical damaged. This can happen if your kid gets involved in a car accident, school shooting or a robbery of any kind.

A teen at risk will be demonstrating behaviors such as underage drinking, drug use and abuse, smoking, unprotected sex, excessive dieting, eating disorders, driving while under the influence, rough-housing with friends and driving while talking on a cell phone.

You might be thinking that smoking cigarettes is not so dangerous for your kid but studies have shown that hat “nicotine is the number one entrance drug into other substance abuse problems.” Teens who smoke each day are more likely to use other drug substances.

Teenagers may experiment with drugs, both legal and including marijuana, cocaine, crack, and methamphetamines, which are particular lethal for teens at risk. Sometimes the temptation is in your own home. Some adolescents sneak into their parents’ medicine cabinets to use drugs prescribed for someone else. Others abuse cough medications and codeine medications for a “high.” Many of these medications also contain speed which ironically, can help improve studies but is not recommended as a way of doing so!

It is too easy to deny that your kid might be having sex. Whether or not your teen will choose to sleep with their boyfriend or girlfriend, it is our job to educate them about the transmission of disease and/or potential pregnancy. Loss of self-esteem and destructive behaviors can arise when teens start engaging in sex at too early an age because they cannot handle the feelings that come with so much attachment.

Dangerous dieting is also a killer. When weight loss reaches a certain level, or the child cannot stop obsessing about food and weight, a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa may be warranted. Boys and girls that suffer from this disease have a distorted body image and may think that they are “fat,” when they are becoming sicker and thinner.

A certain amount of risk-taking is normal in a child but when it comes to their health and basic rules of the road make sure that they are well educated and prevent them from experiencing the often life=-long consequences of making one big mistake while young.