School gives AS girl razor deliberately to self-harm

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I've told a Dr I'd seen many times before that I was feeling suicidal and she more or less had to be prompted to even refer me to the mental health service. I said to her I got the impression that as I was autistic it was as if my issues didn't matter as much as a so-called normal person's. She just looked sheepish and I made a mental note not to ever see her again. I also complained to the practice manager, asking what exactly did lead to referral to mental health services if not suicidal feelings?!

At least at this stage of my life I am able to point out clearly when I feel I'm not being given the right level of service.

Not recently.

I need to see my new doctor to discuss this, and I think this discussion was sufficient prompting to remind me.

In the US they ask "How severe is your pain on a 1-10 scale?" They often say that 10 is the worst pain I have ever experienced, so I rate it relative to something that happened when I was a child (I had to get a bad infection in my leg lanced) and most stuff compared to that only comes up to a 7, even if it leaves me in bed or unable to function. So I've tried to shift my own personal rating to "How much does this pain interfere with my functioning" but that doesn't seem to work either.

I'll get it sorted.

Last edited by Verdandi on 31 Mar 2013, 5:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I bring your religion up as you seem very into it and thus it could be a support structure considered for you personality.

You don't seem to realize your own mistake in overeating to deal with stress. i will leave it at that with the ignorance.

For you to judge me and state that i'm not responsible to deal with problems myself so i end up hospitalized inpatient? Wow how ignorant you really are.

I signed myself into the eating ward both times as i knew i needed to put weight on. That is what they do best put weight back on you.
Maybe you just don't like me because i'm thin naturally i don't know. However i had the insight to go inpatient as i realized i needed help putting weight back on.

Some people are different levels of functioning, that is something you don't seem to care to understand. It sure says a lot about you.
I don't judge others over how many times or if they ever been inpatient in a hospital.

You judge so many on so many different things it's as if you think you are God and everyone's personal judge trial and jury. Well your not.
Maybe if you actually were open minded enough you would have a friend whose a cutter or maybe a friend would actually feel comfortable enough to tell you, however the way you are i would not tell you anything. So it's no wonder with people like you, those who are suffering from cutting or other mental illness hide it. They don't want to be judged by people like you.

Judging seems to be something you think your good at.
When you this and i will qoute you again:

"If all you do is talk about the last time you self-harmed/over-ate or purges, it's not exactly going to encourage a change in mindset is it?"

Who or what do you mean by you? If you are reading in another forum, please state that as i certainly didn't say anything of the sort to you like that.

You have a very twisted ignorant opinion on things in general. I would not judge a person by how they are suffering.
You really show your true colors is all i can say. I'm done arguing with you it's not even worth it.

I really feel bad for anyone who comes across you seeking a friend and god forbid they are having a mental disorder you'd probably disown them as a friend then talk behind their backs about how weak they are and strong you think you are.

(My prior double posts are due to site traffic and posts not going through)

Watch out for those opiate painkillers nessa or you'll be hooked on them. They are bad news

You've got me all wrong

I am not judgemental, I just advocate practical ways of dealing with problems over impractical ones

Most of my friends have had mental health problems of some kind at some point in their lives and they certainly can and do talk to me about them as I've had such problems myself

I'm not like the average NT who can't stand to even hear the word 'depression'

I'm happy to listen to peoples' problems - talking is a far better way of getting your feelings out of your system than self-harm

I don't go on about religion either; it doesn't enter my conversation 99% of the time

I'd say it was at a 9 or 10 - whatever is necessary to get whatever drug you need

Cutting one's self wasn't the norm when I was a teenager. It's become the norm though because of all the publicity that cutting gets (in my opinion). It is a way to get attention. Better be careful everybody or I'll cut myself. Imagine the attention the person gets. They are escorted to a bathroom, they cut themselves, and then someone tends to their wounds. I could see someone getting addicted to the cutting just to get the teachers to jump on the hot plate offering up bandaids.

Cutting is not normal but it has become normalized. There have been videos and movies about it and people jump on the bandwagon.

I think the 'cutting' solution where you offer someone a razor blade is wrong.

