Cutting Behavior Spreads to the Urban Community

Self-mutilation is a self-destructive pattern of behavior that can sometimes accompany drug and alcohol addiction. When emotional pain becomes intolerable and relief is needed immediately, people will seek sources to relieve this pain. The physical pain with cutting distracts from the emotional pain, temporarily. The emotional pain does return and the pattern develops. Underlying issues that have been attributed to someone developing cutting behavior is sexual and physical abuse, neglect, and alcoholism. These are the most commonly reported reasons for this type of behavior. Until now therapists and researchers have mostly concentrated their focus on the white community participating in the behavior but recently the African American and Hispanic populations are having a surge of this behavior in their young girls. Houston, Texas is one of the cities that are trying to shed light on this epidemic. (Williams, S. 2012)Unhealthy coping such as substance abuse and cutting behaviors are all similar in the patterns of behavior. Each behavior is self-destructive and a difficult addiction to overcome, but it is possible through addiction treatment, support group meetings and the fellowship of recovering addicts who have experienced similar unhealthy patterns.