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When it comes to mental health issues, it seems that nothing is more stigmatized then self-harming behavior – specifically, cutting. Cutting, known in mental health circles usually as a form of non-suicidal self-injury, is most prevalent in teenagers and young adults. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that one in ten college students will participate in at least 100 episodes of cutting over the course of their lifetimes. Nationwide, estimates are somewhere near three million – that’s three million people who purposely harm themselves without the intent to end their lives. Why?
There isn’t really a clear answer. Depression can manifest itself in many different ways. With 18 million people suffering from depression in the United States alone, it’s obvious that no one case will be the same. Cutting can be a coping mechanism – for somebody suffering from depression, in their mind, there may be no other way to deal with the pain and sadness they are experiencing. It can be a cry for help – not attention, as the stigma often leads us to believe. But mostly, it’s something that may bring temporary relief for somebody wading through hopelessness without any other idea how to cope, how to see through the darkness that depression can cast upon a life.
This past week, somebody I knew from my graduating high school class died of a heroin overdose. As the outpourings of grief and mourning washed over my Facebook page, the bitterness I felt surprised me: I would not remember him fondly, as so many of his “friends” proclaimed they would. I would remember him as the hostile, mean teenager who tormented my friends and me relentlessly during our high school years. The hate I’d always felt for him – the fear, the outrage, both the physical and emotional damage he inflicted – came screaming back, even after all this time. I figured after six years, after countless successes, after all the good I had done and experienced, the love I now knew, I could forgive and forget. Honestly, his name had been lost to me up until that moment. It’s the first time I’ve thought about him in years…
There are no shortages of bullies in schools. Any kid can tell you that. Recent and extensive national coverage on bullying, sparked by an upswing in suicides over the past year, shows that it can come in all forms and from any direction: Home, school, internet. It can happen to any kid, for any number of reasons. It hurts everybody it touches, and it appears to happen to everybody, at one point in their lives. Again, nothing new. “It’s part of growing up.” “It makes you stronger.” Et cetera.
Sheriffs in North Carolina, through the Sheriff’s Association, recently pushed the idea that police should
have access to the computer records of anyone taking prescription painkillers or other controlled
substances in our state. Their rationale is the same old tired refrain: If police can look at these
records, they will be able to make more drug arrests and curb what they call “the growing problem of
prescription drug abuse.”
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