That is insane. Who thought of this?

Horrid horrid horrid!

I think it probably was nearly as popular when you were a teenager as it is today. There are historical accounts of self-injury going back to ancient times, and psychologists talking about it ever since the very beginnings of psychology in the late 1800s.

The only thing that has changed is that it does receive more publicity now, and that people are more aware that it goes on.

The idea that people self-injure "for attention" is actually a fallacy. The vast majority of people who self-injure keep it very secret. Even those who won't go as far as wearing long sleeves in midsummer will still seek privacy before they hurt themselves deliberately, and will cover injuries with band-aids, use areas that are naturally covered with clothing, or if all else fails, blame it on the cat. The only regular exception to this is people who don't care that others see, for one reason or another--usually people with developmental disabilities or severe mental illness, who are so distressed that the presence of other people has become irrelevant, and their self-injury usually an attempt to cope with their severe stress. But most superficial self-injury is done in secret, often surrounded by shame and the belief that if you were to seek help, you would be seen as a freak and hospitalized immediately.

Every once in a while--my guess is maybe one in a hundred cases or so, possibly less frequently--you will see someone using self-injury to "get attention". This is commonly seen in people who are really at the end of their rope, feel as though someone has to save them, and want to "force" someone into doing this. These people may want attention--but the truth is, they need it. They need help, and they either aren't being given help or they don't know how to ask for it. But, and I stress this, these are only a tiny minority of self-injury cases.

Most of the time, a self-injurer will tell no one for years before finally seeking help, and then perhaps not even mentioning the self-injury directly. As someone who is willing to both wear short sleeves and answer honestly about my scars, I am unusual. But I'm also a mental health rights advocate who believes that there should not be shame associated with mental illness. And, even then, if I have any recent injury that isn't just a bruise, it stays covered until it has fully healed. The decision not to be ashamed has helped me a great deal, by the way: Before, I used to hurt myself, then hate myself for doing it, which made me feel even worse. Now, I don't hate myself anymore--I can just accept that I've hurt myself and I can move on. Sure, it sucks and I need to find out why my repertoire of coping skills fell short in that situation. But I won't hate myself for it and I won't think of myself as a freak or attention-seeker or psycho or anything like that. I'm a human being; sometimes when I'm stressed out I don't react as well as I should. Some people yell at their friends or spend too much or get too drunk. Why is it any worse that I bite myself or whack my arms against things or cut myself or whatever? It's not hurting anyone but me. I take it as a signal that I need to figure out a better way to deal with whatever situation overwhelmed me. I won't be ashamed anymore.

I don't agree with actually issuing a razor blade to someone who self-injures. The risk of infection is simply not so great that a clean tool is needed. What they should do is give the girl a good first-aid kit which she can use when she needs to, so that it won't cause more than superficial scarring. And, of course, she needs access to a decent therapist, because anybody who is using self-injury to try to cope with things is probably in over their heads to begin with.

Exactly what I was saying

It's become a trend

People had more sense when I was growing up

Society is becoming progressively more stupid with people less willing to take responsibility for their own behaviour

Watch the film 'Idiocracy' to see where we're headed!

Those pain scales are troublesome for me, i they boggle my mind.
Could you get to see a Neurologist for your cluster headaches? Maybe a Neurologist could help?
I need to find a new one here. I am on Medicare and they are of the same opinion that it is drug seeking people. It is sad as i am afraid the hospital people will stereotype me.
Is it possible your doctor is afraid of getting you painkillers as he doesn't want you to get hooked on them?
I could understand that, i have seen people have nasty addictions to them.
There has to be another drug that could help you though, you shouldn't have to suffer...

I have never heard of such a thing, did it happen on a tv show it sounds so dramatic!

Callista has said it well on here. With the age of the internet and everyone being online, a lot of things receive more attention now than they ever did before.
I remember when i was in HS, not everyone had internet. Junior year only a handful of people had AOL, it was still new.
The newer generations grow up born with a laptop and computer savvy so they have a world of information at their fingertips.

