For ten years, Susana Salazar, working with a treatment center specializing in psychological problems of young people, has seen a worrisome rise in types of self harm that were once studied mostly in higher-income countries such as Canada, the United States and in Europe.
One of them, cutting (using pens, scissors or razors from pencil sharpeners to draw blood and then hiding the wounds from parents), is called by its English name in Mexico.
“Cutting is increasing in Mexico and those doing it are getting younger. We used to see it more between the ages of 15 and 22, but now we see kids as young as eight,” Salazar told the Guadalajara Reporter. “Self-destructive behavior happens more in girls but not always. In boys it can take the form of very rough games — I don’t mean video games. Girls may cut themselves on their arms, wrists, abdomens and between their legs,” said Salazar, who works with the Centro de Especialización de Estudios Psicológicos en la Infancia (CEEPI).
In 2007, experts tallied an alarming 80-percent increase since 2000 in young British women admitting to self harm, saying an astounding one in eight girls (12.5 percent) admitted to such behavior. Some experts went so far as to label it “a British disease.” And U.S. professionals became so familiar with the puzzling behavior in teens that they dubbed the girls “emos,” in reference to their troubling emotions.
But Mexico, as Salazar points out, scores right up there with the United Kingdom in these grim statistics. She explained that a UNESCO study showed ten percent of Mexican adolescents between 15 and 24 have admitted to inflicting injuries on themselves in order to vent emotional and psychological problems. Similarly, a 2017 meta-study in the International Journal of Social Psychiatry concludes that “the 12-month prevalence rates of youth self-harm in [low- and middle-income countries, such as Mexico] are comparable to high-income countries.”
Salazar says a principal reason for concern about cutting, along with similar behavior such as anorexia, violent games and self poisoning with legal or illegal drugs, alcohol or pesticides, is that all of them are related to suicide.
“Young people who cut themselves are expressing emotional pain – sadness, anger, loneliness, frustration, depression and so on – that they can’t express with words. These are the same emotions that cause suicide. Slowly, little by little, cutting leads to a risk of suicide. And suicide in young people is growing,” she emphasized.
Although some forms of self harm, such as eating disorders, were once seen as more prevalent among sophisticated young people, Salazar said that kids who self harm are not from any particular socioeconomic level.
“One cause we see is a lack of the company and guidance of parents. Parents are working. There may also be violence in the kids’ homes, either physical or emotional.
“The Internet can make things worse,” Salazar added. “Kids who self harm use WhatApp or Facebook to communicate with others who are doing the same thing. They post pictures of their injuries or tell how to hide them from parents.”
“Unfortunately, these groups have caused the practice [of cutting] to go viral,” said Dr. Claudia Sotelo, director of CEEPI. (The Internet is also used by CEEPI, Salazar noted, as a way to educate parents and the public about self harm.)
Perhaps surprisingly, the worldwide growth of self harm and suicide has been blamed on much wider trends than the Internet, including broad political and economic forces.
“Mental well-being depends on reducing the gap between rich and poor,” pointed out the author of a World Health Organization report in The Independent newspaper. Psychiatrist Peter Byrne agreed, blaming “an obscenely rich celebrity culture,” and noting that “the unhappiest populations in the world … [are] those with the greatest income inequality.” Psychologist Rufus May blamed “a school system that is increasingly prescriptive,” in which “young people don’t have space to be creative or … express how they feel.”
The 1980s economic and philosophical revolution of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher was fingered by Will Storr in the New York Times. Noting Thatcher’s “sinister” comment that “economics are the method: The object is to change the soul,” he said the “fetishization of entrepreneurs and C.E.O.s … [means] more and more of us are feeling like failures,” linking this with the statistic that “the United States’ suicide rate rose by 24 percent between 1999 and 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Similarly, Salazar pinned some of the blame on wider social forces.
“Young people suffer from the accelerated pace of life. Everything is so saturated. Everything has to be done rapidly.”
Strengthening communication with parents is very important, she said, as well as permitting the expression of emotions.
“If the parents observe cutting, they should immediately go to a therapist, in government or private agencies. In the case of suicide, the young people should go to an institution, but in the case of cutting, usually 45-minute sessions of individual therapy are given, where the kids can verbalize their problems and the therapists can offer advice.
Salazar and the staff at CEEPI are also trying to educate parents and teachers in how to identify cutting. “The young person starts to isolate themselves; they get irritable, sometimes furious; they wear long sleeves or bracelets to cover their injuries. The parents may find sharp objects in their rooms, or bandages or hydrogen peroxide that are used to heal the wounds, or small bloodstains.”
On a positive note, Salazar noted that, with education, “more parents are asking for help. Before, they kept quiet.”
Centro de Especialización de Estudios Psicológicos en la Infancia (CEEPI), www.ceepi.mx.