How did you feel after the rape/abuse?
What did you feel about your body?
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oughts like--What did you feel about your body?
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I hate my body.
I’m so disgusting.
I hate my arms. ( Or other specific body parts)
I’m so fat and ugly.
...are just a couple of the negative comments that may be floating in the mind of a teenager with Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia Nervosa. Because of the hatred focused towards one’s physical body in these teens, injury of one’s body is not hard to fathom for them.
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Body-Image
A teenager suffering from an eating disorder can become so frustrated or disgusted with her body that she may want to physically take it out on herself. Because of a distorted or unhealthy self-concept, hurting one’s self suddenly does not appear to be as grave an act as it actually is. By losing respect for one’s self and one’s body, the doors of self-harm are opened. This may also be why many rape or sexual assault victims have also been observed to turn to self-harm after the attack. When the body has been violated, a victim may easily think of her self as “dirty” afterwards. In some cases, rape victims have scrubbed themselves raw while taking baths in an effort to “cleanse” one’s self. This is just one particular example of how self-harm may ensue from a distorted body-image.
Victims of sexual assault may also turn to self-mutilation in order to make one’s self ugly or less attractive to the opposite sex. They may blame themselves for the assault and mutilate their appearance in order to assure that they will not be violated again. In these cases a twisted relationship between mind and body exists, and it is within this relationship where self-harm may take its place.
Some eating disorder patients have been documented to punish themselves by slashing when they do not stick to their strict “diet.” The conscience of the anoretic or bulimic drives the patient crazy up until she “punishes” herself by cutting and immediately feels a sudden rush of calm. She has cleaned the slate, and now she can continue to try to stick to her strict diet until the next time she commits a “mistake.” Most likely the next “mistake” will also result in another slash.
Feeding the Negative Mind
In this manner, self-harm may appear to actually feed the negative mind of a teenage anoretic or bulimic. The disordered eating patterns or behaviors can then intensify from this point as the self-injury continues as a source of “relief” for the disorder’s strict restraints.
The negative body-image of a troubled teen must be tackled in order to put a stop to the self-destructive cycles of eating disorders, sexual assault, and self-harm. If you just catch your child making negative comments about her body, show her how you appreciate the beauty you see in her. Hopefully, she will begin to see the beauty in herself as well and finally put an end to any future self-injury.
