I haven't read this whole thread, so I may be redundant here....
I used to work with teens who did cutting and skin picking...One girl told me that the only time she felt anything is when she cut herself. She had been sexually and emotionally abused...I think statistics say that at least 50% of the people who self-mutilate were sexually and/or emotionally abused. For some, it is their way of coping with stress. It worked to displace their emotional pain and replace it with physical pain.
Also, there is even peer pressure to do cutting. The other girls who were her friends began cutting to be more accepted in the group. Another girl would twist and pull her hair until it fell out.
There is a book called
Self Mutilation that came out in the late 80s. I remember that Karl Menninger said that it was a form of "partial suicide" to avoid "total suicide"....When people do penance by whipping themselves with chains and crawling through glass, isn't that a form of self-mutilation? ….Look at those who tried to please the Gods in heathen countries. Lots of self-mutilation in some other cultures in the name of “spirituality”…
I recall another girl who was so disappointed with some things she had done that she wanted to punish herself and said that she didn't deserve to live or to be happy. Thus, she cut herself.
It is not to be viewed as "attention getting behavior" ....Most people will go to great lengths to hide the evidence that they are self-mutilating. The reasons for it happening are as varied as the abuse or other reasons that precipitated the self-mutilation.
Many times eating disorders go along with the cutting. If you know anyone doing this, PRAY for that person (and encourage that person to seek professional help - if it continues).
Rhoni, here is a book at amazon.com that you might be interested in reading, if you have not already…I think it came out a year or two ago…..I read a few of the excerpts:
http://www.amazon.com/Treating-Self-.../dp/1593852169