Callista is right about people who self injure. They want to keep it secret.
My friend i mentioned has several diagnosis', the traumatic rape history, grand mal seizures. Her life isn't peaches and cream. I feel bad for her, yet i know nothing i said or do can help her.
She has therapists who haven't helped her. I hope one day she can help herself or gets help. The reason i am aware of her issues is that i have known her for years and been a close friend prior to my move.

Those who are cutting for attention seeking behavior are very few and i would obviously question their sanity if they are seeking attention by harming themselves. Perhaps they need to be brought in for observation or therapy.

I shared that i had atypical anorexia in the past since i wanted to. Why should i hide things? I refuse to judge others or consider them below me due to their cutting or eating disorders.
People can be helped and cured. I would rather people know that i don't judge them and be able to come to me if they ever needed help rather than feel they have to hide parts of themselves out of shame, fear of embarrassment.

Everyone has different "vices". I still need to quit smoking.
If i told this forum i used to hit myself in the head a lot during meltdowns would i be judged?
I would hope not.

If anything, maybe someone would identify with me and realize they are not alone out there.

I remember when I was a teenager, I started cutting myself when upset. I didn't know anyone else did it at the time.

I don't think the school should have allowed the child to cut. I was in a mental hospital for a while due to cutting. After I left, I sometimes felt the urge to cut when I was upset for a few years, but now I just cry or get angry instead of hurting myself.

Neither did I... and I've visited some forums for mutual self-injury support, and most of the people on these forums had the same experiences. Most of us were too young, when we started hurting ourselves, to have even heard of "cutting" in the typical superficial-self-injury sense. Most of the time the first thing you try isn't cutting; it's things like pinching or biting yourself, digging your fingernails into your palms, biting your nails until you draw blood--things that don't involve tools. On average the first time we deliberately hurt ourselves, we were eight to twelve years old. Actually cutting in the stereotypical sense tends to come later on, age twelve to fourteen or so, and that can be something you try in response to having heard of someone else doing it. But that was after we actually started self-injuring. Some people started cutting without knowing that anyone else ever did it; some others were already hurting themselves in other ways, and just learned the particular method. Me--I was cutting myself before I knew that it was something that many other people did, and it was a relief to learn I was not the only one. But I did learn the technique of holding a paper clip in a candle flame to cause small burns on the skin. So can you blame my doing this on the culture that includes that information? I don't think so. I would've just been cutting or head-banging or biting or whatever if it weren't for that. In the long term there's no difference. Small burns take longer to heal and hurt more, so maybe it even meant that I did it less.

By the way, from the way I'm talking about self-injury you might think it's a daily or weekly thing for me. It actually isn't--it happens only every few months, nowadays. Accepting the fact that this is one of my coping strategies, and refusing to be ashamed of it, was one of the factors that led to the sharp decrease in frequency, from daily or weekly to very seldom. If I had believed the professionals who implied that it meant that I was in serious psychological trouble and basically a messed-up freak, I would probably still be on antipsychotics (because these are apparently warranted in cases where self-injury is involved) and spending most of my days staring into space, because overzealous professionals treat it like an emergency and think it's priority number one to prevent me from causing minor injuries to my own skin. Instead, because I understood and accepted I hurt myself sometimes, I learned other ways to cope with stress and sensory overload, and started needing it less and less. If they had had their way and if they had made me see self-injury the way they did, I would probably be severely mentally ill right now.

Honestly, I think that issuing a clean razor to a girl with an SI problem, absent any suicidal ideation, is a better response than overreacting and overmedicating or hospitalizing her. I don't think it's the best response, but I believe that this sort of over-pathologization of self-injury is probably one of the worst things you could do. It tells the person that their problems are huge and insurmountable and that they are very sick, and that takes away any feeling of control or competence that they might have--which makes things much worse and leads them to depend on self-injury even more. Instead, you have to empower the person, teach them how to deal with their own problems, and even let them hurt themselves if they need to, provided the medical risk is small. Yes, it's a bad coping mechanism, but it's not the end of the world, and you're not going to solve a self-injury problem by tying a person's hands (medically, socially, or physically) to prevent them from hurting themselves. The only way to solve a self-injury problem is to find a way for that person to not need to hurt themselves.