Bleeding to Ease the Pain

By Lori G. Plante

Parents, teachers, friends, and even many clinicians are both horrified and mystified upon discovering teenagers who intentionally cut, burn, and otherwise inflict pain upon themselves. Despite the medical issues that often accompany cutting and other forms of self-injury, cutting is increasingly prevalent among today's youth. As many as 1 in 100 adolescents report cutting themselves, representing a growing epidemic of scarred and tormented youths, as we see in this revealing work. In this book, Plante features the stories of self-injurers and helps readers understand this troubling trend, the meaning of the injuries, and how to help teens with their struggles. The author, a psychologist, a parent, and a Stanford University Medical School faculty member, explains in clear detail how cutters and the adults who love them can heal the pain and stop self-injury.

1 Foreword 2 1 Self-Injury on the Rampage 3 2 Special Populations, Special Concerns: Teenagers Most at Risk 4 3 Developmental Challenges in Adolescence: The Agony, the Ecstasy, the Cell Phone, and the Internet 5 4 Why Teens Self-Injure: Doing All the Wrong Things for the Right Reasons 6 5 Laying the Foundation for Intervention: Composure, Compassion, and Comprehension 7 6 Professional Treatment of Self-Injury: Understanding the Therapeutic Process 8 7 Specialized Approaches and Adjuncts in Treating Self-Injury 9 8 The Brain as an Attitude Pharmacy: Neurochemical Roles and Remedies in Self-Injury 10 9 Intervention in Action: How It Works 11 10 Stepping Up to the Plate: How Parents Can Help 12 11 Health and Happiness Are Verbs: The Responsibilities of the Adolescent in Treatment 13 12 Depathologizing Adolescent Self-Injury: Cutting on a Continuum 14 Conclusions: Reconceptualizing Cutting