Self-Harm: 4 Steps to Cure the Cutting

I am 41 years old now, but the deep cutting scars left behind from my 16th year of life are still clearly visible. In my brain-speciality Traditional Naturopathic practice, teenagers want to reach out and touch them, a link between their current self and their future self, a self they have often wondered would still exist. The pain is clearly visible in their eyes. They want it to end. All of it. I want to help them, and I know how. 

I am 16. Sitting in my bedroom, I am thinking about my boyfriend and the red streaks across his arm. He taught me to cut. Then he told me he would stop cutting. He lied. I told him if he did it again, I would do it worse. If he did not care about himself, hopefully he would care about me, my irrational brain tried to rationalize. His shallow cuts at school today had been streaks across his left arm, not vertical like a suicide attempt, but horizontal, on purpose. I took the razor blade and raised it above my arm. Up, Down, across. [“Too shallow, you Woose!” A voice in my head whispered] The next line was deeper, way too deep, clear to the bone! [“Too deep, idiot!” the voice yelled. “What are you trying to do, kill yourself?!” it sneered]. The next three cuts were perfect, except for slicing a large freckle in half. The relief was palpable; I did not even feel the pain till later, and I grinned thinking, “I’ll show him”! I meant business. Butterfly bandages held the gaping wounds closed where I should have gotten stitches; long-sleeved shirts hid them from my mom.

This is not NORMAL thought for a 16 year old, and thankfully now I know why I was susceptible to trying to relieve emotional pain through cutting (self-harm/self-injury).

Thankfully, I grew out of those self-harm tendencies, but I see clients in my office, from pre-teen to senior-aged, whose cutting tendencies still remain, or have just “graduated” into other self-harming methods. Other methods can include:

Food-Related: Overeating, Under-eating, Anorexia, Bulimia | Self-Injury: Cutting, Hair-Pulling, Scratching, Chemical burns, Biting, Stabbing, Burning, Picking, Branding, Banging, Bruising, Bone breaking | Injesting: Self-medicating, Over dosing, Inhaling/sniffing substances, self poisoning, swallowing objects | Drug and Alcohol: Smoking, Drug Abuse, Alcohol Abuse

March is Self-harm Awareness Month. Self-injury Awareness Day is a grassroots annual global awareness event / campaign on March 1 & March 15, where on this day, and in the weeks leading up to it and after, some people choose to be more open about their own self-harm, and awareness organizations make special efforts to raise awareness about self-harm and self-injury. The goal of the people who observe SIAD is to break down the common stereotypes surrounding self-harm and to educate medical professionals about the condition.

So, how AWARE of these issues are we, really? What if there were a small, select group of individuals that actually know the ROOT cause of what happens in self-harm cases, and HOW TO FIX it and especially, PREVENT it in the first place? 

Here’s another story, and it is more related than it seems on the surface.

Have you heard of CRIBBING in horses? 

Horse cribbing is also known as wind sucking or crib biting. Cribbing is not a natural behavior but rather a compulsive habit and addiction, caused by an underlying mineral deficiency. Although some horse owners think it develops as a result of boredom or anxiety or a combination of the two, veterinarians know that if the mineral deficiency is addressed, the cribbing will mostly stop. Some may continue as a result of bad habit, but if the deficiency is prevented, the cribbing won’t occur in the first place! The horse may be thinking he is bored, or anxious, or that the fence post tastes good, but in reality, he is unconsciously mineral deficient. There are even ‘anti-cribbing’ mineral-fortified feed supplements widely available. Cribbing? Up the minerals! 

CUTTING is the HUMAN EQUIVALENT of CRIBBING IN HORSES!

According to Dr Joel Wallach, researchers, and other veterinarians turned human doctors, cutting, self-harm, and many other sources of addictions, have their root-causes in several mineral deficiencies in the brain! It is similar to the mineral-deficient condition of Pica, common in deficient pregnant women.

“Obesity and overweight problems are synonymous with Americans. Nibble, nibble, nibble all the way home. ‘Pica’ is a seeking, a craving with licking and chewing behavior that has its genesis in mineral deficiencies – interestingly enough neither vitamin deficiency, protein deficiency or calorie deficiency initiates this ‘pica’ behavior, nor will supplementing vitamins [absent of minerals] or eating sugar, carbohydrate, fat or protein quench it!!!

Since American soils are critically deficient and depleted in minerals it is no surprise that pica, cribbing, [cutting], and cravings dominate the American scene. America is minerally deficient – dieters, athletes, vegetarians, meat eaters, embryos, children, teenagers, young adults and seniors.”

In Dr Wallach’s book, Dead Doctors Don’t Lie, is where he addresses cribbing in horses and cutting in humans both being linked to the same underlying mineral deficiency as its cause!

I have seen this first hand in my brain health Traditional Naturopathic practice, Aspen Brain Health what happens when these depleted kids get proper micronutrition in proper amounts. Teens think they are cutting because they think it makes them feel better, cope with stress, release emotions, they are bored, and many more reasons: like the pain they feel on the inside needs to be dealt with outwardly. These reasons are all true and valid, but I contest that the cutting never would have happened in the first place had a deficiency not occurred before the behavior set in. I also see that supplementing with quality salt and a mineral supplement, like BYou (Formerly used older formula Empoweplus) for the brain, can, in most cases, stop the cutting behavior! The behavior that continues on from there is then more closely  linked to habit, and bad habits need to be broken.

Have a child/teen who cuts? Are you an teen/adult who struggles with any of the above self-harm habits or tendencies? What can you do?

4 Steps to Freedom from Cutting:

1- Supplement with Pink Salt (84 minerals). Approximately 1 Tbsp a day with 8 glasses of water. (Put on food, under tongue, Sole, ect…)

2- Supplement with Brain Mineral Supplement: B.YOU 

3- Prevent Boredom or situation where ruminating self-harm thoughts occur

4- Remove items typically used to self-harm: razor blades, knives, erasers, paperclips, drugs, alcohol, & food

5- Ask for Help: Be accountable to a friend, family member, and ask God for help. He desires to set you free from all bondage.

And, just cause I like to throw in a supernatural true story or two, what do you think about this?! I attended a healing service with Dan Mohler (click to watch!) and he claims to have seen people with cutting/self-harm scars completely healed! He calls it being brought back to original value! Cutting Scars, track-mark scars and more just wiped away in Jesus’ name! Even more than that, people have had STDs healed too! So, when he had an alter call for those who have been affected by STDs or cutting scars, I thought it would be sooo cool to show my kids tangible proof of God’s supernatural healing power, by asking Him to erase my cutting scars that run across my left arm. But when I went forward, I clearly heard Jesus say: “I kept my scars, and I am asking you to keep yours too. They serve as tangible proof to the teens you help who want to touch them.” Tears ran down my face, and so we agreed, right there and then, that I get to keep my scars. Do you have scars? They serve as proof of how you can and will overcome! God wants to restore you original value and make all things new!

Need private peer coaching or healing prayer to overcome? Schedule with Aspen. 

Salt & Light,