WHERE DO THEY FIND THE TIME? I'M TOO RUSHED TO TRIM MY FINGERNAILS, MUCH LESS CHOP OFF BODY PARTS.

Self-injury cuts deeper into America's youth

BY VINCENT J. SCHODOLSKIChicago Tribune

LOS ANGELES - (KRT) - When she was 16, Laura Snow moved back to the United States from Hong Kong, where her parents had been working as missionaries for more than six years.
It was a hard adjustment for her, and the problems she encountered compounded difficulties she already had experienced.

"Being a minister's kid, you have to behave better than everybody else," said Snow, now 22.

So one day shortly after she returned, Snow picked up a pair of scissors and cut her skin. For years, razor blades were the weapon of choice to cut herself in a bloody ritual that thousands of Americans - perhaps far more - do, many as a form of release.

People have engaged in self-harming behavior for decades, some experts say for millenniums. But professionals agree that younger and younger people are cutting their skin, burning themselves, bloodletting and even cutting off portions of fingers and ears in extreme cases.

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