Self Injury:

Stopping the Pain: A Workbook for Teens Who Cut and Self Injure
If you’re cutting or hurting yourself you’re not alone. Thousands of teens across the country think that hurting themselves is the only way they can feel better, even though they continue to feel alone and out of control. There are a lot of reasons why teens hurt themselves. None of them are your fault. You can’t change your past, but there is a lot you can do, right now, to make your future a place you’d like to spend some time, a place free from the pain, loneliness and isolation of cutting. This workbook offers a great way for you to make it happen. The exercises in Stopping the Pain will help you explore why you self-injure and give you lots of ideas how you can stop. The book will help you learn new skills for dealing with issues in your life, reduce your stress, and reach out to others when you need to. Work through the book, or just check out the sections that speak to you the most. This is your own personal and private road map to regaining control of your life.

A Bright Red Scream: Self-Mutilation and the Language of Pain
Self-mutilation is a behavior so shocking that it is almost never discussed. Yet estimates are that upwards of eight million Americans are chronic self-injurers. They are people who use knives, razor blades, or broken glass to cut themselves. Their numbers include the actor Johnny Depp, Girl Interrupted author Susanna Kaysen, and the late Princess Diana. Mistakenly viewed as suicide attempts or senseless masochism--even by many health professionals--"cutting" is actually a complex means of coping with emotional pain. Marilee Strong explores this hidden epidemic through case studies, startling new research from psychologists, trauma experts, and neuroscientists, and the heartbreaking insights of cutters themselves--who range from troubled teenagers to middle-age professionals to grandparents. Strong explains what factors lead to self-mutilation, why cutting helps people manage overwhelming fear and anxiety, and how cutters can heal both their internal and external wounds and break the self-destructive cycle. A Bright Red Scream is a groundbreaking, essential resource for victims of self-mutilation, their families, teachers, doctors, and therapists.

Comes the Darkness, Comes the Light
When Vanessa Vega would feel the darkness begin to come over her, she would do anything, hoping to escape it. Take a hot bath. Read a book. Watch TV. Talk to a friend. But then, finally, unable to fight it any longer, she would give in, head into the bathroom...and cut. "Comes the Darkness, Comes the Light" is a disturbing yet ultimately redemptive and inspiring memoir of a young woman compelled to injure herself in an attempt to cope with her overwhelming feelings of anxiety in the only way she knew how. Though still unknown to many, this disorder affects an estimated one per cent of the population...and is on the rise, especially among teens. This affecting, heartwrenching book follows author Vanessa Vega's progress as she climbs her way back to emotional health and rebuilds her life. Readers will go inside the mind of a 'cutter', taking the journey with her as she struggles against her exhausting and shameful secret ritual.As Vega faces the anger and insecurity that lead to each encounter - while working with a therapist to understand the real motivating factors behind her behavior - "Comes the Darkness, Comes the Light" reveals what brings many to this disorder...and what can lead them out. With stunning insight, Vega has written a moving first-person account of self-injury, struggle, and redemption.