Due to the anorexics deep inbuilt self hatred and feeling of worthlessness very often one of the side effects with anorexia is the act of self mutilation. Self mutilation is different from actually having the feeling or wanting to commit suicide, self mutilation is actually defined as the deliberate damage of body tissue.
Just as anorexia has now become a way of coping with life, self mutilation can also become a way of coping. The anorexic very often develops deep feelings of worthlessness, these often stem from childhood events, more often some sort of abuse either physical or mental or family problems.
The anorexic will seek to forget about past experiences and try to release those memories in the form of changing how they look or how they have now come to believe they look through refusal to eat.
The same can be said for self mutilation and the sufferer can gain some sort of “comfort” from actually harming themselves, believing that they deserve to be suffering. It is thought that about every 750 persons in 100,000 suffer from self mutilation every year and between 34% and 40.5% of those suffer from anorexia or a similar eating disorder.
It is thought that the self mutilator tries to get back what they see as a loss of power over themselves when they inflict harm upon themselves, this can be gained by the fact they are enduring the pain they inflict.
Often it can also be a form of punishment for themselves, the anorexic already has issues with self doubt and feelings of un-worthiness. It is thought that this is way of proving that to themselves.
Self mutilation can quickly become an obsession with increasing acts, the person actually getting used to the pain and hurting themselves more and more just to gain the satisfaction.
Cutting or burning is the most often form of self mutilation inflicted and it is extremely hard for the sufferer to stop and the person may feel agitation, paranoia and deep irritability.
The actual damage afflicted can be made much worse than intended by the use of unsanitary “materials” used to inflict the self harm, such as the use of rusty razor blades to inflict the cut.
The chances of infection setting in are greatly increased with the person already having a weak immune system through their problem with anorexia. Help should be sought for self mutilation alongside treatment for anorexia.
