HOUSTON—The addiction known as “cutting” is becoming so popular that some health experts are calling it the new anorexia. Most of the victims are girls and now doctors are spotting another trend.
The girls use razors and pencil erasers to purposely hurt themselves with anything from scratching to a deep slash. Experts say, up until recently, almost all cutters fit into one category.
“It was traditionally the white female -- middle class white female,” said Dr. Janice Beal, a psychotherapist.
But therapists are now seeing minority girls from the inner city among the cutters.
“I would not have even have asked a minority -- Hispanic, or black female if they cut,” Beal said.
Even therapists aren’t sure why, after years of this being a problem among mostly white girls, that cutting migrated to African-American and Hispanic girls.
“Extreme neglect or actual physical abuse, sexual abuse, incest, alcoholism—those were the most common reasons for cutting, and obviously that’s present in inner city families and in inner city circles. But the thought wasn’t there,” said Family Therapy Researcher Rania Mankarious.
But regardless of who is doing the cutting, the reasons are usually the same.
“I bottled in my anger, but when I cut myself, I guess it’s a way of letting go of my anger, anger and pain,” said Candace, a 16-year-old girl who was a cutter up until last summer.
A couple of physical signs remain.
“Like when it would try to heal I just kept re-opening it,” she said. “That’s why it left such a big scar.”
Candace now lives with her grandmother and is in therapy. She realizes that when she was cutting she couldn’t see the forest for the trees.
“I didn’t know what I was doing, I mean, I could have hurt myself, like, seriously injured myself,” she said.
Girls like Candace aren’t the only new face among cutters, there are also younger girls who are doing it, experts said.
“It’s trickled down to elementary school. That means we need to become more aware,” Beal said.
Jocelyn, 11, is a young artist who says she began cutting after things at school got ugly.
“Sometimes they would be like, ‘Move it fatty.’ And then other times they would just call me bad words,” she said.
So she began cutting at the age of nine, she said.
Her mom got her into therapy right away and she said she stopped cutting four weeks ago.
Experts say it can be tricky for parents to know if their child is cutting.
“It’s not only on the wrist. A lot has been found on inner thigh area,” Beal said. “And sometimes in the stomach area because that’s easily accessible, and it’s easy to hide.”
Candace wore bracelets and Jocelyn used concealer to hide scars on her wrist.
Experts say this development among minority girls has reminded them of an important lesson.
“Mental health issues cross all ethnic and racial backgrounds,” Beal said.
And they tell parents to always pay attention.
“We no longer sit around the kitchen table together talking. So parents need to be involved. Be involved with your children. Talk to them,” Mankarious said.
