Question for the masses...

For all three (if that many) of my readers:  do teens and young adults get into 'cutting' on their own, or is it because they have it drilled into them that this is a sign of mental issues and that they shouldn't do it?

Not that it's an issue at the moment, thank god.  Younger daughter was in full meltdown mode last night; whether it's a cause or a symptom of the two weeks of nearly constant migraine, I don't know.  She was on my bed, crying hysterically, and snapping a rubber band on her wrist.  I asked if it hurt and she said it didn't really.  So I asked if it made her feel better, and her answer to that was "not really", and then she added, as matter-of-factly as one can when one is on a crying jag, "It's better than cutting, isn't it?"  Given that I had just voiced that exact same thought in the exact same words to myself less only a few seconds before brought me up a little short.

I'm sure that teenagers have had angst and other emotional issues for years, being human beings and all.  But when I was growing up and felt much the way she does right now, I would never have thought of doing something to physically hurt myself, but was that because I hadn't heard about it?

She already has an appointment with her psych tomorrow about the meds, which obviously need some adjusting, and I'm going to see about making an appointment with her talk therapist as soon as I finish writing this.  Child has a group session this evening but she doesn't want to go because the regular therapist is away this week and she doesn't like the replacement group leader.  On the other hand she was telling me that her only friends are from group, none from school (which isn't quite true), so maybe this morning she'll have changed her mind and decided to go so she can see them.

Probably just as well I'm unemployed at the moment.  Who ever suggested that moms should stay home when the kids are little and go back after they're in elementary school because they don't need us as much either didn't have children, or had incredibly, abnormally mature, well-adjusted ones.  Pretty much everyone I know agrees with me that as they hit high school, at least if they are girls, they need mom more, not less, than they did when they were in grade school.