If a young woman cuts herself,is this always a sign of sexual abuse?Can there be any other explanations?

Question

The reason I ask is because I have recently come across an 18-year-old girl who does this.She seems to always do it on her arms.

Answer 1

In my case, yes, it was a sign of sexual abuse, but it isn't always.

People self-harm for many different reasons - to turn emotional pain into physical pain, to feel something apart from numbing depression, for attention etc.

I don't think the location of the self-harming is relevant. In my experience self harmers just have a personal preference in thier method of injury and the location.

The only way to know why someone self-harms is to ask - there are as many reasons as there are self-harmers. Please don't jump to conculsions or assume anything, if you want to help just ask her gentle questions and give her time.

You can also give her some information on the help available to her - pressure is unlikely to help, but just giving her a print out with some resources on so that she knows where to go if she ever wants to talk is a good idea. There are lots of resources out there:
http://www.supportline.org.uk/problems/self-help.php
http://www.selfharm.org.uk/default.aspa
http://www.selfharm.net/
http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=454
http://www.nshn.co.uk/
http://www.youngminds.org.uk/
http://www.samaritans.org.uk/

Answer 2

This is not just about being sexually abused. Most of these people are looking for attention. And they usually don't know why they do it. They might come from a home where they have been over looked. I was a youth group leader for five years and had a young girl in the group that cut herself, Her parents were always bragging about her older sister that did everything right and she felt left out so she started cutting. I got her to think about what she was doing when I asked her how she would someday explain the scares to her own children. Because they wil ask. She stopped cutting after she realized that she didn't have to compete with her sister for her parents attention that it is just not worth taking chances with her life. Good luck to you and your friend.

Answer 3

It can be for a number of reasons. My sis did it because she didn't get her way as a teenager. I know she still does it as she has a lot of problems that she can't solve in her life. I have thought about it before but I went for a piercing instead. It is the fact that when we hurt inside we need an instant relief and drawing blood seems to be that relief. It is like being able to rid of the bad emotion from our body by releasing it from cutting and letting it seep out. The arms just seem to be easily seen by the person and the easiest access to do this.

I have no answers to give to what to advise her. I am in awe myself why someone would go through with it even though I have thought about doing it myself. I just directed the pain to another part of my body in the form of a piercing.

Answer 4

My sister is a cutter, It may not come from being sexually abused. There are a verity of reasons why people cut themselves. For the most part it is because they feel pain inside and don't know how to express it emotionally or verbally. This isn't something that can be solved over night. It needs to be taken into great consideration that this person is sick and can do great harm to themselves. I suggest getting her in to see a physiologist or mental health before its too late!

Answer 5

This is a practice amongst young people that is described by doctors as "slitting".

Usually your people under pressure or stress vent by cutting themselves, it has practically never to do with sexual abuse but is a subconscious cry for attention.

In most cases it goes away when the young people grow up.

Answer 6

Hello,

(ANS) Emotionally & psychologically self cutting is a way to deal with a complex mixture of feelings, self cutting is anger turned in upon itself (when its not safe to express those intense feelings towardly to others).

Also self cutting can be away to deal with feelings of shame, self hatred, self cutting can give a person a feeling of elation of "the only" confirmation that they feel alive still, if the rest of that person feels numb or dead inside emotionally.

**No!! self cutting & self harming at not always a sign of a person having been sexually abused. Remember, abuse can take many different forms not just overt sexual abuse. It could be psychological abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse (not involving sex or sexuality). There are other more subtle forms of abuse too.

**Self cutting has alot too do with self esteem (low), self image (how you think others see you?).

**self cutting can also be a cry for attention or help too.

IR

Answer 7

No, it is not always a sign of sexual abuse, but it is a sign of being very down mentally. The girl is probably dealing with depression or some other mental issues that may not have anything to do with sexual abuse.

Answer 8

I've read that people do this(more than you would think) to attempt to feel some other form of pain besides emotional pain. You would have to find out what she has been through to get to the root of the problem, could be sexual abuse, could be lots of other things she is trying to deal with, or mask.

Answer 9

Not at all, cutting can be for numerous reasons besides sexual abuse. When you get right down to it, cutting is a cry for help. Something is going on in that person's head that they feel better when inflicting pain on themselves. The act of destroying yourself that way might indicate they feel guilty about something (this is rarely the case though). Cutting is mostly a distraction from something bigger they feel is out of their control.

Answer 10

Self-harm theories
A lot of people say they start self-harming behaviour in childhood, disguising scratches and bumps as accidents and progressing to more systematic cutting and burning in adolescence.

There are different theories as to why people self-mutilate. One is that because victims of childhood sexual abuse were forbidden to reveal the truth about their abuse, they use self-mutilation or self-cutting to express the horror of their abuse to the world.

Another theory is that sexual abuse in early childhood leads to extremely low self-esteem. If very low self-esteem develops, self-harm as an expression of self-hatred is understandable.

One research finding is that self-harmers tend to grow up in an 'invalidating environment' - one where the communication of private experiences is met with unreliable, inappropriate or extreme responses. As a result, expressing private experiences is not validated, instead it's trivialised or punished.

The problem with these theories is that (in the case of the sexual abuse theory, for example) not everyone who's been sexually abused starts to self-harm, and not everyone who self-harms has been sexually abused.

Another theory for self-cutting is that it triggers release of the body's natural opiate-like chemicals to reduce the pain. Perhaps self-cutters have become addicted to their body's heroin-like reaction to cutting, which is why they do it again and again. They may also experience withdrawal if they haven't done it for a while.

Drugs used to treat heroin addicts may behelpful with self-cutters, but mostly for those who describe a 'high' after they've cut themselves.

Another theory, which in-patient units often use, is based on the psychological principle that all behaviour has consequences that are somehow rewarding. Cutting usually leads to a sequence of behaviour - increased attention, for example - that may become the rewarding reason to repeat the behaviour.

Staff in specialist units are specially trained to ensure that no consequences follow from an episode of cutting that could be rewarding. Instead, when the patient stops cutting themselves they're rewarded with increased attention from staff.

Under inexperienced care, a complicated situation can evolve where staff come to be blamed for the 'patient not getting better' and so subtly take on responsibility for the self-cutting, therefore releasing the patient from accepting their own role in the cause of their problems.

Self-harm culture
It's essential that self-harm is destigmatised so that people can seek help early on. Modifying our bodies is part of contemporary culture, for example piercing, cosmetic surgery (breast enhancement and nose jobs), hair removal, skin bleaching, hair straightening and tattooing.

This article was last reviewed in September 2006.
First published in June 2000.