What are the other behaviors that fall under the same category?
Cutting is the form of the behavior we see most often, probably about 70-75 percent of the time. We also see people who burn their skin, insert objects under their skin, scratch their skin to the point of drawing blood, bang their head or punch themselves. Usually people don’t just use one method; most often they use cutting and some other method or combination of methods. Q: Do we have any idea if it is increasing? A: We don’t. The study of it is increasing and the anecdotal reporting of it is increasing. If you talk to clinicians, nurses, teachers, guidance counselors or physicians, they see it a lot more now than they did 20 years ago. But there have been no good longitudinal data of self injury. We just don’t know long term what the prevalence of the behavior has been. Q: You work primarily with the normally-developed population but you have found a link between these people and those with developmental disabilities? A: We drew heavily from what’s been learned from kids with develo
